Do you think this is unique?

Looking forward to seeing a lot of you on the board, conning!

As for your story, unique shmunique, it all depends on how you write it.

Hello, welcome! Are you perhaps writing about the SS base in Blizna?

There are no new ideas.

What makes your story special is the telling, not the setup. Don't spend a lot of time trying to find that one special story no one else has ever told before. Just tell what you think needs to be told.

I think it sounds great. Do you have some interesting characters in mind already?

I mean, yes, there are a lot of stories about WW2, but I haven't seen anything like yours. I think you possibly answered your own question. Hidden stories is what caught my eye. How many people do you think know about that place. Better yet, how many other people do you think talked to those historians and priests? Not to mention your telling it from a Roman Catholic POV. I think that idea is something special. It seems the oppisite of a cliche WW2 novel.

I haven't read any novels with that exact setup, and the access to local historians and priests gives you a unique perspective. But even something similar did exist, your telling of the story would not.

World War Two novels are always popular, see for example recent bestsellers All the Light We Cannot See and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

connieg said:

Most WWII literature of this type is about the Jewish experience (which is a minor part of my book) or from the big cities

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Most of WWII literature that's been published in the recent years is actually about the simple human experience, about how families are affected by the war etc. The Jewish experience is of course a main focus of the war because they were particularly targeted but there's been a lot of books about regular people affected by the events on personal level. If you find a specific Catholic experience that's different then great, go for it. I can't remember seeing a specifically Catholic story about the war mostly because the human story usually stands out more than the particular religious view of that person. There's been stories about French and Italian people who most probably were Catholic but their religion was not that much specified within the story (other than being some sort of Christian).

Not sure if the OP is still looking at this thread, but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in.

Everyone is right that the way you do the story is what is unique. The topic and your access might be nice and a strong necessity for writing an authentic story, but HOW you do it is what really matters. It's extremely hard to write anything fresh about WWII. And I mean fresh as in giving readers a fresh perspective, a fresh idea, even a fresher, more contemporary style.

You're off to a great start with your idea and the research you're doing. My advice is to not lose sight of the fact that stories are about people, not just historical context. If your characters can captivate modern readers, then your book is more likely to be a success. This is probably why I prefer to write fictional characters in a historical environment instead of about real historical figures. I can play around a lot more! But if you choose to use real people, or a mix of real and fictional, don't get hung up on the research, though it's very important. Concentrate on story. What your story is trying to say. What kind of emotional experience you want readers to have.

One more tidbit I've learned in the past few weeks is that publishers are interested in the big sweeping moral questions from the war. For decades, these were largely told in black and white, evil and good. Those binaries no longer cut it. Good wartime fiction digs deeper into the human condition, as others pointed out. The scary thing about war is that good and bad become blurred -- on all sides. This is a very contemporary way to examine that time period, and it relates to moral questions we as a society are struggling with right now. One classic example is the heroic resistance fighter who wants to free Poland, but wouldn't lift a finger to help a Jew. If you have a character like that, you have a great chance to see what might make him change, what makes him see that his desire to help Polish Catholics live in freedom and peace is related to that same desire in Polish Jews.

Serious historical fiction has the courage to look at these kinds of controversies and issues, and that's what makes fascinating reading. Good luck!

Sounds like a great idea for a story. Don't worry about what's been done before. Yeah, probably somebody has written a WWII story about a small village in eastern Europe, but they didn't write your story. You gotta do that.

caw

I like it. New perspective in a popular genre

Very interesting. Have you read Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe? This came to mind as I just read it recently.
Good luck!