Risks and Rewards of Writing Historical Fiction
After writing my first book, I immediately recognized the luxury of becoming a fantasy or paranormal writer. How much easier it is to invent and create your own little fictional world where no one questions the validity of what you are writing!
Writing historical fiction requires all the nuances of getting the ‘it’ just right. Research is critical and no matter what period you are referencing – never-ending.
The Rewards! Delving into the history, the fashion, the language, the customs, the industry, etc…can be lots of fun. For me…let’s just say visiting over nine distilleries for research for my Debut novel Whiskey Love was a unique experience. I conducted multiple interviews with owners, and of course, if you’re going to write about whiskey, you must ‘taste’ it as well. No matter the subject – whether fashion, cooking, or traveling if you can research your topic first hand I hardily recommend it.
The Risks! before you put your idea, situation, event, etc… to print you must make sure it stands true. Sure you can make minor changes, however, if whatever you are writing about involves a major historic event like a war or the election of a US president you need to stay close to the actual event.
You can alter when a hurricane happened or when a train crashes, but again you need to stay true to the period. If you don’t, readers will let you know. I’ve listed a trio of examples concentrating on just words, quotes, and official degrees.
I wanted to use the word tailspin to indicate the emotion of one of my characters; my book takes place in the 1890s. A quick check of the word let me know it wasn’t formulated until WW1 when French soldiers used the word to describe the descent of military aircraft crashing down from the air.
I also dearly wanted to use this quote, “There are two things a highlander likes naked, and the other one is malt whiskey” by Sir Robert Lockhart. Again, research informed me the quote was attributed to the author in the 1920s – well after my book ended.
And for fashion- the skirt of my heroine’s ballgown for the Presidential Inauguration Ball had a beaded design of an Iris. I thought this would be a nice gesture on behalf of my heroine since she hailed from the Volunteer state. However, something told me to check this item out – glad I did. I kept the dress- but could not mention the state flower aspect because Tennessee did not officially adopt the iris as its state flower until the 1930s!
I’m sure readers of this blog have lots of funny and maybe not-so-funny “research’ items they could share. Let’s hear from you!
Contributed by Joy Allyson
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