Reading Historical Fiction: Is This Story Really True?

 

    As I anticipate the release of Tulsa Times, I am reminded of the questions I often get regarding my other two historical novels (The Welsh Harp and Becoming Jestina), both of which were inspired by real events in an earlier time. People who know a little about the real events surrounding a novel called “historical fiction” often wonder which events and conversations are factual and which are not. I thought it might be helpful to my readers to know how I view my task as a writer.

 

    As an overall understanding, if it’s called a novel, it’s fiction. That means that much of what happens will be created by the author to further the storyline. You know that scenes and conversations are not limited to what was actually said and done. That being said, it takes a lot of research to write historical fiction. The following paragraphs give you some of the particular guidelines I follow in writing my historical novels.

 

    First, as a general rule, I try to create scenes that could have happened. For example, if my character goes shopping in town, I make sure that the store in which she or he shops was actually on that street at that time, or if I say that she was walking down a certain street and the sun was in her eyes, I make sure the sun shines in that direction at that time. It often takes lots of research to determine what could have happened. 

 

    Secondly, if a character based on a real person, I try to have him/her do and say things that stay true to the person’s character. In some cases that is a challenge because I may not know the character as well as others, but I know that if I get it wrong, some reader out there will say that “he would never have done that.”

 

     Third, and probably the most difficult, I try to think about the general attitudes of the time in which my story takes place. Attitudes that we accept as normal today may be very different than those in the early 1900s (The Welsh Harp) or in the 1940’s (Becoming Jestina). One of the things I struggled with in writing Tulsa Times was the prevailing attitudes towards divorce, which were very different from those in the twenty-first century.

 

    The fourth, and the most obvious guideline I follow is that any well-known historical event must be reflected in the right time period. For example, in writing Becoming Jestina, I had to know the dates of different battles in World War II (which took some work on my part!).  Whether it was what the characters heard on the radio, or exactly what they were doing when they heard that the war was over, I tried to make it an accurate reflection of the real events.

 

    This gives you a picture of how I view my task as a writer of historical fiction. I think each author approaches the subject differently, so not all writers may agree with me.