Setting the Scene for Historical Fictions

When I began writing my last novel, White Dove, my main fear was that I wouldn’t be able to set it accurately in time and place.  I agonized over it.  I lost sleep over it.  The fear of missing the mark rattled my confidence more than once.  For White Dove–and for any work that requires an author to transport a reader back in time–the setting is everything.  The time period drives so much of the story.  As an avid reader of historical fiction, I want a setting that is realistic.  I often choose historical fiction novels simply because I am so interested in the time period–so I can spot an author who hasn’t done their research and it usually detracts from the story, regardless of how well the book is written. So, how does one go about merging their unique writing style within a time period while still capturing the history accurately?  I’ve got a few helpful hints to get you started.

Read books about your time period.  Sounds simple, right?  And if you are smitten with the history anyways, this can be easy.  But here’s where it might get tricky.  I’m talking about reading non-fiction books about your time period.  If you aren’t in love with curling up next to the fire with an academic book in hand, this can be a little difficult, and–not all academic writing is reader-friendly.  However, this is going to help you to place your characters and plot accurately in time.  For White Dove and Forever England (my work-in-progress), which are part of the same series, I have read dozens of non-fiction books about the period of 1910-1919.  The subject matter of these books ranged from Europe on the cusp of war, Irish nationalism, World War I, Irish politics, English politics, the Easter Rising, the Taft Administration, World War I campaigns, the Treaty of Versailles, the American World War I experience, World War I poetry, Irish literature, the Kaiser, the King, the Tsar, the Austro-Hungarian empire… dozens of historical non-fiction books.  I personally love doing this kind of reading, but I know that I might not be in the majority. When I read non-fiction, I am reading for content and to understand the time period as thoroughly as possible.

Read books about your time period. This time, I mean books set in your time period.  Other historical fiction novels.  Believe it or not, this was the harder of the two assignments for me.  I love learning about different periods in time.  I love devoting my commutes to non-fiction audiobooks.  But–equally as important for me is to see how other authors do it.  How do they use the time period?  How do they portray characters within that time period? Where do they excel?  Where do they fall short?  In only a few supremely well-written books have I been able to hit the “I believe” button when the author fails to set characters properly in time.  When I read fiction, I am reading for clues on how others weave plots in historical context and to understand what comes off as believable and what seems contrived.

Stretch your writing style. I don’t mean start from scratch or adopt a style that is not natural, but I do mean that your writing needs to be flexible enough to accommodate the time period and how the characters fit into that time period.  For me, I noticed that I adapted the way I described things to try to bring out the details of the time.  When I describe my Irish characters in 1914, I focus on landscapes and the connection of the characters to the land because it was so important to the history and to what drives the motives of this set of characters.  Similarly, when I describe my English characters in 1914, I focus on the city of London, the coffee shops where political discussion thrived, and Westminster because I wanted to draw out the contentious politics of the era.  My language adapts to the era in ways I didn’t expect.  I get very detailed about how the characters and the history are intricately linked–so much so that my characters are unable to exist outside of the defined time.  Setting always matters and it drives character identity, but the character connection to a specific setting can have much more impact in historical fictions than other genres.

Take it for a test ride.  We all know the importance of beta readers for our drafts, but for historical fiction, I recommend that you incorporate people who are familiar with your time period into your reader pool.  If it is recent-enough history– get someone who has lived through the time period and experienced some of the events to read your novel.  If you are writing about a time long past, have someone who knows the history read your draft.  We all have targeted audiences for our drafts but expand your pool enough to accommodate a historian.  I was personally most nervous about this type of beta reader.  White Dove can be a little bit controversial because it presents Irish nationalism–which spawned a terrorist movement–in a way that causes readers to identify with the hardship of the Irish during that time period.  It was meant to be controversial because it tees up the theme for the future books in the series.  But this can be a raw subject for some readers.  When I got feedback from someone who grew up in the UK and lived through the terror caused by the IRA, and they told me that I nailed the sentiments of the time period, I felt more than a little bit relieved.

At the end of the day, most authors are writing historical fictions because they love history, not because it’s a money-maker.  Historical fictions are not currently the best-sellers for the Indie markets.  However, if this is your passion, I encourage you to write in this genre.  For the smaller chunk of the market that loves and follows this genre, they are looking for an author who is as passionate about writing it as they are reading it– for all the points outlined above.  They want characters that are intrinsically tied to the time period, they want to fall into a world that accurately represents a historical period, and they want to learn a little bit about the time period as they read.  If this is your passion, pursue it.

Until next time, keep scribbling!