Help With Possible Novel?
 

Hello all,

First off, let me say that I am an alumna of an NPC sorority and a semi-active member of these boards. For reasons that I hope will be clear, I’m posting this under a new username.

I am attempting to write a novel (I KNOW, JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, EVER). My novel is currently a murder mystery set in and revolving around Greek Life. As a sorority sister, I’d like to see more entertainment that accurately portrays Greek Life. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Because my book may never be completed or published, I’d prefer not to be associated with my usual username, which could, if you dig enough, reveal my real identity. It’s mostly embarrassment, I guess. There’s a damn good chance this thing will be awful (and I hope if it is, y’all will tell me so). I promise if I actually get this published, I will tell you who I really am and it will probably be a huge anticlimax because I really don’t post that much.

So, with that said—in writing this book, I will clearly have some questions about how various greek systems work, and aspects of the system that I never saw (especially regarding hazing. As currently envisioned, accusations of hazing will be a major plot point of the novel). I served only tangentially on my sorority’s e-board, so there’s definitely some stuff I’ll need to dig to find out about.

Additionally, I’ll be making up a lot of sorority names, colors, mascots, etc. and I really want to make sure these don’t resemble any actual existing sororities. This will not be one of those books where the sorority is Kappa Kappa Beta, and their colors are dark green and light green, and their symbol is the lock. I’ve tried really hard to not use any colors, mascots, or symbols currently used by NPC or NPHC sororities, and to avoid any letter combinations that evoked an existing GLO, but something might have slipped through.

So basically, what I’m hoping to do here is use you guys as a sounding board for ideas, as the most knowledgeable group of Greeks in existence.

I would also like to possibly post some excerpts of the book for criticism, although I would possibly prefer to do this via PM. One of the first parts I’m writing, though, is my main character’s rush story. Not sure it’ll make it into the book, but it’s helping me get into her head. Would that be appropriate to put in the Recruitment Stories thread, clearly marked as fictional? Would anyone be interested in reading it, or just generally answering questions, offering suggestions, etc?

I will obviously also be doing my own research, doing separate critiques, etc. This is just one resource I hope to use, if you guys are interested.

Respectfully,
The Next Nancy Drew

I would be interested in reading some excerpts and giving feedback. This sounds pretty cool. It's annoying to me the way Greek Life is portrayed in the media most of the time and I think it's good that you are doing your best to make an accurate portrayal.

Hi, I guess what I was trying to say is that I know how MY system worked, but we didn't have, for instance, serenades, candle passes, Greek Week, Derby Days, lavaliering, etc., and I know that some or all of these things are very big deals at other campuses, and if I were going to put them in my book (and I might, since I don't want the book's campus to be my campus), I'd want to make sure I got the details right. That's all I meant.

And I kind of figured about the Recruitment Story thing, but since I am trying to make this school and recruitment different from my own, I was hoping to get some feedback on whether it sounded credible. Wouldn't be trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes, pretending to write a "real" recruitment and then SURPRISE it's a fake.

Because I'm a member of a single sorority on a single campus I'm a little worried about making the setting too much like my campus and all the sororities sound like my sorority (terminology, etc.). I know how WE did things, but not anyone else (in more than a general sense).

I am planning to be involved in various writing groups once the novel gets a little farther along, but I'm not in a terribly heavily Greek area at the moment, and am not sure how much useful critique I will get about the nuts and bolts versus the actual writing, if that makes sense.

Hope this clears some stuff up for you.

I'd be interested in reading excerpts, as well! Coming from a tiny, TINY Greek system, I can understand wanting to know more. Good luck with the writing!

Ps. Good choice on the Nancy Drew :)

Sounds like a good project!

There are several mysteries with sorority-house settings.

"The Walls Came Tumbling Down," by Babs Deal, is one of the better-known. I believe she was a KD at Alabama. The story is that the skeleton of a baby is found in the walls of a sorority house being torn down (for remodeling). The novel explores when that happened, whose baby it was, etc.
http://alabamaliterarymap.lib.ua.edu...r?AuthorID=114

"Bitsy Finds the Clue," by Augusta Hueill Seaman, is an oldie--1946. A juvenile mystery, set in Williamsburg. I believe that Seaman was a Kappa; the "women's fraternity" mentioned in the book is Gamma Gamma Kappa, or something like that.

"Poisoned Pins," by Carolyn Hart, c. 1993 -- http://www.amazon.com/Poisoned-Pins-...ion/B003H4I4U4

And there's also "The Student Fraternity Murder" by Milton Propper. http://mikegrost.com/blochman.htm#Propper

I'd be willing to help. I don't come from a huge greek system, but I'd say we were medium in size. We had all the things you said you were wondering about.

Thanks, guys, especially for the book recommendations. I will definitely read those both for inspiration and to make sure I don't get too close to something already been done.

Why CAN'T it be based on your campus? Writers write better when they're really familiar with the subject matter.

Also, there is a mystery series called The Scumble River Mysteries by Denise Swanson. She's an ASA and her detective character is an ASA. It's several years after college, but it might still be worth a read. It's a good series. The idioms & sayings in it always crack me up.

I had a book when I was in middle school entitled "The Real Thing: A Tobey Heydon Story." The author is Rosamond du Jardin. The main character graduates from HS and goes off to college. She makes new friends, goes thru rush, joins a sorority, makes good grades, has some dates, etc. It is set in the 1950's. The fraternities serenade the sororities, the sororities hold candlelight passes to announce lavaliering, pinning and engagements. I loved it! That might give you some inspiration.

:confused::confused:
Maybe it's just me but I don't think these 2 sentences mesh well together.

Good question. In a lot of ways, the campus will be quite similar to mine, because that's what I know. I'm not someone from (for instance) a small New England liberal arts college setting my book in the SEC. But, in a lot of ways my own college was very...different, and I don't think a lot of it would translate into a more "normal" college/sorority experience. Furthermore, I don't want the college in the book to be correlated with my own school, and I particularly don't want people thinking "I bet XYZ sorority in the book are ABC at [college]." For the same reason people on GC don't reveal their college or code on recruitment stories, I don't want my novel to be obviously about [college]. I am explicitly making up a University and sororities, and with that comes some traditions that I never experienced (for instance our Homecoming Weekend is NOTHING like any other I've ever heard or read about, and we have several traditions--that very much shaped the way we recruited and socialized, that are completely unique to the school. I'd probably need to replace these events with something more "traditional" like Greek Week). Am I over explaining?

Valid concern, and one I've put a lot of thought into. If anything causes me to scrap the book and start over, it'll probably be this. Right now, the plan is that the first "suspect"--the one the police never give up on, and what causes our heroine to start investigating on her own--is the sorority. The death is assumed to be hazing related, and the sorority is on the verge of getting shut down. Other suspects will be the rival sorority, "bitter" girl who didn't get a bid (or possibly dropped during pledging), etc., but in fact the villain is someone outside the system with their own agenda. I do think it could be problematic, but hopefully I can handle it with finesse and take a hard look at how people inside and outside the system see each other.

Sorry about the huge wall of text. All of these questions/concerns are definitely valid and are helping me think through the book's concept and execution, so thank you.

Kappa Kappa Beta sounds like a knock off of Kappa. Light and dark green instead of blue and a lock instead of a key. Hmmmm....

Which is why she said:

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheNxtNancyDrew (Post 2175339) Additionally, I’ll be making up a lot of sorority names, colors, mascots, etc. and I really want to make sure these don’t resemble any actual existing sororities. This will not be one of those books where the sorority is Kappa Kappa Beta, and their colors are dark green and light green, and their symbol is the lock.

;)

LOL...Hooked on Phonics worked for me. :D

You may want to check out this series...

Brookline University

It was written by one of our own. She is currently reworking Senior Year, great little series.

But it is not a murder mystery but is does revolve around sorority life.

I wanted to offer a suggestion from my writing experiences.

I'm sure you know that when you're developing your character(s), you want to have constructed their history and experiences that have contributed to the character's emotions (ex., are they an optimist? a leader? middle child?), speaking style (ex., heavy accent? big vocabulary?), the clothes they wear (trendy, modest, goth?), their financial status (wealthy parents? working their way through college), lifestyle (outdoor sports? hooked on skype?), etc. A character's dialogue reflects all of those things. People say things for reasons.

So it should be the same thing when creating a fictional sorority chapter, along with its symbols, secrets, rituals, etc. You need to create their founding date, the type of school it was founded at, the reasons they founded, why certain things are important to the organization (ex. their badge or a motto), etc. Even if you don't use all of those elements in your story, YOU need to be sure to know it all as you craft your story because it has to seem organic to the reader.

I wish you good luck. Writing a novel is am idea that I've kind of tossed around for a while and just recently started putting some plot points together.

That's what I expected. Personally: not a fan.
We don't need any more stories about hazing, especially when the end result is death.

If I read the synopsis of a book and it said what you're describing, I would make a face like this: :rolleyes: + :mad: and pick something else up. If you are looking for an "accurate portrayal of Greek Life", you're pretty off track, imo.

[tangent]

OH MY GOD I LOVED THOSE BOOKS SOOOOOOOOO MUCH. I read all three of the series that she wrote. This makes me want to go to Alibris and buy them all.

[/tangent]

There were a lot of YA novels with college/sorority settings in the late 50's/early 60's. Anne Emery wrote the Dinny Gordon series, taking Dinny from high school to college. I don't remember the name of Dinny's sorority, but Emery was an Alpha Phi at Northwestern. Also "Not an Iota," by Pauline Coleman (Alpha Chi Omega), and "One Heart, One Way," by Lillian Budd (Sigma Kappa).

"The Three Lives of Sharon Spence" by Elizabeth Corbett is for adults. Sharon's story is told from three different angles -- in the one where she chose to go to college, she joined "Gamma Delta." I read the book in high school and years later when I found out that Corbett was an Alpha Gam at Wisconsin I looked the book up again.

An archives search turned up a post I wrote in 2004 about another sorority mystery.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(I thought there was a thread about this, but a quick search of the archive didn't turn it up....I'm sure someone will correct me. <g>)

Anyway: _Weeping_ is the title of a great new mystery by Shelly Reuben. (pub. 3/04 by Justin & Charles, ISBN 1-932112-20-0) If you like Janet Evanovich's mysteries starring Stephanie Plum you'll like arson investigator Fritillary Quilter! The victim of the nefarious plot is an actress who was a member of Gamma Phi Beta at Hudson University. The chapter house and the housemother are written about with a familiarity that only a Greek would know.

I'll bet Shelly Reuben is a Gamma Phi....does anyone have an alumnae directory?

Not 100% sure, but my HUNCH here (based on the way she worded it) is that the plot twist is that the death is actually NOT hazing related...and thus not a hazing death story.

I'd be interested in reading...

Me too, 33girl. I hadn't thought about them in years and years. I read, read and reread them and can't believe that I don't still have them. My stroll down memory lane made me go find The Real Thing online and I ordered it! I will not get rid of this one and I will probably treat myself to the other two in the near future!

I loved Rosamond DuJardin! How did I miss the sorority books? *scurries over to Amazon*

you have to get them Honey, You will love them!

Thanks for all the book recommendations! These look great. I thought I'd done my research, but I guess I didn't look hard enough! Gonna have to get my butt over to Amazon/the library! And glad that even if my book never pans out, I've alerted everyone to the whole sorority mystery genre.

And yes, the death is NOT hazing related, but is made to seem so, which is why no one else is investigating. I will try to make this clearer in future.

ree-xi, thanks for the tips. I'm having some difficulty over the ritual, since I only have my own and the few open fraternities' rituals to go off of, but I'll figure something out. Already have names/colors/symbols locked down, and some nebulous ideas about founding, ritual, handshakes, etc.

Okay, guys, I'm back! I read a whole bunch of the books y'all recommended. Mostly the more recent ones as I had trouble tracking down a lot of the '50s stuff (Amazon had them either in poor condition or $$$$), and it was enlightening, so thank you for that.

I have finally managed to make an outline for each sorority on my fictional campus. I'd like to post those here, and have you guys look them over to make sure they don't come too close to any already existing GLOs, in name, colors, chapter, flower, etc.

I had some trouble with the founding of the sororities, because part of me wanted to put in founding colleges as fictional colleges, but part of me got really exhausted doing that. So right now, the only founding college mentioned is one without Greek Life, and is only mentioned because it is relevant. Additionally, I only put an explanation of the founding into those sororities that had particularly interesting foundings. These sororities are not necessarily more or less important to the story.

I'm going to put the list of sororities in a separate post, and it may take me a little while to format it, so please be patient (I just know everyone is champing at the bit to take a look).

Also, as I have them listed now, they're separated in "tiers" and listed with their stereotypes. I know this is v. bad form for Greek chat, but I did this in character for my protagonist, and as an 18-y-o freshman, that is how she views the system (at least at the start of the book). I can take these out and give you facts-only, in alphabetical order if y'all think that would be better.

Again, none of these is meant to represent or stand in for any real sorority. They are all national sororities, and belong to an NPC-like council.

Didn't Anne Emery write "Sorority Girl"? One of her books is about a girl (not Dinny Gordon) who pledged a high school group and it didn't work out but another is about a girl who's a music major who's released from rush for dating a cool girl's boyfriend. I have both books and I'd go up and get them but I just shampooed the carpet up there.

HEY LOOK I MADE UP SOME SORORITIES!
 

This Cuthbert College, a well-respected liberal arts college in the south (but not Deep South). It's about 10,000 students, including grad school (~7,000 undergrad). There are 7 NPC-style sororities and about twice that number of fraternities. About 25% of students go Greek.

Obviously, all stereotypes should be taken with a HUGE grain of salt, even fictional ones.

Top Tier

Theta Gamma Pi (Theta Pi) – “best.” Rich, classy. “Stuck up.” “The marrying kind.”
Colors: Cream and Gold.
Symbol: Sun
Flower: Goldenrod
Chapter: Alpha
Founded: October 17th, 1923
Founded on campus: 1923 (first sorority on campus, first chapter of sorority). Founded as underground local to bring Greek Life to CuthCo.

Omicron Iota (Omicron I) – Party girls. Theta Pi rejects. “Slutty”
Colors: Baby Blue and Royal Purple
Symbol: Sword
Flower: Bluebell
Chapter: Omega Alpha
Founded: August 12, 1884 at Barnard College. One of the first sororities, founded at Barnard College by the sister of a fraternity man who envied the camaraderie and brotherhood her brother enjoyed through Phi Nu Rho.
Founded on campus: 1954 (brought to campus in conjunction with 2 other chapters)

Delta Epsilon Tau (DET, Delta Ep) – Sporty, outgoing, involved. Most likely to be Student Body Prez, etc. Respected but not necessarily desirable. "No sisterhood" "Ambitious"
Colors: Ruby and Bronze
Symbol: Ruby, Unicorn
Flower: Mistletoe
Chapter: Epsilon Kappa
Founded: May 11, 1894
Founded on campus: 1973

Middle Tier

Chi Rho Sigma (Chi Sig) – Involved. "DET rejects."
Colors: Coral and White
Symbol: Starfish
Flower: Lady slipper
Chapter: Zeta Xi
Founded: 1901
Founded on campus: 1954 (brought to campus in conjunction with 2 other chapters)

Beta Alpha Mu (Beta, Beta Mu, BAM) – Smart, Academic. "Boring"
Colors: Mint and Midnight Blue
Symbol: Harp
Flower: Daisy
Chapter: Delta Delta
Founded: April 24, 1885, also at Barnard College, by some women who felt excluded by Omicron I (then known as the “Order of Isis Society”). This has led to a century-long sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile rivalry between the two sororities.
Founded on Campus: 1963

Bottom Tier

Kappa Theta Lambda (KTL, K-Lamb) – Nerdy, Invisible
Colors: Cerulean and Lavender
Symbol: Bluebird, Budding Tree
Flower: Lavendar
Chapter: Beta Theta
Founded: 1910
Founded on campus: 1954 (brought to campus in conjunction with 2 other chapters)

Eta Phi Chi (Eta Phi) – “fat,” "rejects." Sisterly.
Colors: Blush and Pine
Symbol: Stylized star, Wreath
Flower: Garland Green
Chapter: Gamma Pi
Founded: December 25, 1914—began as an invite-only club founded by the sisters and daughters of men fighting in World War I. Open meaning of letters: “Home For Christmas.”
Founded on campus: 2001 (newest chapter)

-----------------------------

Is anything leaping out at you (definitely wrote "out of you" which would be very different and worrying), good or bad?

Specific questions:
--Are the Eta Phi colors too close to DZ? I really liked the idea of having a "Home for Christmas" sorority, but couldn't use red & green due to AXO, so this was my compromise.
--Are the flowers too obscure? Should I change them to be roses/carnations since about half the sororities share those anyway?
--Did I accidentally co-opt colors/symbols/founding without realizing it?

This was surprisingly hard. Several of these came to me almost fully formed, but others I felt I was scraping the bottom of the barrel... is it obvious?

Constructive criticism appreciated, but I will also accept heaping praise and vitriolic hate.

These seem very close to the same pair of colors, and the Baby Blue and Royal Purple in particular made me think of Theta Nu Xi.

The harp is really similar to AXO's lyre? and DPhiE's symbol is the unicorn?

Barnard might also be a touchy subject for some since AEPhi and AOPi were founded there even though Barnard no longer has sororities? Barnard women are involved with Columbia sororities.

Thank you, and also to Mystic Cat. I can't believe I managed to miss how similar those colors are. Will look into Theta Nu Xi's colors---and back to the Crayola box, I guess.

HQ--I definitely thought about the harp/lyre problem, can't remember my reasoning that they were different. I was really struggling for symbols at that point. Ditto for the unicorn.

Thanks, guys, this is exactly why I need GreekChat. There's just so MANY existing orgs!

Barnard's kind of a placeholder for me right now, I mostly wanted to emphasize that they were founded on the same campus around the same time. I will probably invent a founding university for them, but my brain is overtaxed at the moment.

My suggestion would be to try not to think in terms of single symbols. Instead, think of combinations or specific forms of certain things -- think, for example, of ADPi's two stars and black diamond, Kappa Sig's star and crescent or Lambda Chi's cross and crescent. Or think of symbols that pertain only to an specific organization, like Chi Phi's chakett.

I mean, even if you just went with, say, a single (seven-point?) star in a point-down triangle, that would be distinctive and wouldn't mimic an existing org, I don't think.

This is a great suggestion. Thank you.