BY MERILYN OBLAD
ACCURACY IN HISTORICAL FICTION
PART ONE: RESEARCH
Writing historical fiction can be a tricky thing. Whether it’s a romance, steampunk, fantasy, paranormal, or what have you, if you have elements of real history in your WIPs, you probably know what I’m talking about. Small details, false assumptions about the way things were, time-specific colloquialisms, and even the order of words can rise up and trip the unwary writer.
I don’t know about you, but I can tell you that I don’t particularly care for historical blunders. When I see something that doesn’t fit, an anachronism (which can be any object or saying that is not specific to the time it’s placed in, not just old-fashioned objects set in the future), it throws me off.
Sadly, there aren’t many quick and easy ways to fix anachronisms. Well, if you’re very lucky, you’ll have someone on your editing team who knows what’s what, or you may have a historian friend who’s willing to be a beta reader for you who can point things out to you. Those are easy enough, I suppose. But by and large, you really need to put in the work yourself in order to avoid the pitfalls of modernity in historical settings. And what do I mean by that? Research!
Research is vital to any novel , but is absolutely necessary for historical novels. Historical novels fall into two categories: total submersion or backdrop. The total submersion stories feature characters who are true to their time and may interact with actual historical figures. The emphasis is placed as much on the setting as it is on the plot, because historical events influence the plot drastically. This means the author needs to pay attention to EVERYTHING from correct slang to everyday tasks to common perceptions and philosophies. The reader, in turn, gets a full experience of what life was like during the time of the setting.
Backdrop historical novels are more plot-centric, with essentially timeless characters. So, if the author were to change the time and place, the story would remain more or less the same. Less attention needs to be paid to the vagaries of everyday life in these novels, but small details are still important in order to give the story an air of historical believability.
If you’re going for the total submersion approach, here are some things to keep in mind as you go about your research. It’s easy to get things wrong, so these suggestions will help you make sure your information is sound, allowing you to create as realistic a story as possible.
- Start with an internet search, but don’t depend on Wikipedia. Unless you know about a particular time or subject enough to be able to sift the gold from the dross that shows up on Wikipedia, then going there is largely a waste of time. The only reason to visit Wikipedia is to make use of the reference list at the bottom of every article. Books and articles listed there are a good way to start your own bibliography of research. So when you hit ‘search’ on Google, visit the sites that are connected to universities and colleges or other scholarly institutions.
- Build a sound bibliography of research. Look in the back of tried and true textbooks for a decent bibliography. If you need primary sources as part of your research (stuff people wrote at or near the time of your setting), some of the general textbooks have supplemental books that are solely primary sources. Another place to find a decent bibliography of books you can trust to give you good information is in the syllabi of history classes. Most university professors post their syllabi online, so it’s a simple thing to check a course schedule for a pertinent class, then search for the syllabus. Also, the more specific your topic, the more you’ll need to search upper-division or graduate-level courses for a reasonable syllabus. If all else fails, search a university’s history department for faculty that are experts in the field you’re researching and email them asking for a recommended reading list. The bigger the university, the more likely you’ll find experts on obscure information.
- Go to the library and ask a librarian for help. Better still, visit a university library. That way, you have the resources handy to cross-reference your information.
- Verify an author’s credentials. Check out the bio on any author, see what other books they wrote, and make sure there’s a Ph.D. in a relevant subject listed after their name, along with the institution that awarded the degree. If Dr. Jane Smith wrote a comprehensive guide to social mores in Regency Era England, then she ought to have authored books and/or articles in the same subject, and she better have a graduate degree in 19th century English social history or something like that. If her degree is in biology and her other works are about the human genome, then you know you have an amateur on your hands. Which means that her information might be enthusiastic, but wrong. Or that the information might be right, but the conclusions are sketchy. Or she might be ignoring key aspects to her argument without even realizing it, which could throw off your story. I don’t mean to be an intellectual snob, because amateurs offer very real insight at times, but someone with a graduate degree in the subject you’re studying knows more about the background information, the methodology, and current trends in research than the average amateur and can guide you around any potholes on the road of research.
Check out the publisher. Scholarly works ought to be published by university presses. Such books are more likely to have undergone peer-review. Which brings me to my next point . . .
- Check out what the peer reviews say. Other scholars can offer insight you may not be equipped to see, such as identifying the primary sources an author uses and if those sources are used laterally or if the whole book is based on one source. That’s bad, by the way. A good history needs to be based on more than one source. Anyway, if the peer review says a book is good, then you know you can trust it.
- Rely on primary sources for things like how people spoke. Read up on the literature of the time of your setting because that’s the single best source for getting a feel for the rhythm of the language.
Congratulations, you’re now a research wizard! Go forth and conquer your local library. And don’t forget to tune in next month for my second installment of how to maintain historical accuracy. Fair warning: I’m likely to go off on historical tangents that may or may not be relevant. I’m rubbing my hands together gleefully at the prospect!
MeriLyn Oblad lays down the grammar and content law from her home in Southern Utah, with an MA in History from Brigham Young University. (Don’t be fudging the facts with this girl!) Her latest project, Legends and Lore: an Anthology of Mythic Proportions, will be released tomorrow, November 22, 2014, at a tremendous launch party, which you can attend here.