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Congrats to Tessa and Liesl, winners of May's 2k11/Elevensie swag packs!
With a historical middle-grade coming out next year and research on a new book underway, I've been thinking a lot about historical fiction. There are particular challenges and limitations that come with telling a story in a time before our own.
Here's what Beth Kephart has to say about the genre:
In time, I would write my own history-indebted books. I would come to an earned understanding of how difficult it is to both honor the past and make it relevant and pressing for modern readers. One has to make decisions about authenticity, completeness, recorded truth, the shaping of language, the admission of now to then. One has to yield to the novelist's first obligation, which is to craft a moving, timeless story.
And Margaret Lawrence says this:
...Making a novel based on history requires us to leap beyond fact.
Working Writers had this to say about Margaret George's latest book, ELIZABETH I:
And that is perhaps what is so great about this book, is that you get the true sense of Elizabeth as a person. She isn’t a character from history or an un-relatable, larger than life, individual. She’s human.
What particular challenges do you see in creating historical fiction?
18 Comments on Crafting Historical Fiction, last added: 5/31/2011
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Oh, I like what Margaret Lawrence has to say. That makes me feel a lot better about an old book I was working on!
One of the main challenges I find in writing real life people and events can be a sense of restrictive creatively, since you don't want to depart from the facts with a great story line idea that you'd normally go after if you were free to write straight fiction.
Sarah, me too.
Elle, I haven't written real-life people yet. There will be a few in my newest piece, though. A bit scary.
Thanks for the quotes :-)
My challenge? Character! The ideas for my MG historical fictions have been jump-started by settings, and then trying to imagine the people that populated those settings. A hollow sycamore and pioneers. A stone barn built in the Civil War, etc. The settings are clear in my mind. But the character? Since the story doesn’t start with any one person’s history, my challenge is in developing the character that lives and breathes in those settings.
Kenda, that's how I wrote my first historical (or first to sell. The true first was horrendous). I immersed myself in the setting and hoped a character would emerge. She did (with some cajoling on my part). Reading first-hand accounts of the era helped me to discover her.
I've also been thinking quite a bit about historical fiction. Perhaps my personal favorite genre (and not only b/c my first novel Glory Be is also middle-grade historical- to be released in January). A "few" years ago when I was still working as a school librarian, there was a feeling that historical fiction was tied to an event in history, or at least that characters from history made an appearance. I'm thinking I may need to explore the definition of historical fiction again however! I just read a book I loved, set in the 1950s, but with no obvious historical figure or event. What do you think? True historical fiction? Do you have a definition? And what about Richard Peck's novels? How would we classify them?
I think setting is key. While people and events might factor in, time and location are the ultimate deciding factors.
Think of THE HELP or last two Newbery winners, WHEN YOU REACH ME and MOON OVER MANIFEST. I don't remember any of these books having historical figures. Historical events were general, such as World War II (not specific battles but the idea of soldiers serving) or segregation -- more ideas or themes than specific events.
Anyone else want to chime in?
I think all aspects of writing historical fiction is challenging, but especially the language and deciding how much of the period's language to use. Too much is cumbersome for today's readers to follow. It's hard to get the right balance that gives just enough the flavor of the times.
Also, I was surprised to find out at a writers conference back in September that anything that takes place before 1990 is considered historical fiction for kids. Pretty interesting, huh? Who woulda thunk?
OK, now that's just WRONG!!! Pre 1990? The guidelines used to say 50 year back. Egads.
The Help certainly focused on "history" if you consider the Jim Crow laws, etc. And I think I read that When You Reach Me was only set in the 1980s b/c the writer most identified with that time period and wanted the details to work (freedom to roam the streets of NYC, for example). I bet most of her readers didn't even realize what time the story took place. In many ways, it could have been "anytime."
Lots of history in Manifest, with the soldier's letters, the Depression- at least that's what I thought. Just my opinion, of course. I see how it doesn't really have to center on an event or a person, but there should certainly be mention of things that could only have happened during that time period, wouldn't you say?
Staying true to the setting and time period and vernacular is challanging to say the least. ANd if you are tying it to particular characters who actually LIVED during that time period--then you're really got to juggle lots of balls. Today I found out that my assumption about an elementary school in SC in 1945 was not nearly as "unmodern" as I had assumed that it was. And it only was a teeny-tiny piece of the pie! Staying true to the facts is what has me pulling out some hair at this point.
Agreed about the 50 years vs. 1990. I've heard both, too. I really think When You Reach Me was the turning point, with the idea that if the story isn't "current", you'd better include details to ground the story in the correct setting.
Carol, this is where it helps (me, at least) to remember what I'm crafting is ultimately a story. There are details that can be changed, there are things we'll never know completely. If it serves the story (and you explain to your readers), I think it's legitimate.
Totally agreed.
Totally agreed.
i love having found your blog, caroline... what a gift, your words. i'll be back. xo
Love this post, Caroline! An honor to be part of it.
Emily, welcome!
Beth, thanks for letting me include your words here.
Oh, I can imagine a great deal of difficulty in historical fiction, especially with character, bringing them alive and making them fresh even if they lived a long time ago. But so many authors seems to do it so well because I love so many historical fiction novels.
And I forgot to say thanks again for the swag pack! Lucky me!