I recently read a review on an historical novel in which I was interested. The critic was very positive: in fact, the only thing she had to say detrimental to the novel was that there was no reason why the author should have written it in an historical instead of a contemporary setting. I confess that at first I took the author’s part because almost every story I write is set at least forty years in the past and I have a strong aversion to contemporary setting. But after reading the first chapter or so of the book in question, I understood what it was the critic was getting at. The story was set in the 1940s, but for all practical purposes it might as easily have been set in 2012. The characters, their daily lives, their manner of speaking, but most especially the style of the book conveyed the feel of a modern, contemporary novel.
The purposes of historical fiction are many, but the most significant is that of transporting the reader to a different time and a different world. While many things stay the same throughout history (for people will be and have always been simply people with basically the same faults and virtues), many things have changed over time. Each era has its own mood and atmosphere—even its own moral, for history is constantly teaching lessons. But the aim of historical fiction is not to capture one aspect of an era, but all of them as they make up a cohesive, interrelated whole.
The most common misconception when it comes to historical fiction is the idea that the date of the setting is what makes a story historical. Authors generally write historical fiction either because they want to write about particular historical events or because they like the periods they choose to set their books in. Consequently, the only thing that makes the resultant book historical is the event or the date. While these are both the most obvious components of historical fiction, the genre relies on far more factors for its success.
There are, in fact, thirteen main areas an author must take into account when writing historical fiction:
Events
Setting
Dialogue
Culture
Science/Invention
Media
Civic/Political
Health
Food
Clothing
Economics
World Views/Value Systems
Writing Style
For each of these areas, we have provided a set of questions for an author to ask himself as he writes an historical novel. Asking questions helps you to evaluate your work and may draw your attention to overlooked areas.
Events
Events are the most emphasised part of historical fiction. However, they usually make up only a small part of the story as a whole, generally only guiding the plot and providing tertiary characters. When writing historical fiction, whether you intend to use major historical events as a backdrop or not, be sure to ask yourself the following questions: What was happening on a global level at this time? What minor, more short-term events were going on?—i.e. who was president? Were there severe weather events (drought, hurricanes, blizzards) during this time?
Setting
Certain aspects of setting are often overlooked in historical fiction, but this type of error can easily spoil the historical context of the work and set your story in a fictional world.
Who was living here at the time of the story? What kinds of people? What did the area look like? Were there any important buildings or communities nearby?
Dialogue
Convincing dialogue is one of the most difficult elements to effect in any kind of fiction. It is also one of the most easily overlooked.
How did people talk in this area at this time? What words/expressions were not used yet? What words/expressions were? (i.e. sixty years ago TV was called television and movies were often ‘motion pictures.’) What types of slang or colloquialisms might people have used? What kind of things would have been thought not proper to be discussed? Was people’s conversation typically grammatically correct?
Culture
People are hugely affected by their culture. A great mistake and one commonly perpetrated is to set historical characters in modern culture. It destroys not only the authenticity, but the over-all mood of the work.
Who was famous? Whose names were household words? What books, plays, movies, etc. were familiar? What did people do for fun? What kinds of homes did people live in? How important were social class distinctions? How would these distinctions have affected your characters (would they be allowed to marry outside their social status? Would they be debarred from certain occupations?)? How did people view those poorer than themselves? How did they view those richer?
Science/Technology
Many inventions changed people’s way of life. Consider the wheel, refrigeration, or the alarm clock. Scientific views and advances influenced the way people viewed the world.
What were some inventions created at this time (Carpet sweepers? Helium balloons? Saxophones?)? How did people do things? How much time did it take to do simple, everyday projects, such as washing clothing or getting to church? What scientific advances were being made? Would your characters have been familiar with these? How would these have influenced the way your characters viewed themselves, the world, and God?
Media
People have always communicated, but they have used many different methods. Beware of anachronisms in this area, such as making news arrive far more quickly than would be common at the time.
What was the primary medium for the spread of ideas (i.e. television, movies, books, scrolls, mystery plays)? How did people communicate (i.e. radar, telegraph, heliograph, speaking drums, hieroglyphs, shoe phone)?
Civic/Political
Dystopian fiction is not the only genre that utilises the political aspect. Politics influence people everywhere and in every era.
What place did people have in government? What were some of their duties? How did they feel about these? What did most people think about government? Did it play an important role in their lives?
Health
Health has always held a prominent place in literature, but particularly more so in the past when the death rate was considerably higher. It is easy to forget what things people once thought were unhealthy or what they thought medicinal. Even if you do not agree with these ideas, your characters probably would.
What diseases did people suffer from? What factors did they believe caused diseases? How did they treat diseases? What did they call the diseases (many diseases in the past went by different names than they do now; for example, cancer was often called ‘a cancer’ a hundred years ago, and TB was usually called tuberculosis or consumption.)
Food
Not only was food different in the past, meals were as well. Electric lighting allowed people to eat later in the evening after its invention, and electric stoves allowed for more hot meals in the summer.
What kinds of food did people eat (Black bread, candy bars, margarine?)? How many meals did they have? What did they call their meals? What food names were different? What importance did food have? How much did average people eat? Were they typically happy about the amount they got?
Economics
It can be easy to give your character far more money or free time than he would have had at a certain time in a certain social class. In many eras, money was always a primary consideration.
Were the majority of people poor or well-off? What did people do for a living? How much was money worth? How common was money? What did people spend most of their money on? What importance did money have for them?
Clothing
A character’s clothing can influence the way he does things, or even the possibility of his doing them. Keep this in mind when writing action scenes.
What kinds of clothes did people wear? What colours? What names did clothes go by? What would have been thought improper or unacceptable in clothing? What was thought old-fashioned or unstylish? What did poor people wear? What did rich people wear? How much clothing did people typically have? What importance did clothes have?
World Views/Value Systems
Historical fiction is often used as a medium to propagate the author’s (generally very modern) views of the world. Or, the author may believe that because he has no moral principles, his characters don’t need them, either. While it is true that people are at heart the same in every time period, it is also true that one’s culture, training, and experience influences his world view. If he was not taught rather idiotic and irrational views of the world, he may possibly invent them for himself but unless he is of the imaginative sort it is not extremely likely that he would do so. Few things date a book so obviously as the world views and value systems of the characters.
How did people look at the world? What did they think was important? What place did religion take? Did people lean more towards superstition or science? What behaviours would not have been tolerated culturally?
Writing Style
We place this area last because it is the most easily overlooked. A historical novel correct in every other point may still feel as if it belonged in a different time period because of the style of the author. On the other hand, a novel written as novels were commonly written during the time it is set in better transports a reader into that time period. The best way to capture the style of the time is to read books written during the period you are interested in, and when writing a story, you ought to immerse yourself in literature. We have always found that our writing reflects the style of the author we have read most recently. This is not a bad thing, necessarily, for mimicry is important to developing your own writing style. The greatest problem with this approach is that if you start a new book while still writing the same story, you may end up with several different writing styles in one book. We have done this many times with mixed results.
History is a setting just as much as geographic location is. The only difference is that, while you may be vague about where your story is set, you typically must be rather definite about when. Research is important, so when setting a story in a particular era, study that era by reading (fiction and non-fiction), visiting museums, talking to people from that era (if possible), or even watching films—but only if they were actually made during the time you are writing about. Movies tend to change history even more than novels do.
But most importantly, read what was written at the time. Museums may misrepresent facts, people’s memories may be faulty, but extant writings are pieces of the past available for an author's perusal and instruction.
