Historical Fiction . Sparks in Time . Writing

Sparks in Time Episode 8: For the Love of History

On July 20, 2020 by admin

For the Love of History

Many readers and writers of historical fiction love the genre for the love of history itself. I always find myself gravitating to books written about historical moments that I find intriguing and appreciate when an author can relay a good portrayal of that time within a story. But it turns out, the balancing act of representing a history and a story is not as easy as it seems.

There are a lot of pitfalls. I’ll walk through just a few of the ones I’ve experienced firsthand in my current WIP, with some ideas on how to navigate through these challenges.

Pitfall 1: Trying to write a storyline that follows a historical series of events closely

Symptoms: Under-developed characters; Choppy plot line

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with portraying history accurately (and many fans will want and even demand a story to accurately reflect the time), the elements of a story must stand on their own. I like to think of big moments in history as guideposts in my story. They are not the story, but the characters may experience these events “firsthand”. What I have found with my own writing is that the desire to be true to a specific history risks developing shallow characters whose main purpose is spew out fact. And this destroys a plot rather quickly.

The truth is, some of your readers will be familiar with the minute details of the time period or event, and some will not. At the end of the day, you are writing a novel, not a non-fiction, and will have to pick and choose what parts of the actual history matter to the story you want to tell.

A Remedy: Sprinkle fact among fiction; Don’t linger

For fiction writing, oftentimes the history and timeline is not what readers remember—or why they picked up your book in the first place (we’ll get to that in Pitfall #3). Instead, they remember the writing. What the characters felt, what the air smelled like…in other words, how you wove together all the elements of storytelling for that moment.

As you write, let your characters see the moment through their own eyes, with their own senses. If a “big event” in history is necessary for your story, don’t linger on it. Write it and move on. What you can linger on is the experience as your characters experience it…not necessarily as history remembers it. Sprinkle the scene with the details that have to be imagined. Details that are undocumented in the history books–how your character might have experienced this moment. This will give you much more powerful scene that will likely resonate with readers.

Pitfall 2: A History that is Inconvenient to the Story

Symptom: A somersault plot

You are correct, I made up that term. But, I think you probably have a good idea of what I mean. If your story has to perform gymnastics to accommodate an event or a timeline, you probably are facing this particular pitfall in your writing project. You should not have to do backflips in your story to accommodate history—your reader will know something is amiss. When balanced well, history should fit naturally within the plot and character progression.

A Remedy: A dirty word—Plotting; A friendly word–Creativity

For those of you who are sworn Pantsers, hear me out. I’m a Pantser too. But, a little planning, even light planning, can help you to avoid doing somersaults as you write. Think of it this way…in this genre, you cannot write without doing some homework. And for historical fiction, homework looks a lot like reading about and trying to understand the time period that your characters will live in. As you do that homework, anticipate places where your storyline might not fit well into the time period.

Now, a more friendly concept…creativity. Having a defined series of events that will affect your reader gives you some boundaries in your writing, but also opens up some pretty cool opportunities for creativity. After all, historical fiction is not all about a sequence of events that took place in history. It also includes the experience of living in that time, which opens the door to lots of creative opportunities to make scenes and characters click within your novel.

So, bottom line is, a little planning and some creative fun can help you to avoid somersaults and backflips. Try it, if only for the love of history.

Pitfall 3: Pleasing your History Professor

Symptoms: Scenes that reads like college essays; All “tell” and no “show”

Let’s be honest. If we are so intrigued by a particular time or place in history that we are writing a novel about it, we have a lot of information stored in our brains about that time period. And that information is the result of years of reading, study, learning. We’re proud of our knowledge and we want to share it with people who are as excited about it as we are. But…we’re not non-fiction writers (not when we’re writing novels anyways). We are writing fiction. So we have to be careful, judicious and creative with how we weave our stories.

There’s a never-ending debate on what’s easier…fiction or non-fiction writing. It’s an unsolvable debate. Each has its challenges and benefits. But one of the great things about writing fiction is that you don’t have to be 100% accurate. You don’t have to go through a peer review (although editing can be equally as painful.) You aren’t going to be graded by your history professor. So…don’t write an essay.

For the love of history, write a story. Use all that information stored in your brain to weave a masterpiece that incorporates all the senses. That paints a picture. That allows your reader to understand the period from your character’s perspective. And your character is not an expert, living in the present time, reflecting on that history. He or she is living that history. So, breathe some life into it!

A Remedy: Remember your audience

Thankfully, those days as a college student are (probably) over. And, your history professor most likely isn’t going to be reading your novel and nit-picking where you strayed from fact or omitted details. But lots of other people are. And as much as they are there for the love of history, they aren’t there to be lectured.

They are there to be entertained. To feel, to think deeply, to relate, to connect. They are the people you want to attract, the people you want to please, and the people you want to entice to buy another book in your inventory. If they want a peer-reviewed rundown of events and effects, they will pick up an academic journal or a non-fiction book, but they will probably be disappointed if their leisure reading brings back memories of the lecture hall.

Remember your audience. For the love of history, give them the experience they want, not the encyclopedia that is in your head.

Recommended Reading

Of all the “How to” non-fiction books being written now on writing, indie publishing, the creative process, etc., I’ve found few guides on writing historical fiction. When I find one I like, I quickly devour it. Here’s one I recently ran across that is both helpful and interesting:

Getting Started in Writing Historical Fiction, by Emma Darwin. Whether you are starting out or a seasoned writer, this “how to” book has a lot of ideas to help keep you grounded. While I don’t always love writing prompts and writing exercises (probably the Pantser in me), I found some of her suggestions to be quite helpful and her advice sound.

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