Researching For Writing Historical Fiction

The thing that most attracts me to historical fiction is taking the factual record as far as it is known, using that as scaffolding, and then letting imagination build the structure that fills in those things we can never find out for sure.
— Geraldine Brooks

What really disconcerts commentators, I suspect, is that when they read historical fiction, they feel their own lack of education may be exposed; they panic, because they don't know which bits are true.
— Hilary Mantel

I often tell people who want to write historical fiction: don't read all that much about the period you're writing about; read things from the period that you're writing about. There's a tendency to stoke up on a lot of biography and a lot of history, and not to actually get back to the original sources.
— Thomas Mallon

Okay, the final masterclass of day one of Writersfest wasn’t really called Researching For Writing Historical Fiction, it was actually called Writing Historical Fiction, but my title suited it better because that’s pretty much what it was about. It was run by Eva Stachniak, a Polish/Canadian historical novelist. If you’re a lover of historical fiction you might recognize her as the author of The Chosen Maiden and The School of Mirrors, as well as several other novels.

She began by exploring what readers expect from an historical novel and what we, as writers, need to provide. We need to look for the unexpected angle, a new interpretation of historical events, or a subjective interpretation of historical characters.

Readers don’t just want to be shown the past, they want to be able to feel it and experience it. This is done using detail. Without detail, the reader can’t imagine themselves in that place. Rich, authentic, details help the reader to see the world the writer is creating.

Details gleaned from historic records are not always the absolute truth, and if you stick to those details you’re going to have a dull novel. You need to look for what is missing, what was unrecorded, the minutiae of everyday life. Your details, real or imagined, need to be sound, but interesting.

Start big and vast, and then distill these details down to be more direct. How do you know what to discard? Only when the novel nears its end will you be able to decide what to keep and what to discard. You’ll keep only what builds the texture of the novel.

Use accents and dialect sparingly. No one wants tutoring in Elizabethan language. You need to make the language clear to be understood. The judicious use of a word or phrase germane to the period you’re writing about can go a long way to make your meaning clear.

So where do you find these authentic details to add realism to your historical novel? Many fascinating details can be found in memoirs, journals, and letters. Novels written in that time period could hold the detail you’re looking for, or non-fiction and scholarly articles. Films and documentaries are also a good source.

JSTOR is a wonderful digital source. It’s an online library of back issues of academic journals as well as books that are free to access. Project Gutenberg gives you the option to search thousands of books by title or author, many of which are long out of print. You also have the option of downloading them to your e-reader.

I’m sure Ms. Stachniak had much more to say on the subject, but to be honest I was starting to feel a little peopled out by breaktime, so I left before she was done. But when I was researching quotes to use with this post, I found one that I thought summed up what not to do when writing historical fiction quite nicely:

my own definition of bad historical fiction hits these points:
It fails to transport the reader to a former time.
It fails to put the reader in another place.
It fails to bring characters to life.
It fails to make the reader shiver, sweat, sniffle, sneer, snarl, weep, laugh, gag, ache, hunger, wince, yearn, lust, lose sleep, empathize, hate, or need to go potty.
It seems dubious.
It has characters who seem too good or too bad to be true.
It has anachronisms.
It has clichés and stereotypes.
Its writing style distracts the reader from the narrative.
It takes historic license with times and facts.
It is pointless.
It is carelessly written.
It is easy to put down.
― James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction

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WORDAGE REPORT

If you followed the link I posted last week, you’ll know the hubby and I adopted a pair of kittens last Friday. It’s been twenty years since there’s been a kitten in the house and I have to admit, it’s a bit of a shock to the system. LOL

They’re very entertaining, and very affectionate, and they have forced me into better writing habits. No longer do I sit back in my recliner to work during the day. If I try, I have a kitten in my face, or on my keyboard. They have zero respect for the laptop. Actually, Khaos has learned she can go behind it or just on the edge of the front, but Dinsdale likes to go right across the keyboard. I think he likes putting it on airplane mode or calling up menus I didn’t know I had. I’m just glad I disabled the track pad.

I have found it’s easier to write at the dining room table, or in my office (I’m at the dining room table right now as I type this). It’s actually a good habit to get into and one that’s long overdue. When I’m too comfortable (like in my recliner) I tend to spend more time on Facebook or playing games. But at the table or desk, it makes me take the writing a little more seriously.

I also need to start writing more during the day. Writing in the evening means writing in my recliner, which is doable when the kittens are awake and racing around the house; not so much when they’re sleepy and want cuddles.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1806+739+561+691=3,797
UP 291 words from last week
Total = 3,797

Goals For Next Week:
Do some words outside of blog posts

EDITING:
0 pages
It’s taking some time to adapt to having two furry “helpers” around, so I think I can be forgiven for not getting any editing done.

Also, I seem to have been a little over-zealous in keeping my desktop clear of folders and I don’t know where I put the stories from last year’s NaNo. I’m sure it’s on a thumb drive somewhere, I just have to find it.

Goal For Next Week:
Find the stories for book flood and start editing them.

MARKETING:
You might want to see the above comments about having to adapt to a pair of furry little “helpers.” That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. At least it’s a proper excuse this time.

Goal for Next Week:
Submit something. Anything!

TECH & TRAINING:
Yeah, I got nothing. But I’m thinking Dropbox would really come in handy for all those folders I don’t want to keep on my desktop. You know, instead of hunting down thumb drives. ;-)

Goal For Next Week:
Check out the features of Dropbox

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
Well, I manned up and did my Mad Cow poem. All 35 lines of it. It might not be a great poem, but it’s a poem. And it’s done.

Did not even give the anthology a passing thought. Hey, count yourself lucky that you got the Mad Cow!

And you may have noticed, I didn’t put the number of words in the poem I wrote as my example Wednesday on a separate line. It seems kind of silly to have the poem listed as a separate thing when it’s included in the weekly post. I’ll add poetry words in when I write a poem outside of the weekly post.

Goal For Next Week:
Find an easier (or at least less time consuming) poetry form. Start compiling the anthology

CRAFTING:
Here’s the thing. I dug out the box with the beaded Christmas tree and all its teeny tiny little parts in it, spread everything over the dining room table, and ultimately decided “Nope.” It’s not that it was difficult, it was just going to be very time consuming. And I decided I could better use that time for writerly things.

So I packed it all back in its box and took it with me to the stitchery gathering last week to return it to the guild. And funny, nobody else seemed to want to take it home either. We had a workshop in making poppies to wear for Remembrance Day, and I worked a bit on my pillowcase. And that was pretty much it for crafts.

Goal For Next Week:
Crochet bookworms. Figure out dragon pillow for granddaughter.

WHAT I’M READING:
I read a book! Well, what else am I supposed to do when I’m pinned down by kittens? LOL I read The Secret of Love Story Bridge, by Phaedra Patrick. I love the way she takes an ordinary, maybe a little sad, person and makes you care about them.

And I started reading The Guest List, by Fern Michaels. I think there's something fishy about the deaths in the beginning of the book, but so far there hasn’t even been a hint. Not that I won’t keep reading anyway.

Goal For Next Week:
Spend a little time each day reading. At least start my list of books so I can update my Goodreads account!

GOAL REVIEW:

Once again, I did not make a list. Bad writer! I made no progress on coming up with a cover, blurb, and tagline for Magical Misfire. And I didn’t start any other editing. No marketing (as usual) and no tech/training.

I decided I need to start writing my blog posts earlier, starting with this one. The Pond installment almost didn’t make it. This wasn’t entirely the kittens’ fault as a family situation took up a big chunk of my writing time on Thursday. I worked as late as I could that night, and then skipped the gym the next morning to get it done on time. Moving forward, I need some kind of an outline to follow so I’m not spending so much time wondering “what happens next.”

While I didn’t exactly make time for crafts, I did do a crafty thing at the guild meeting, so I’m going to count that. I still have the afghan to work on, and I made vague promise to do some book worms for the guild’s craft sale, but I’m kinda hesitant to do anything involving yarn, or crochet hooks, or (God help me) knitting needles or bead work with the kittens around.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad week. I got all my blog posts done and considering I have two little distractions to get used to, I’d say I didn’t do too badly.

Let’s see if this week I can do better.

Happy writing.