Historical fiction

From Guidevines

Fiction set in a prior historical period, outside of historical romance, can be challenging to create and market, but the very challenge is part of its charm for the true historical novelist. The writer may use some other templates—notably, the historical mystery on the mystery template—to structure the story, but otherwise they tend to fall into character-centered stories, action-adventure stories (think of the Sharpe series), family sagas (like the many that came out around the American bicentennial), and other more mainstream forms.

[edit] The History in the Fiction

The challenges of historical fiction begin with research. Picking a period that looked good in a movie and pasting on a general-purpose plot is not the best idea. Naturally, those with a bent for history already have a leg up. However, the perils include

• getting so lost in research that you never get the novel written
• having done all that research, you try to unload all of it into the story
• emphasizing what was different and bizarre to the exclusion of the points on which the reader can contact the characters and world.

However, the first level of research should be simply to find if you want to spend 100,000 words and several rewrites living in this period. Will your story idea work in this period? Research may show you that the time and place really isn't suitable. You then get to choose whether to try to find a better century or country or, if you like this place and time, to try to find a new plot based in what you are learning about the people and events.

Research for historical fiction should not be all about politics: often very little about politics, unless you are following the adventures of royal courts, etc. Most of it must be aimed at historical life: everyday life for your characters, their names, their family structures, their meals, transportation, clothes, education, activities. Laws regarding marriage and family can be surprisingly important: it was a major point of property transfer, especially when you are dealing with an hereditary nobility.

[edit] Popularity of Eras

An ongoing poll at Historical Novelists Center is a possible guide to eras and places of greatest interest:

• North Asia 0 %
• Japan 0 %
• India 1 %
• Prehistoric 1 %
• Australia 3 %
• Wales 5 %
• Ireland 7 %
• Scotland 7 %
• Medieval (1000 to 1450) 7 %
• Recent Modern (1910 to 1970) 7 %
• Ancient (3000 BC to 300 CE) 8 %
• Antiquity (300 CE to 1000 CE) 8 %
• Renaissance & Reformation (1450 to 1650) 8 %
• "Victorian" (1820 to 1910) 12 %
• Early Modern (1650 to 1820) 16 %

Comparing this with publisher's data would be interesting, to see if what interests writers, to write about, matches what publishers want or what readers popularize.

[edit] External Links