If you're like me and
enjoy a bit of history with your fiction, then you’re probably interested in
the research side of writing as well. There are three important factors in
writing historical fiction; the level of accuracy, level of detail, and
character development in a time gone by.
If you're going to
include facts that can be checked make sure you check them yourself first. Sure
as shooting, if you don't and you're wrong someone will take great pleasure in
letting you know. Also, it interrupts the flow of reading and you want your
Reader’s total involvement from page 1 to page end. Avoid this by checking your
sources. Primary sources are best, but that's not always possible so creditable
secondary sources are the next best thing especially if you can find several
and they all agree.
When it comes to
detail I go for way more than I will need so that I am generally informed on a
topic. I find this helps the storytelling. It also gives me other topics to
write about for articles and short stories. The vast majority of that detail is
kept away from the story. Exposition can be so boring and can make the writer
sound like a know it all. Readers want stories not an over abundance of fact.
For characters to move
freely around the world you've recreated, they need to respond in a natural way
to everything that their time period throws at them. This means the writer
needs to know about clothes, the look of the buildings and streets, current
affairs, rules and regulations, and customs.
It's a lot to learn, but looking up old maps
and heritage buildings can give you streetscapes, layout and the feel of
architecture and interior design. Local government and State archive websites
are great for this.
For fashion, I
research online through Pinterest (check out my board for my current work) and go to exhibitions of vintage clothing so
I can really get up close to see fabric and style detail and colour.
For dialogue and
writing styles, old newspapers and journals can give you a gist for language
and its uses, and stories written in the time period (1700s onward in
particular) are great for picking up the nuances as well as localised
observations. But don't take them as a primary source. They can be a window
into the past but are not history textbooks.
Here's my recommended
reading list for Australian research based in the 1800s:
· Lady Audley’s Secret (not Australian but a good read, free and
something a little different from Jane Austen)
· Trove (newspapers, journals, books, images)
These may not be the
period or location you're interested in but they show just a glimpse of what is
easily found online.
~~~~~~~~~~
Patricia Leslie is an
Aussie urban fantasy author with Odyssey Books. Her novels, TheOuroboros Key, and, A
Single Light, deal with the major issues of today like mystical
magical beings living
deep in Colorado's Rocky Mountains and hungry vampire-like spiritsdevouring the
population of southern Sydney. Evil powers abound in her next novel set in
Sydney and Scotland in
the 1800s. Patricia enjoys the research as much as the writing so payno mind to middle aged
women with cameras wandering around Sydney. It could very wellbe Patricia Leslie
hunting down heritage buildings and their stories.
Drop in on Patricia's
strand of the World Wide Web and catch up on her adventures or follow her on
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. www.patricialeslie.net
