Historical Fictionistas discussion

I'm interested in what prompted others to start writing historical fiction. In my own case it was because I wanted to research a particular person and her key life events. It was more personal curiosity than anything else, and also because I wanted to present these events from a fresh perspective, thus challenging the accepted historical/medical version. I'd no idea when I started how fascinated I was going to become in the wider issues relating to the writing of historical fiction.

Yes, Hilda, in my case it came out of curiosity about an individual, an ancestor--my grandfather who was a missionary in China in the nineteen teens. I think the connection is often personal like that. Then we become steeped in the time and place and that creates greater curiosity! Thanks for bringing this up.

My reason was much more basic: I couldn't find the sort of books I wanted to read. I enjoyed the seafaring novels of CS Forester, but there were no land-based novels about Napoleon's wars. I decided to write one! That was a long time ago and it was no good - then a gentleman called Bernard Cornwell did just what I'd been trying to do.
Later on I revisited the idea and have found a different way of telling those stories. Can't get rid of that writing bug, can you?

Virginia wrote: "Yes, Hilda, in my case it came out of curiosity about an individual, an ancestor--my grandfather who was a missionary in China in the nineteen teens...."

I've already put your book on my TBR list, Virginia. I'm particularly interested in it as I have a friend who spent her childhood in China, the daughter of an American missionary.

Peter wrote: "My reason was much more basic: I couldn't find the sort of books I wanted to read. I enjoyed the seafaring novels of CS Forester, but there were no land-based novels about Napoleon's wars. I decide..."

The good thing about pursuing the subject in this way is that you must have learned much more about your area of interest by researching it for your own writing than you would have done if you'd simply read other people's novels about it.

I've never thought about this but I guess my love of writing historical fiction came out of my love of reading historical fiction. Pretty much any and every era interests me - give me a 1000 page book and some halfway decent chocolate, and I'm good to go!

Hi Hilda: it was curiosity for me too. I wondered, and still wonder, what were women's lives like before feminism and birth-control? How would I relate to my body, men, other women and my society if I didn't have all the choices I take for granted? How would my sexuality be shaped by the devestating consequences which aren't faced by most women in western society today. I also wondered about the paradox of nations ruled by women in which women's lives were, in general, really circumscribed. Hilda wrote: "I'm interested in what prompted others to start writing historical fiction. In my own case it was because I wanted to research a particular person and her key life events. It was more personal curi..."

I have always loved reading good historical fiction, although some of it is pretty light. I look for good stories that teach me something - Colleen McCullough's Rome series, Sharon Kay Penman's books, Bernard Cornwell.

I often thought about writing but the places and eras I knew best - Rome and England - have been done to death. I didn't want to cover old ground. And then I started reading Byzantine history and found a subject that very few have written about, and almost none from inside the civilization (although some did from the perspective of a western European). So now I am writing my first novel about these people that I have become somewhat obsessed with. It has been a challenge - writing a novel is not like the analytical writing I do for my day job - but it is also very satisfying.

I was already writing history (I am a historian of 16th-century Russia), so for me, the big question was: why fiction?

I won't subject you to the entire answer. The short version is that I fell into it. But once I got serious about writing fiction, making it historical fiction was a no brainer. What better way to lay out all the stuff I can't prove from the documents?

C.P. wrote: "I was already writing history (I am a historian of 16th-century Russia), so for me, the big question was: why fiction?

I won't subject you to the entire answer. The short version is that I fell in..."

The problem with writing history books is that you have to stick to the facts. And sometimes there aren't enough facts to explain what happened. It is fiction that helps fill in the gaps.

Eileen wrote: "The problem with writing history books is that you have to stick to the facts. And sometimes there aren't enough facts to explain what happened. It is fiction that helps fill in the gaps."

Yes, exactly!

I had written political-adventure fiction books over a number of years centered on countries where I had worked as a foreign correspondent but increasingly felt the need to go deeper into the history of the region where I had spent most of my working life – East and South-East Asia.
Over 30 years I had heard many remarkable stories about the turbulent past, which were the starting point for ten years of research (initially at the British Library and in The Netherlands). I was especially interested in the early impact – often brutal – of colonial powers, especially the English and the Dutch, through their respective East India Companies.
I was additionally inspired to write what became a 700-page historical novel by the emigration to SE Asia over several hundred years of many thousands of Chinese, among them ancestors of my wife. It was the most demanding writing project I have undertaken and just completing it provided a sense of satisfaction.

I joined a women's Talmud class twenty years ago, back in the days when women were still excluded/forbidden from studying these texts. There I discovered the great commentator Rashi, who had no sons, only daughters - daughters that were refuted to be learned themselves. I started doing research to see if this legend was true [it was], and was so fascinated by everything else I found about Jews living in 11th-century Troyes, France, that I wanted to share it. Thus Rashi's Daughters, Book I: Joheved: A Novel of Love and the Talmud in Medieval France was born.

As Nobel laureate Toni Morrison says, "If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it."
Maggie Anton

Ian wrote: "I had written political-adventure fiction books over a number of years centered on countries where I had worked as a foreign correspondent but increasingly felt the need to go deeper into the histo..."
This sounds Very interesting, Ian. China is the territory of my debut novel, River of Dust, which will be published in May. Your project sounds incredibly ambitious. My story is on a smaller scale--set in one year, 1910, in northwestern China. It tells the story of an American missionary couple there at a time of drought and famine. As it turns out, it is about the collapse of colonialism and Christian faith, too, at least among my characters who are greatly challenged by that rough and dangerous setting. Keep me posted if your novel is published. I've become more and more interested in the portrayal of colonialism in fiction. Congratulations on completing your novel!

Love the Toni Morrison quote, Maggie. That says it all!
I became interested in writing historical fiction because few history books slaked my thirst for detail. Living as I do in a part of Scotland rich in history I hungered to know not only how the inhabitants of all those ruined castles, convents and cottages actually lived but how did they react to the 'history' happening at the time? So I had to find out... the rest they say is ..... fiction.

I was fifteen when I first read Katherine by Anya Seton. I was entranced and swore to myself that if I ever found another historical figure who had a love affair which intrigued me half as much as Katherine Swynford's had, that I would write about it. More than thirty years later I discovered St. Margherita of Cortona; the patron saint of unwed mothers and the mentally ill. Hers was a Cinderella story tragic enough to appeal to the fifteen year old girl still buried deep within my middle aged self. And while writing that story, I learned that I like to research and write historical fiction even more than I love reading it.

I graduated from UCLA with history my general secondary teaching credential major and English my credential minor. I thought that I would be teaching history during my entire career, but, instead, because of a shortage of English teachers when I began, it was English that I taught every single year. Very quickly I fell in love with literature, but I never lost my interest in history. When I retired from teaching, I still wanted to instruct but I also wanted to create.

My reasons are much like those already mentioned. I have always loved stories about past time periods. I also have a family that is rich with stories that have been passed down from generation to generation as on both sides they were emigrated long before the American Revolution. I always wondered why they came when they did and what their lives were really like, so I decided to make up my own story to answer those questions.

Maggie wrote: As Nobel laureate Toni Morrison says, "If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it."

This is exactly why I wrote my biographical novel. In fact, I couldn't understand why it hadn't been done before. (I mean, the novelisation of the case history of the 'founding patient' of psychoanalysis.) It seemed to me that the medical case history and the theories built on it were so full of holes that the 'medical gaze' (term coined by Foucault) was just crying out to be supplemented by a novelist's gaze. Not only has it not been done for Bertha Pappenheim (my heroine), it doesn't seem to have been done for any of the other famous patients of Freud and his cronies. The rest of my life won't be anything like enough time for me to deal with them all, so if the idea appeals to anyone else, there is a rich seam of psychological drama to be mined there.

I got into writing history because I love places and people of the distant past, and can't write contemporary worth a turd.

I was fascinated by the Minoans my first year in college, but forgot about them and the Mycenaeans till only a few years ago. During my college years, I was more interested in medieval England and the Anglo-Saxons, although I've never written anything about them.

When I was 14, my high school class read Oedipus Rex. I was fascinated by the story, but I kept thinking that it would be much more interesting told from the point of view of Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus. She had all the clues: did she ever piece them together and realize she was married to her son? The idea stuck with me for decades, and so I wrote it with Alice Underwood.

Then, while we were doing the research for Jocasta, we discovered a mass murder that had gone undetected for three millennia - and we thought we knew who had done it. In order to clear the names of those who were blamed for thousands of years, we felt compelled to write our Niobe trilogy.

Now, I'm simply hooked. I feel an obligation to those whose stories have not yet been told.

Wow! This is a question answered in my Author's Note of my debut novel to young adults readers. It starts out:

Dear Reader,

I hate history!

Now that I have your attention … I’ll tell you that I actually love history, but I didn’t always.....

Anyhow, it goes on to say that I was in my mid-to-late thirties when my mothere coaxed me into touring some colonial homes in Newport, Rhode Island where the ghosts of the past came out to play and opened my eyes to history in a more personal way that got me craving the subject. I started lightly with historical fiction, amongst my favorites were those written by John Jakes. Before I knew it, I had gravitated into non-fiction, where I discovered the seedling for my debut story.

The places I have been to research for my story were amazing!!!!!

Thanks for allowing me this time to tell you about my exciting discovery and love for history.

It was for a long time may favourite genre as a reader so I guess it was the logical step to attempt to write historical fiction.

Virginia wrote: "Ian wrote: "I had written political-adventure fiction books over a number of years centered on countries where I had worked as a foreign correspondent but increasingly felt the need to go deeper in..."

Your book sounds fascinating, Virginia. I have been obsessed with China since I studied it in University and later found myself China watching in Hong Kong (first for Reuters and then for The New York Times). I would have loved to have traveled in the interior of China in the early twentieth century.

I published my book Nanyang as an Amazon (CreateSpace) paperback and Kindle eBook. If you would like to take a look at the websites, you can find the URLs on my Goodreads author profile. The eBook site provides access to the first eight chapters.

I grew up in one of Australia's oldest farming districts and visited a hundred year old house when I was young, which won't sound old to some people, but I became facinated with who may have lived there. Then spent many years learning about the area.

It's so interesting to hear everyone's stories. I have an academic background in history, but think C20 HF 'clicked' because of our family history. I just remember my grandfather sitting up late at night surrounded by photographs of his comrades from WW2, and the stories my aunt told about helping the Resistance in occupied Holland. She also saved her husband's life, hiding him from the Nazis. I think it's that urge to connect with the past, and try to understand what they went through, that drives my fiction. How about you?

"try to understand what they went through" - That is a lot of it for me. I am always trying to understand how we got where we are today, but I go back way further than WWII. My interests lie more in the ancient and medieval period. Sometimes, when I see a bit of architecture that originated in that period, or think about how one person's actions made such a difference in the world's history, even to today, it amazes me. And I want to learn more.

I read once that the point of education is action. So, when contemplating all that I have managed to learn on my chosen era, I thought I should find a way to share it. I'm not going back to school for a Ph.D., so becoming a professional historian was not in the cards. But telling the story of these people to the wider world, and filling in the historical gaps with what I think may have (plausibly) happened, that I can do.

Even though I do write professionally in my day job, I have learned that novel writing is a very different experience from analytical writing. Figuring that out has been a challenge, but I learn something everyday.

As well as wanting to understand how we got to where we are, researching and writing HF helps me appreciate what we have. I've been preparing for an author talk by collecting my thoughts about life as a 16th century woman in western Europe. Reading about what was taught and believed about women by the dominant intellectuals who shaped society is breathtakingly disturbing, and how these ideas were manifested in society feels tragic. I'm so grateful to live when and where I do.

I have always had an equal passion for writing stories and for learning about history. I discovered some interesting characters and situations in history and decided to combine the two pursuits. Part of the inspiration is to share a discovery in a way that I hope would be entertaining and compelling, with the understanding that most people don't share my love of dusty academic texts, but might enjoy a story that could give them a taste of a time in history and introduce readers to some interesting personages and events that have shaped our world.

Christine, my next historical novel is about the witch hunting period in the 17th century and has involved a fair bit of research into the latter part of the 16th century and much of of the 17th and beyond. It is very disturbing to learn how a lot of things came about and the social and political culture that enabled such atrocities to occur. Not only what was taught and believed about women, but the things that were done to them is very upsetting. I hoped to have the new book finished by now but I have had to walk away from it several times because, in order to accurately depict some of these events...well...how to put this...it's almost unbelievable the cruelty to which so many were subjected, all in the name of 'goodness' and yet those things happened to tens of thousands that we know about and possibly more that may have gone undocumented...upsetting, to say the least, dramatic, intense, but difficult when writing some of the scenes, especially since I'd rather not pull any punches and think it is better to depict the realities instead of some candy-coated version of things. Likewise, I am grateful we live when and where we do, for the sake of women, and for all of our humanity, particularly our sanity.

Hear hear. I'm going to talk about witch craft and witch hunts because I have to, but it's terrible terrible stuff: real mass insanity stuff. I have a sequel in mind, and while witch accusations would be completely relevant and dramatic, I just don't think I could do it, in fact I'm pretty sure I couldn't. I can't even read about it. I understand that England had relatively few outbreaks, in part because torture was against the law, so confessions extracted this way just didn't happen. I hadn't known that about england: I was surprised. David wrote: "I have always had an equal passion for writing stories and for learning about history. I discovered some interesting characters and situations in history and decided to combine the two pursuits. Pa..."

By being imaginative yet careful with historical events also hope my writing gives the readers a different insight into past times.

Torture was technically against the law in England, but it was certainly practiced. When under direct scrutiny by high ranking officials, interrogators would use sleep deprivation and other less offensive methods to break down the accused, but when there happened to be less official scrutiny, or unscrupulous magistrates involved, other methods that were far less acceptable were employed.

Kind of like today then.
David wrote: "Torture was technically against the law in England, but it was certainly practiced. When under direct scrutiny by high ranking officials, interrogators would use sleep deprivation and other less of..."

David wrote: "Torture was technically against the law in England, but it was certainly practiced. When under direct scrutiny by high ranking officials, interrogators would use sleep deprivation and other less of..."

I'm not sure what period we're talking about here. When was it made unlawful to inflict torture in England? What about the rack, the thumbscrews and all those horrendous devices used in the Tower of London to extract information from people? What about the kind of trial by ordeal inflicted on suspected witches and the like? There was also the torture of 'heretics'.

Not only which period, Hilda, but how is torture defined.
Came across this link saying that although torture unlawful in medieval England 'peine forte et dure' (!) could be applied to anyone who refused to plead. Also there was the monarch's prerogative which allowed some form of torture. (cf henry VIII) I thought I read somewhere that Protector Somerset banned torture for heretics in about 1550?? anyone?
http://www.helium.com/items/1734819-t...

Hi Hilda, I should have clarified in my response to Christine's post (msg 30) that cited torture as being against the law in England.

During the Civil War period (mid 1600s) torture was 'technically' against the law* and frowned upon, though during the power vacuum caused by the civil war and the frictions between the royalists and the parliamentarians there were ample opportunities for various communities and interrogators of witches to engage in such activities, regardless of the prohibition. In the specific witch-hunting period in Essex 1645, on which I am focusing, there are references to torture and ways interrogators would use 'workaround' torture methods while under public scrutiny, but there are some references that suggest they engaged in more tradition, medieval-type methods when not under the scrutiny of officials of the courts. And therein lies the rub, the challenge of deciphering euphemistic language in the public accounts and looking at reactions and references as a guide to things that might not be clearly stated in the historical records, while at the same time being cautious in said historical interpretations.

You are correct, that blatant and violent torture has, at various times throughout history, been very much a reality in England, Europe and the new world as well. Of course, we now know that torture is an ineffective means of extracting information and can even lead to false information, since those under torture will say whatever their interrogators want. Torture someone enough, they'll admit to being Ronald McDonald if that's what you want them to say. And yet, despite strong scientific evidence against its efficacy, clear statements against it by professional interrogators, torture still continues, even in this day and age.

Anyway, sorry for the misunderstanding. Perhaps I should have been more emphatically clear about the specific time period about which I was referring in my post (msg 32) repeating the specific period rather than simply continuing from my previous post (msg 29) where the time period was already mentioned.

* Torture abolished in England, 1640.
http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionar...

Let's get back to being inspired to write Historical Fiction. :)

Another motivation is to present an insightful window into a time period and demonstrate life and society in a meaningful and hopefully accurate way, while at the same time telling a dramatically interesting story. Dramatic license is certainly acceptable, but telling a great story while doing one's best to give an accurate rendition of the time period is certainly an admirable goal. A lot of people's understanding of history comes from popular stories, movies, books and even video games. I think it's important to try to work in as much accuracy as possible into an historical fiction.

It's my favorite genre to read :)

Thrilled to find this thread and really interested in everyone's personal paths to this genre...I honestly had no idea that it was what I'd end up (at least at this point in my career) writing. I'd enjoyed history in college and grad-school, but it had never really electrified me the way fiction did. And I'd gone into my MFA program with a somewhat typical coming-of-age semi-autobiographical novel in progress that people around me seemed to think was pretty good. But for me, it was (almost literally) stumbling across a compelling and enigmatic historical figure--the Chinese prostitute-turned-painter Pan Yuliang--that really launched me into the genre. I simply couldn't get my head around how a woman in that era and location would have experienced the kind of transformation Pan did--and the only way to get close to it was to try to write it for myself. It's interesting--I find "history" takes on a whole new dimension when you're reading/researching it for a novel. It feels much more alive and compelling to me as a potential ingredient for fiction than it does as a simple text to be read. I wonder if others feel the same way?

Jennifer wrote: "Thrilled to find this thread and really interested in everyone's personal paths to this genre...I honestly had no idea that it was what I'd end up (at least at this point in my career) writing. I'd..."

Absolutely, I feel that way too. You have to imagine yourself in a completely different time and place and try to describe it, without boring your reader and at the same time telling a good story.

David wrote: "...Another motivation is to present an insightful window into a time period and demonstrate life and society in a meaningful and hopefully accurate way, while at the same time telling a dramatically interesting story. ..."

I particularly like your use of the word 'insightful' in this context. I think this is where historical/biographical fiction scores over pure history, which just has the exposition of bald facts. It's the minds of the characters created in HF which constitute the 'insightful window'.

Eileen wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "Thrilled to find this thread and really interested in everyone's personal paths to this genre...I honestly had no idea that it was what I'd end up (at least at this point in my car..."

So true. That's always my answer when I'm asked about the line between history and fiction in historical fiction--that of course one has a responsibility to historical truth, but in the end your main job as a novelist is to tell a good story. Very different from being a journalist or a "straight" historian!

To be fair, historians interpret facts to tell a story. Otherwise, they are not historians but antiquarians or factologists. The best historians even develop a certain psychological sophistication.

But historians do not and should not recreate the internal experience of historical people. Nor do they create characters to express the immediacy of life in a specific place and time. That is the great contribution of historical fiction: to "show" the past instead of "telling" it and therefore to catch the reader up and transport him/her into another world.

So true, CP. I've got it in big letters above my keyboard to remind me SHOW DON'T TELL otherwise it's just reportage and readers want more - at least I do!

I got into it by accident. I was trying to write a fantasy book based on The Song of Roland, but it didn't resonate with me. The more I researched the history behind the story, the more my interest piqued in writing about it. Once I started, I couldn't stop.

I got into Historical Fiction because of my husband's mother's past life in Holland during the Holocaust. Her father was a renowned art dealer who was forced to trade masterpieces to the Nazis in exchange for 25 Jewish lives. I wrote two books loosely based on her experience: "Rembrandt's Shadow" and "Restitution." They should be out sometime in the fall. Biting my nails -- what's left of them.

Hi Janet, your book sounds really interesting! Good luck with it's release!

Kinda of you to say, Kayla...let me know what you're working on, too, please. This is so cool swapping stories!

I wrote my first work of historical fiction after I discovered that my students at the University of Illinois--certainly among the best and brightest 20-year-olds in the nation--knew little about the history of race relations in U.S. and were eager to learn. After a particularly good discussion when they kept asking good questions about my own experience in the 1950s American South, I decided to use that setting for my next novel.

My work is based on my grandmother and grandfather surviving one of the worst crises in U.S. history.

History and literature are the two places where we can learn about what human beings are capable of. Is there anywhere else?

Shelley
http://dustbowlstory.wordpress.com

I've always loved and read history books, but it wasn't till I read Gore Vidal's Burr that I realized there was a thing called historical fiction.... John Dos Passos excited me terrifically, and I wrote a play about Alexander Hamilton, never produced, though I used a modern setting for it... Never occurred tome that I could write historical fiction.... until I was researching Henry Thoreau for a small part in a play I was writing.