Sea of Genres: Historical

This is the final Sea of Genres installment.

And for that, we have historical fiction.

This is fiction that is set in a certain age in history.

The first tip I have for you is this:

Research.

Now, since it's fiction, the people you're writing about are not really in history—unless you are choosing to write a fictionous story about a main figure in history.

But if you are writing in a specific era, please, for the love of all things historical, do your research.

Historical fiction is the one genre of fiction where research is mandatory.

If you do not research, you are doing something wrong.

Historical fiction that's set in a certain era needs to be factually accurate to that era.

For example, there's a movie I recently watched. It was a fun movie and I enjoyed it. While it wasn't necessarily "historical", it was set in the early 1900s. At that time, people of color were still not treated very well or fully accepted. Interracial marraige was still illegal in most states, and in the states where it was legal, it was still frowned upon by many.

In that movie, the main characters were a couple of two different races. They were completely accepted, as well as living a rather wealthy life. Half their friends were people of color and none of the struggles black individuals had to face back then were portrayed in the movie.

While I love what the producers were trying to do and I love how they were hiring people of different races to play different roles, there is a certain level of historical accuracy that needs to be present in a film like this.

I guess the moral of this is that we can't rewrite history. There are things we wish we could change about it, but we can't do that. It's in the past.

When you are writing in a era where times were different, where treatment of certain people—however wrong it may be—was different, where technology was not as advanced as it is now, make sure you take that into account in your writing.

Let's say you're writing about someone in the 1800s.

Research how people lived at that time.

Research how society was.

Research the events of that time period.

Be careful that you don't add in a piece of technology that wasn't there in that era and be careful that what you are portraying in that book—no matter if it was morally right or wrong—is factually accurate.

So, we can't rewrite history.... but could we write about people who saw the wrong things done in the past for the bad things they are?

Absolutely.

I think this is a great idea and it really gives the opportunity to teach a moral lesson to your readers.

Maybe there could be a story about a woman in a time when women didn't have many rights. Maybe there could be a story about a person protesting for racial equality. Maybe there could be a person who simply wanted new technology or to explore new ideas.

These are great ideas for a novel.

With what I wrote previously, I'm not trying to convey that writing about "new-thinkers" is bad.

What I am saying is that history is history. We can't rewrite it or change it to fit our wants or beliefs, even if we want to.

In a historical work of fiction, one must pay attention to making sure their piece is historically accurate. This takes research. Don't make things that are illegal, legal. Don't use technology that wasn't invented in that time.

Use vocabulary appropriate for the time period.

Along with how you portray society, government, and culture adding to factual accuracy, the words you use also impact your factual accuracy.

You see, at different parts in the past, they didn't have the same vocabulary we have now. For example, Old English could be the way the characters speak in your book.

Feel free to narrate with a more current vocabulary—although I'd steer clear from any slang words or super "casual" English—but when a character is talking, make sure to use the vocabulary relevant to their time period.

How do we figure out the vocabulary appropriate for the time period?

Look back at the first tip.

Research.

Just do your research.

Say your writing in the 1700s. Look up the 1700s. Find out how people spoke back then.

It's not that hard to research nowadays with the internet and all that's available on it. Just do a quick Google search. You can find so much information that way.

One tip I would give you, so that you can make sure that the information you're finding is accurate, is to compare information.

You need to at least have two (more is better) different references that say the same thing. Wikipedia is not to be trusted and any random site on Google might not have all the facts. So do your research thoroughly and compare what you found on one site to what you found on another.

Don't make it boring.

A common complaint I've had with some historical fiction books is that they're boring.

Yeah, everything was historically accurate.

Yeah, they used the right vocabulary.

Yeah, they had a good plot.

But it was flat. It was boring.

This often happens when the characters fall flat and become unrealistic.

Often, like in mystery, although in a different way in historical fiction, we can get so caught up with making everything accurate and factual that we forget to make the characters human.

Not literally of course.

We don't accidentally make characters aliens because we're too distracted with figuring out what year women's sufferage took place.

I mean that we forget to give our characters a personality and actual human reactions and feelings.

This can happen very easily, especially since we're writing in a time period different from our own.

A good way to prevent that is to think of yourself in their shoes. Think of yourself in their situation and what your reactions would be if you were living like them.

You need to give your characters emotions for them to feel real to the reader. Have them get angry. Have them get sad. Have them feel joy. Have them feel despair.

I will agree that, in the past, people had a lot tougher lives than we have now and so they, in turn, were probably a lot tougher. But they still had emotions like everyone else.

Another way to avoid a boring book is to make sure you add some humor to it. Just because times were different, doesn't mean people didn't have a sense of humor centuries ago. Crack some jokes. Add some sarcasm. Give your book a little life and fun.

Have fun with it.

Sometimes when we are writing a historical book, it can feel like a chore.

With all the research involved, and all that you have to try to get accurate, it can feel daunting to simply get started.

It's important to remember to enjoy it.

There is a lot of research involved in comparison to other genres, yes, but it gives you a chance to explore history.

Historical fiction allows you to put yourself in the shoes of someone in a different time period. And by doing that, you give anyone who reads your work a better understanding of people's way of life back then.

Historical fiction is an adventure.

It's not everyone's cup of tea.

Just like every other genre, writing historical fiction is not for everyone.

It takes a certain level of patience, as well as enough care to pay attention to details. It also takes a lot of imagination, since you are writing about a completely different day and age.

For me, personally, historical fiction just isn't my thing. I prefer writing fiction where I can escape our world and create one of my own.

But you might not feel that way. It all depends on the person.

You could love it. You could hate it.

But hey, you don't know until you try.

I hope you all found this blog post helpful. And I hope you all enjoyed the Sea of Genres series.

It's been a blast to write!

Stay tuned for next week where we'll return to regular "writer's advice" blog posts!

Happy writing!

-Jocelyn