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By Gary, March 2, 2009

I enjoy reading — and have tried my hand at writing — historical novels. For many years, as those of you know who’ve been around this site much, I fiddled with a couple of novels set in the American West of the 1800s. I’ve not yet finished one, but I have three that I’ve started and tucked away in virtual file cabinets over the years.

Research is crucial to a good historical novel. When you’re writing something linked to real people, places, and events, you must get the details “right,” as much as possible. Taking creative liberty with those details works out, because you are after all writing fiction. But if you get the details wrong, there are almost always history buffs out there who’ll catch your mistake and let you know about it. (For example, do you happen to know what color Hitler’s eyes were? Take a look at this previous post.)

Most often, novels based in the recent past are filled with anachronistic pitfalls if you aren’t doing careful research. There might be a handful of people reading something set in the 1480s in France; there would be many reading something set in 1999 America. As an example of a such a trap — do you know when plasma televisions were invented and widely marketed? What about something as esoteric as a plasma tv mount? I confess I really don’t understand plasma technology and television mounts in general. And I assure you if you write a story with a scene mentioning plasma televisions and mounts — someone out there will be quick to catch you if you try to fake it and get the time frame wrong.

So do adequate research when you’re writing fiction. Don’t obsess and spend all your time researching and not writing — but do adequate research to get the details right.

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By Gary, March 10, 2008

One of the best resources I’ve found for the sort of research I’ve used when writing historical fiction is a set of books that were published in the 1980s and ’90s by Writers Digest Books. This was a series of dictionary-like books called “The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life …” followed by whatever period of history or historical niche the book covered. I only own one volume in the series, “The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s.” Other volumes include ” … in Renaissance England,” ” … from Prohibition Through Word War II,” ” … in Regency and Victorian England,” and I believe several others.

There are two unfortunate drawbacks to this series of historical writing reference material: 1) many or even most of the series is out of print or very hard to find, and, 2) they are not carefully organized if you’re looking for detailed discussions. Due to their dictionary-style setup, you almost need to know a specific subject or topic in order to look it up alphabetically. However, for the browser with a bit of time to invest, they have a huge amount of material.

The second historical research source I would recommend to you is perhaps surprising. But it’s very convenient and has a huge amount of general material on just about all things historical you might need to scratch through. I’m talking about that universal Internet “fall-back” resource for everything knowledgeable — Wikipedia.

I’m aware of many problems using Wikipedia. It’s sort of the odd uncle nobody likes to take out in public of encyclopedias. But it’s very comprehensive in one way or another and will always give you something to start with. It’s easily accessible if you’re doing any research online, and even public librarians I know take a peek there once in awhile. But be warned: Don’t take anything in Wikipedia as “authoritative,” because it’s a grow as it goes kind of resource. The editing and oversight, from what I’ve heard, is improving, and I only recommend it as a quick “brainstorming” resource to lead you to other places.

The third specific research resource I’m calling your attention to is World History Compass. It is an extremely useful source of links and reviews, as well as visitor-added links, to Internet sites and even historical documents. Don’t overlook this site and all the sites to which it links.

When all else fails, go to a reliable online or public library encyclopedia like Britannica, World Book, and Encarta. You’ll find some good “starter” material in any good encyclopedia, and our high-tech world makes it extremely easy to access good encyclopedias online.

Technorati Tags: Writing Historical Fiction Part 3, historical research sources, writing tips at garyspeer.com

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By Gary, March 6, 2008

A few years ago I was taking a graduate level course in Mexican history and ran onto the perfect idea for a historical novel set in 1785-86 in the region which became New Mexico and involved a Spanish governor, Juan Baptista de Anza, and the Comanche Indians.

I realized that de Anza displayed an understanding of the Comanche people and genuinely sought to work out a peace agreement with them that was fair to both the Spanish settlers and the Comanches. For a period of years (something like a decade or two, perhaps), a serious peace and stability came to that region.

Realizing how very different that was to most European-Native American encounters, I thought it would make a setting for a great historical novel. I’m still trying to get back to that historical setting and those people to do something with it.

The lesson here for you is this: If you dig into history and do some reading about a time, place, or people who interest you, there’s no limit to the background material and character information you’ll find for creating fiction. The next post in this series will deal with some resources you can use of historical research to help you find those seeds for a story.

Technorati Tags: historical fiction, using historical research for story ideas, advice for new writers, writing tips at garyspeer.com