Advice on book idea

[MichaelNZ]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. DK, thanks for the template - I need something like this to plan everything in the book series.

I think I'll go ahead with him recently having returned to tradition. It will be a journey for him as well as he returns to the way the faith was practised in his younger days.

With regards to the hats, did the priests just wear regular hats rather than a cappello romano or a biretta? Was the cappello romano ever common in the United States? Is a biretta worn outside of liturgical functions at all? While this isn't anything to go by, I remember the bishop on the TV series Father Ted wearing a biretta when he came to visit the priests.

To those who live in traditional parishes (SSPX, FSSP etc): do your priests wear any sort of headgear when they go out and about, e.g. to visit parishoners? If so, what kind?

[devotedknuckles]

Nonplms
use the template and the grid. It will aid u in a thousand little ways. And u wil use both of them to re work ideas and the story.
The setting is the present I take it?

[MichaelNZ]

Nonplms
use the template and the grid. It will aid u in a thousand little ways. And u wil use both of them to re work ideas and the story.
The setting is the present I take it?

Yes, the setting is the present, but it will be set in New Zealand.

[devotedknuckles]

Well then u can work in all those poisenous animals snake sand spiders and all that and maybe Ross in a few naked tatooed Indians
or what ever u call them down there Mari right?
Anyway
how fsr along the project are? Besides the template and grid u also should dp a synpsois and charactor sketch of all charactors (u will sonhw above a thousand times so mine as well star now lol)
writing novels short stories or screenplays is like construction. Your really an egeneer constructing sn alternative world that I'd done e well will be believed by the reader insofar as he gets enthralled into your world  and enjoyed. This doesn't mean it has to be a trash fantasy all stories all tales do that.
Anyway are u reading allot do old school detective fiction like  hard boiled? Which is the stuff i read  and enjoy. Though it's dominated by the American physce as it originated  theirs. I also had a similar idea of s detective priest I was modeling mine losely on Mickey flukes charactor I. The masterpice of film angel heart minus rhe chicken blood voodo sex scene
anyway
sip

 

[devotedknuckles]

A very good book u must read is this
kinda the industry standard

"the art od dramatic writing"
the basis in the creative intrepretation of human motives

it was written by a playwright for playwrights but it's genuis is that it crosses forms and no iw heavily used in boh screenplay and novel writing
all good dramtic writing  whether it's a play screnplay or novel or short story depend on an understanding of human motives
if u r going to get a book to help u this is the one. All the other books how tos write a million dollor novel on 30 minutes, or 2 million buck screenplay in less then it takes to boil an egg are mere waste or time snd paper and loot
get this book
and study I and put it to work in creating your charactors and their world.
It's often said thst if u don't know this book or have read it and in an Pitch meeting for your script it comes out u get passes over Imidietly
get his bool
it's a small wee thing
sip
crazy Hungarians
 

[JoeVoxxPop]

I am preparing material for a book series where the main character is a traditional priest who solves crimes (he was a detective before he entered the seminary). However, I'm not sure if I should make him a priest who never embraced the spirit of Vatican II and remained traditional, or if I should make him a priest who said the New Mass etc but only recently returned to tradition. Either way, I need to have him moving to the town where the book is set. What do you guys think?

Also, prior to Vatican II, when priests went out, did they normally wear a biretta or a cappello romano?

I would have him sent to a parish in the city you need because hes the only priest available to the Bishop -newly trained in the True Mass. (His father (the priest's) could've been a contemporary of Ottiavoni) Maybe he swore to his dying father to never say the new mass, so he trained to do the True mass.

[MichaelNZ]

Thanks for the book recommendation, DK - I see that our library has a copy.

With regard to the snakes and spiders, you're confusing us with Australia. We don't have many dangerous animals here at all.

[The_Harlequin_King]

In regard to the hat questions:

Capello romano (my preferred term is saturno): probably not seen in the U.S. much before Vatican II, and is virtually nonexistent today except for your occasional eccentric trad priest. The saturno was much more common in southern Europe. It's strictly a secular clerical hat.

Biretta: It can be worn everywhere, but it's a formal hat that's roughly analogous to the top hat in civilian fashion, I guess. It represents the cleric's teaching authority, and is directly related to the mortarboard/graduation cap. Both are descended from the medieval universities. As for wearing it non-liturgically, a priest could wear it while administering confession. He could also wear it while teaching a class. But today this might be seen as a little eccentric even among trad priests. The most realistic use of them, outside the liturgy, would be while the priest is walking on church property in his "house cassock".

Zucchetto: You didn't mention these, but since we're on the subject, don't forget that all clerics can wear them, not just bishops. These are the hats that resemble Jewish skullcaps. A priest's or deacon's zucchetto is plain black. This is even rarer than the saturno, but pictures of 19th century priests often depict them wearing it.


In conclusion, your priest character probably wouldn't wear any of those hats out on the street, outside church property. In general, American priests pre-Vatican II tried to keep a fairly inconspicuous appearance. In 1884, the Third Council of Baltimore forbade clerics from wearing cassocks outside of church property.

[Resurrexi]

In conclusion, your priest character probably wouldn't wear any of those hats out on the street, outside church property. In general, American priests pre-Vatican II tried to keep a fairly inconspicuous appearance. In 1884, the Third Council of Baltimore forbade clerics from wearing cassocks outside of church property.

I think the Council of Baltimore had an excellent idea right there. The cassock probably seemed (and seems) pretty bizarre and perhaps even feminine to most Americans. If I were a priest I'd probably wear a clerical suit most of the time.

[The_Harlequin_King]

I think the Council of Baltimore had an excellent idea right there. The cassock probably seemed (and seems) pretty bizarre and perhaps even feminine to most Americans. If I were a priest I'd probably wear a clerical suit most of the time.

19th century Americans hadn't seen the Matrix movies, which made cassocks cool again. Conversely, clerical suits in the 1800's looked alright since they consisted of fuller collars and frock coats which extended to the knees. You could also wear waistcoats and top hats with them. Today, clerical suits just make our priests look frumpy and fat.