Minor compromise on accuracy--acceptable?

SwallowFeather

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So I have some French boy scouts during WWII. They're both important and peripheral to the plot. Enough crucial actions arise from the existence of these boy scouts that they can't be eliminated from the story, but besides the MC (Julien) and one other character (Marcel), none of the scouts themselves are important and only one or two are named.

It's important for Marcel to start out as the leader of Julien's group of scouts. Here's where the slight issue comes.

From what I can discover, boy scouts were organized the same way worldwide. If I understand correctly, the actual troop leader would be an adult, and the troop would be divided into groups of six, each with its leader. So really, Marcel would simply be the leader of a group of six, and at a troop meeting some adult, instead of him, would be the central figure.

But in the manuscript as it now stands (yes I left this bit of research a little late), I've got Marcel described as "troop leader" but with the implication that the troop isn't that big (maybe 10-12 at most) and there are other troops in town. In the one "scout meeting" scene, I made Marcel the figure giving a speech and instructions.

I really, really don't want to complicate my manuscript any further. It's very complicated as it now stands. There are only two, maybe three (out of a hundred) scenes where the scouts are central, and if I make them completely accurate I will have to invent a new adult character who is irrelevant to the plot and whose name the reader will have to remember for the sake of two scenes. It will also complicate a minor plot point regarding Marcel leaving town and the question of whether Julien will succeed him as leader.

By the way these are the oldest possible scouts, 17 and 18 year olds, which I know they did have in France at the time.

I'm sort of hoping it's OK to slide through on this one. Being a book about France for American readers, even ones who know about Boy Scouts may assume things were organized differently in another place and time. I know some people feel inaccuracy is just plain wrong... What I'd like to know is, are there other reasons I shouldn't do this, or does anyone think it might be OK?
 

cornflake

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Why not just have him say something like "since Mr. Smith has been called up and the fathers who are home are so busy with the war effort, I will be leading the troop for now. So..." or whatever.
 

SwallowFeather

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Why not just have him say something like "since Mr. Smith has been called up and the fathers who are home are so busy with the war effort, I will be leading the troop for now. So..." or whatever.

It's a good idea but I neglected to mention this is after France was defeated (they're in Vichy France specifically) and for all intents and purposes there is no French army at this point at all.

Still, the general advice would be to acknowledge it's a bit unusual and move on, yes? Seems possible.
 

cornflake

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Yes, it wasn't meant to be specific. "Since all the former troop leaders were killed, I'm still in charge..." "It's nice to be able to meet again, even if I have to lead the meetings until ...." "Darn that bubonic plague but the camping trip is still on, so let's discuss tents..."
 

Jack Judah

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I agree with Cornflake. The War's your friend on this one. I don't know what role(s) Nazis play in your story, but having Marcel fill in for a guy who got picked up by the Gestapo and never came back would be great foreshadowing. You could even play up the unusual state of leadership among the scouts by suggesting everybody's holding out hope the guy will eventually return, thus why they haven't replaced him.

Or he could have been wounded in the early fighting, and is still recuperating. Or he could be off with the Resistance, or in Britain.
 
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frimble3

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Agreeing with so many others - there's a war on, all sorts of reasons that an adult might have 'gone missing', and it sounds very much in the Scout tradition that 'his boys' would have tried to carry on without him. Mention that it's intended to be temporary, and that there are no available adults, and just go on with the story.
 

angeliz2k

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Does it have to be strictly part a Boy Scouts meeting? Could the boys meet informally with the one boy acting as leader? Maybe they agree to meet and discuss things amongst themselves without adults present, or they just happen to be together at the same place and time.

Otherwise, the others are right: the war gives you good reasons for the adult leader to be temporarily out of the picture.
 

Twick

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You might want to check the status of the Scouts under Vichy. I know the Nazis didn't trust them while at the same time adopting many of their methods for the junior parts of the Hitler Youth. It's possible that the Scouts might be officially disbanded in your area, but still meeting on the QT without adults.
 

Jack Judah

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You might want to check the status of the Scouts under Vichy. I know the Nazis didn't trust them while at the same time adopting many of their methods for the junior parts of the Hitler Youth. It's possible that the Scouts might be officially disbanded in your area, but still meeting on the QT without adults.

Twick makes an exceptionally good point. It also brings with it a lot of added potential for tension and conflict. If the Scouts are operating "illegally," whew, that could be a nice touch.
 

cmhbob

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Some great points here, and I'll toss in a couple of things from my perspective as a (American) Boy Scout, and a former Scouter.

Patrol size wasn't necessarily critical, at least not by the 80s and not now. I've seen patrols of 5, and of 15. Remember that Scouts are a quasi- or paramilitary organization, so they're organized similarly to an Army platoon.

The adult (Scoutmaster) would be the platoon leader. There would a a Senior Patrol Leader, a boy who should be able to basically run things when the SM isn't around. There would also be an Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, who'd fill in when the SPL isn't around.

Each patrol would have a Patrol Leader and an Assistant Patrol Leader. In theory, any PL should be able to assume the duties of the ASPL or SPL if there's a need, with that patrol's APL moving up.
 

SwallowFeather

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Thank you all for replying & for your thoughts. I'll search for the best way within the story to provide a quick justification for the arrangement I've got, & thanks for making me feel confident about doing that.

@twick: That makes a lot of sense about the Nazis, but apparently Vichy was more open to them. They matched the image Vichy was trying to present of itself in many ways, so (though I don't really know why they didn't) I can see why they would have thought twice before suppressing them. The main reason they're in my book is that the local Scout troop was very present in the true story this is based on.

@cmhbob: Thank you, that's super helpful. I might be able to just give them a configuration that's perfectly accurate, with that info. I'll have to have a couple thinks on it.