Making Historical Fiction Readable

     Often, readers avoid historical fiction because they say they get “bogged down” in all the details. I understand that because I, too, have decided not to read a book when it seemed overloaded with historical details. That’s why as a writer, I’ve tried to avoid getting too excited about all the things I learn in doing my research to write a novel in which the action takes place long ago.  I want to share a few ways that I’ve learned to avoid dumping too much history into my historical novels. 

     First of all, I’ve learned that it works better if I have the plot worked out before I write the first draft. That way I know what parts of my research will be important. In Becoming Jestina, although the story took place during WWII, I didn’t need to focus too much on the war because my main character was much more focused on her work as a welder in the Shipyard in Savannah, Georgia. However, when she and her mother or sister listened to the news on the radio, I needed to know what would have been news during that time. 

     Second, I’ve learned that I need to build a believable world for my readers. While it is true that novelists don’t need to beat the reader over the head with a history lesson, it is important to create a world that is true to how characters would have thought, what they had to do, and where they would have gone and how they would have travelled

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      The third thing I’ve learned is that if my character is based on an actual person, what he does and says should always reflect the character and personality of the actual person. It doesn’t have to be something that they actually said or did, because it is fiction.

 

       Basically, when writing historical fiction, I have learned to create scenes that would have been possible given what was available at the time and likely given the kind of character and personality of the actual person I’m writing about. 

The Truth About Katie

     When I look for a book on the shelf in a bookstore, I often pay attention to both title and the general looks of the cover. I think I was lucky when I published The Truth About Katie because my publisher actually let me choose the cover photo from a website she subscribed to, and I found the one for the book. But even before that I chose the title, not from a quote, but just  because of the situation. My character had disappeared, leaving her husband and family. They had not heard from her for a couple of years, but then she showed back up and reunited with her family. As you can imagine, she was not well-received by some of her neighbors. But the reader soon learns that even she is questioning why she “panicked” and ran away from home. The reader is taken on a journey with her to investigate her past and learn why it happened. The title makes the reader curious, and the cover adds to the mystery and fits in well with what the character learns about her past. 

    Sometimes all we know about a book is its title. Recently someone gave me a book title and said, "I'm not sure who the author is," but it's a good book. Sometimes a title helps the reader to become interested. As writers, it's always important to give a lot of thought to the choosing of a title. When I mention The Truth About Katie, people almost always want to know more, and I consider that a good thing.

The Title May Be Important

     Since I spoke of the title of one of my books in the last blog post, I wanted to follow up regarding titles of books and poems. For a long time, I’ve been fascinated by titles. When I started writing novels, I realized again how important a title can be. 

    In my next few blog posts, I would like to share with you my reasons for selecting the titles of my novels. Let’s just begin with my first novel, The Welsh Harp. Now you may be thinking, “Well, now there’s nothing complicated (or even important) about that title.” And you may be right, but I chose that name for a reason. As I’ve told many of my readers, this story is based on a history my husband Bill’s aunt wrote about their family’s journey from Wales to the U.S. in the early 1900’s. I didn’t meet his aunt until the 1960’s, when I started dating Bill. I went to her house often, and there was a harp (a photograph of it is on the cover of the novel) sitting in the corner of her living room. I don’t remember her ever talking about it, and as far as I know, she never played it, but she was an accomplished musician and taught piano to many children in the little town where she lived. 

    According to her history, she was a young girl, maybe eleven or twelve when the family came to live in Southeastern Kentucky and the dad and sons worked in the coal mines for several years. They had been coal miners in Wales and thought the mines in the U. S. were safer. Anyway, when I decided to write the novel, I decided to make the young girl the main character in the story. The harp was the perfect item to stand as a symbol for what the girl wanted to do. She wanted to learn to play the harp. 

Our Pebble in the Pond

 

    One of my best books is often overlooked, and I’m not sure why, but maybe it’s because it features homeless people as characters. The title, Our Pebble in the Pond, is based on a quote by an American journalist and social activist, Dorothy Day, which impressed me, but may not reflect the thoughts and feelings of some of my readers. It is quoted in the front of the book, but I’ll provide it here: “What we would like to do is change the world—make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended for them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, of the poor, of the destitute...we can, too a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever-widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing that we can do but love, and dear God, please enlarge out hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend.”

    When I was writing the book, I came upon Dorothy Day's quote and realized that it reflected so much of what I’d learned as I’ve interacted with people in the homeless shelter that was named for my husband in 2003 (William S. Davies Shelters in Rome, Georgia. While the situation in my book is completely fiction, it reflects some of the things I’ve learned about homeless people and the way we tend to think of them.

    If you get a chance, and haven’t read Our Pebble in the Pond, I encourage you to read it, and let me know what you think! If you live in Rome, it is available at Dogwood Books and Georgia's Rome Gift Shop. Otherwise, you can find it on Amazon.

A Bit of Flash Fiction

 

Trying her best not to look homeless, Jessica made her way down the street past several stores. It was early enough in the morning that no one saw her come out of the alley where she had slept. She thought the nice woman had given her enough money yesterday to buy her breakfast at the little place three blocks from where she’d slept. If she could just get a good breakfast maybe she would have the energy to go for another interview today. She might even be able to get a job at one of the stores which were on the next block. She knew the clothing store was out because she looked too bad, but maybe they would hire her at the hardware store or the pet store on down the street. She’d even take a job cleaning up one of the stores if they’d hire her.

Soon she saw the little place where she planned to eat breakfast. She noticed that several people were standing outside the place. What was going on? As she got closer, she realized there was a long line waiting to get in. They must have really good food. As she got in line, some of the people seemed to move away from her, making her think she may have smelled from not having a bath lately. The line moved slowly, but finally they got in the door. Smells of delicious eggs and bacon were evident inside the little restaurant. People were talking to one another now, asking what they were getting to eat. After what seemed like another half hour, she was at the counter ready to order. “What would you like?” asked the lady at the counter. She looked up at the menu and realized that there was no item that the five dollar bill in her hand would buy. “Oh, I don’t believe I need anything this morning,” said Jessica as she turned away. Just as she turned around an older looking woman in the line behind her looked up at her and handed her a five dollar bill. "Here honey," she said. "Why don't you and I have breakfast together?"

 

World Building Is for Me, Too!

 

Most of the time when I see “World Building” as a break-out session at a writing conference, I assume it is designed for the science fiction or fantasy writers, and for the most part I may be right. However, world-building is often also important for literary fiction writers, especially if they’re writing historical fiction. First of all, it helps if writers of historical fiction understand that their readers don’t want a course in the history of a period in time, but they do want the story they are reading to reflect what could have happened during that time period. It’s important to focus the research for the story on what would have been possible at that time. Since we often become so accustomed to our own period in time, it’s easy to over look some things. I can think of two examples in my last novel where I overlooked this fact.

            Fortunately, the first one was identified early by one of my readers. I had one of my characters make a phone call on his way home from the western part of the U.S. in the mid-1930’s. One of my readers said, “I don’t think his family would have had a phone at that time.” It didn’t take me long to determine that she was right, so I made a change in what he did.                              Another example, in the same novel, was identified after publication. Although most readers would overlook it, as I did, there’s always one or two. After reading the book, my brother-in-law said, “I found a mistake in the book. You said the character bought a 1929 model of a car that they had already stopped making by then. Now, I could have easily avoided that mistake by just saying he drove that model of car, which would have solved the problem, but I didn’t! Research can be helpful, but thankfully, writers only have to research what they actually include in their descriptions. Often, it’s easy to avoid errors with a slight altering of what is said. It is important, however, to do your research and build a world where your events could have happened.