Lesson No. 3: Historic Characters in Historic Novels

How often have you heard people discussing their favorite book and mention how much they loved the characters? The question to ask them, and yourself, is why? Why did they love the characters? Most people will remark that the characters felt so real, so lifelike, or that they even felt like friends. Maybe the character was so wretched, but still memorable, like Frankenstein’s monster. Or maybe the character gave the reader a sense of renewed purpose or courage, like King Arthur or Bilbo Baggins. Maybe this character was based upon one or more historic characters.

Question: Who is your favorite character and why?

As writers it is our job to evoke incredible, memorable characters into our stories. Characters are integral to the story, and with good characters, your readers will be willing to follow you to the end of the book, and perhaps to the next.

Let’s start by considering: what makes a good character, and more importantly how to make them real and memorable?

Getting Started with Historic Characters

Where do good characters come from? Your imagination. It is your job as the writer to expand your boundaries and reach to the outer limits to bring back a worthy protagonist. Lazy writers copy and use devices already seen a hundred times over. The goal is to create a character that will look and act different than any other. How is this accomplished? By spending the necessary time to flesh out a character.

Some things you’ll want to consider when creating your historical characters are:

  • Character name
  • Age
  • Height, weight
  • Birthday, birthplace
  • Martial status
  • Religion/spirituality
  • Race/nationality
  • Class (upper, lower, middle, other)
  • Educational background
  • Occupation, apprenticeship
  • Place in community
  • Best friend
  • Relationships
  • Enemies
  • Family members
  • Parent’s education/occupation
  • Home life
  • Temperament
  • Superstitions
  • Ambitions
  • What the character wants and why
  • Philosophy in life
  • Hobbies
  • Skills and talents

This list is hardly complete, but will give you a place to start in fleshing out a rounded character. For historical novels, (as with any fiction), the key is to have the research behind it. So for instance, if the character is an apprentice, what kind? Where? Who is he/she apprenticed to? What is the pay? … the list of questions goes on and on. You may not need to know everything about apprenticeship, only what is needed to convey the character, and the build the story around it. But the more you know, the more likely you are to convince your reader.

It’s important, even in choosing your character’s name, to get the historic detail correct.

Tips for Making Well-Rounded Characters

  1. Give your character a purpose, a motivation.
  2. Make your character shine with moments of being human. Show their vulnerability.
  3. Make them real by giving them traits your readers will relate with, and find a mirror of themselves.
  4. Make your character sympathetic to the trials and tribulations of those around them.
  5. Give your character Voice is a unique signature, one that makes them sound different than the rest. This can be achieved through dialogue and manners. It is directed by how your character sees the world.

Exercise: To get you started thinking about your characters, fill out the following the following character information sheet; then incorporate the ones that mean something to you, into your fiction. Character sheet. (It should be a lot of fun to consider–feel free to add you own to the list). 

You can also read a great article on POV and Narrative Voice here: Point of View and Narrative Voice. (Source: http://teenwriting.about.com/library/weekly/aa111102e.htm)

Readings

The two chapters assigned for the reading, Innocent Traitor by Allison Weir and Song of Achilles by Madelline Miller. are great examples of strong, well-rounded characters. Both should serve you in considered character. Pay attention to which details make you, as the reader, feel like you’re in the past.

Reading Questions

  • How did the author successfully convey the historical characters?
  • What character traits were you drawn to that made you feel in the time period?
  • What didn’t work for you?
  • Was there a point where you felt out of the time period?

 

Submit for Individualized Feedback

  • Submit your work for developmental editing, line editing, copy editing, editorial assessment and more at Reedsy.com, where hundreds of experienced, awarded writers and editors are ready to read your work and help you make it the best it can be.

     

 

Colleen Morrissey is an author, scholar, and teacher from Omaha, Nebraska. She achieved her B.A. in English at the University of Iowa and her M.A. in English literature at the University of Kansas. She is currently working toward her Ph.D. in English Literature at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Her dissertation, which she will defend in spring 2018, explores 19th-century British literature and culture. She was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 2014 and has been a Best American Short Stories Notable. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Southeast Review, Cincinnati Review, Monkeybicycle (print and audio), and others; her creative nonfiction has appeared in Confrontation; her scholarly writing is forthcoming in the Iowa Journal for Cultural Studies and an edited volume on British women writers; her poetry has appeared in Parcel and Blue Island Review.

Lesson No. 2: Historic Settings in Historic Novels

As we turn now to looking closer at historic settings, there are a couple of things to take into consideration. In one sense, to successfully replicate a place in the past, it’s the goal to weave a careful balance of details into the setting. Often the piece can end up being too weighted with the facts. There is nothing worse when you spot a writer trying to use all their research. Not everything you learn/research will go in to creating setting.

 

Historic Settings You Know

We’ll look at two kinds of historic settings. The first, and easiest, is the setting of places that you are already familiar with, without having lived in the historical past. This would be general places, a lake, a mountain, a beach house. Having been to these places in the present, you can assume quite a lot. The key, however, is to make considerations for the past. For instance, you might create a scene where the setting is a log cabin in the Concord woods, circa 1800s. You can make assumptions, what trees and wildlife might be present, (maples, oaks, blue jays). The element of adjustment might be the size of the trees—maybe they are first-growth and bigger, or a certain species of fish or bird will inhabit the trees, but are now extinct.

Reconstruction Setting

The other kind of setting is called reconstruction. It is when you fully attempt to reconstruct a particular place in the past. Queen Elizabeth’s bedroom. A Dust Bowl mother’s sod home. This is where research comes into play, and as it becomes available to you, you can then incorporate it into the piece.

One essential consideration is to pick items in the setting that will in turn accentuate your characters, while at the same time coloring the story. So if we were looking at reconstructing Queen Elizabeth’s bedroom, we would want to look at her jewelry or keepsakes, rather than what color the bedspread is. Period details are also key. Rather than say there is a chair, you might describe a particular decoration on the chair popular in her time.

If you’re lucky to visit an actual home, or the location, it will serve you greatly in reconstructing a historic setting. For instance, I was surprised in visiting an 18th century home how the floor slanted so much, or how cold the rooms were, even with huge fireplaces.

Photographs are also tools to help with the process, or maps.

Mood and Setting

Mood is another key element in setting. Here is another place where imagination and assumption can help inform the fiction. Unless you can visit a sod home, you might not know what it actually felt like to be in one. Was it really cold in the winter, or was it, with a good fire, very warm? Was it dark? Did it stink? Were there bugs everywhere or mice? You could search out Dust Bowl narratives to answer some of these questions, but you might also allow the character to decide. Say the sod house is immensely dark, then you might have your character reflect, “Despite the darkness, the lack of windows to shed normal light into our home, I felt like the room was brightened with the news of a new baby girl.”

Mood and setting go hand-in-hand. As you draw in the details, what you deem important to evoke, will create mood.

Details That Inform

Other things to consider in the setting are elements that show rather than tell key information. I think it’s important to let the reader know right away what the time period is, where it is, and so forth. But you don’t want to always rely on a calendar on the wall, or the character saying, “What’s today’s date? Is it October 31, 1942?” So how can you use the setting to inform the story?

Find a few items that are particular only to that time period. For instance, if you are writing in 1876, you could easily remark or include your characters witnessing (or hearing about) Bell’s first transmission of the telephone. Lighting is another way of denoting time period—oil, lantern, electricity, and so forth. Church bells, holidays, events can also be used to show the reader the time period. “Elizabeth’s coronation was put off when her rival, Queen Mary, led a rebellion into the town square…” The reader can assume it is around 1558, or at the least, that it is Tudor England.

See what you learn from this example: “Outside, the children run door-to-door in costumes. A pirate with a real oil lantern came running to my door. I gave him a caramel apple and a shiny button to replace the one missing from his shoe.”

Hill Beyond the Hill

Let’s look at another concept, one I call, “hill beyond the hill.” When you’re drawing out setting, you want to not only include the immediate area, but also what is outside and around it, essentially what is on the next hill, and the hill after that, and the hill after that. Your reader will love you, if you allow them to see the big picture.

Using the Dust Bowl woman’s sod house, as an example, we can start the setting with the house. But what is around it? A garden? A road… where does the road lead? Is the road dirt or one through the tall grass? Where is the nearest town? What does the woman see when she looks out her door? Who are her neighbors?

Even if you aren’t sure, or the character isn’t sure, you can make assumptions. “Dahlia couldn’t see a single neighbor, and only heard it rumored that there might be one three miles east of the dirt trail that led to a family burial ground.”

Final Thoughts

Setting is the tool in a historic piece to give the reader the authentic feeling of transportation—the more real you can make it, the more your reader will truly feel they are in authoritative hands. The key is to shade and color the piece, rather than weigh it down with too many facts and relics. Allow your imagination to fill in the information you don’t know. If you aren’t sure about something leave it off. Better to not include something that to have it be wrong. I once stuck a peanut wagon in a story, before peanuts were popular on streets! The newspaper would’ve been the safer thing.

Readings

The two chapters assigned for the reading, Gone With the Wind and Jean M. Auel – 1 – The Clan Of The Cave Bear will serve you when considering historical detail and presenting setting. Pay attention to which details make you, as the reader, feel like you’re in the past. Mitchell recreates the Civil War south in the late 1800s, while Auel takes to the prehistoric era.

Reading Questions

 (Answers can be informal, in paragraph form, and no more than two pages. Make sure to back up your claims with examples from the book.)

  • How did the author successfully convey the historical period?
  • What details were you drawn to that made you feel in the time period?
  • What didn’t work for you?
  • Was there a point where you felt out of the time period?

 

Submit for Individualized Feedback

  • Submit your work for developmental editing, line editing, copy editing, editorial assessment and more at Reedsy.com, where hundreds of experienced, awarded writers and editors are ready to read your work and help you make it the best it can be.

     

 

Colleen Morrissey is an author, scholar, and teacher from Omaha, Nebraska. She achieved her B.A. in English at the University of Iowa and her M.A. in English literature at the University of Kansas. She is currently working toward her Ph.D. in English Literature at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Her dissertation, which she will defend in spring 2018, explores 19th-century British literature and culture. She was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 2014 and has been a Best American Short Stories Notable. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Southeast Review, Cincinnati Review, Monkeybicycle (print and audio), and others; her creative nonfiction has appeared in Confrontation; her scholarly writing is forthcoming in the Iowa Journal for Cultural Studies and an edited volume on British women writers; her poetry has appeared in Parcel and Blue Island Review.

Lesson No. 1: Researching a Historic Novel

Historic Fiction: A Possible Definition

Historic Fiction is fiction that is informed by the past. It can be based on a historic person, an event, an artifact, or an era. Whether you are writing a historic novel or short story, people, events, artifacts and place, collectively, are essential to your research.

There are plenty of variants in historic fiction. Some stories choose to focus on a historic figure, like a biography, and stick to the chronological history, to recreate the person’s life on the page. Other stories might throw a new angle on a person’s life, (based on new research) and create new scenarios and possibilities. A recent example of this is Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl. Other stories recreate famous battles, and introduce readers to a variety of characters both actual and fictional, like Stephen Pressfield’s Gates of Fire, which recreates the Battle of Thermopylae.

The Other Boleyn Girl: “Spring 1521”

I could hear a roll of muffled drums. But I could see nothing but the lacing on the bodice of the lady standing in front of me, blocking my  view of the scaffold. I had been at this court for more than a year and attended hundreds of festivities; but never before one like this. 

By stepping to one side a little and craning my neck, I could see the condemned man, accompanied by his priest, walk slowly from the Tower toward the green where the wooden platform was waiting, the block of wood placed center stage, the executioner dressed al ready for work in his shirtsleeves with a black hood over his head. It looked ore like a masque than a real event, and I watched it as if it were a court entertainment. The king, seated on his throne, looked distracted, as if he was running through his speech of forgiveness in his head. Behind him stood my husband of one year, William Carey, my brother, George, and my father, Sir Thomas Boleyn, all looking grave. I wriggled my toes inside my silk slippers and wished the king would hurry up and grant clemency so that we could all go to breakfast. I was only thirteen years old, I was always hungry….

Another example, and less definable as historic fiction, is the contemporary novel that includes a historical character or other element of the past. The Red Violin film, for instance, deals with a single artifact, despite being a contemporary story, which gives it the feel of a historic one. A popular technique used by contemporary writers is to weave the past with the present, often alternating chapters. One character lives in present day, uncovering a mystery from the past, while the other character is in the past. Examples are Timeline by Michael Crichton and Labyrinth by Kate Mosse.

There is, however, a difference between a story that takes place in the past and historic fiction. Simply placing a story in the past doesn’t mean it will necessarily be infused with historic detail. It is the same with science fiction (or fiction that is informed with future scenarios and scientific knowledge), which often doesn’t contain any science, but gets lumped into the category by publishers. It’s a gray area. But there are differences.

For this course we’ll focus mostly on historic fiction that is informed with historical detail. Fiction that not only takes place in the past, but is well researched, and evokes the time period with impeccable detail.

One other point to consider, novels that were written in the past, don’t qualify as historic fiction, unless they are actually written about the past. An example would be Tolstoy’s War & Peace, which was written about the recent past, with concrete research and facts. While Charles Dickens’ Hard Time, although it now feels like a historic novel since it informs the present about the working industrial class, was written as a contemporary novel.

How to Research a Historic Novel

Research is the defining element in historic fiction. The more you can get at the history, the more you can inform your own work. But where do you start and what are the sources?

A historical fiction writer is much like a historian who is looking to bring out the truest form of a particular topic in history. A historical fiction writer is also like a detective. You need to delve into the past and sort out what is trustworthy, accurate, as well as informative.

Historical Evidence: Informing Your Fiction

In order to fictionalize the past, you have to know something about it. You need evidence and information. In historical study, there are two basic forms of historical evidence: primary and secondary sources.

Primary sources, are the most important evidence, and the first thing you want to find. Primary sources are considered the truest source, the actual words that someone may’ve used to witness an event. It is information unbiased or interpreted by someone else, the raw form. Examples of primary sources are diaries, notebooks, letters, newspapers, and interviews.

Other places to find primary sources are:

  • Royal decrees
  • Official records or statistics that records births, deaths, marriages, taxes, deeds, court records
  • Laws
  • Political party platforms
  • Church edicts
  • Photographs
  • Films
  • Artifacts (houses, tools, weapons, etc.)

Secondary sources, on the other hand, are findings that someone did not witness, but who may’ve done research and interpreted the events. Most history books are second-hand accounts of the actual events. The Midwives Tale by L. T. Ulrich is an example. Ulrich studied a particular town and the goings-on of the midwife to piece together a historical account of her life. She used primary research in her findings, but the assimilation of the information makes it a secondary source.

As a historical writer, secondary sources can save you a lot of time in researching information; however, it’s not a substitute. Because the information is interpreted or explained for you, often by someone with a particular thesis in mind, you may miss valuable information, not included.

Which To Start With?

If you have a topic you want to write about, but don’t know much about it, then a secondary source might be the place to start. You gain by the experience of the author, who used primary research, to give you an overview of the time period/event/person. You can also use the bibliography to look up further sources, especially primary evidence.

At some point, however, it will be a value to your work to review primary sources. Let’s say you’re writing about the antebellum south. While secondary sources will give you an overview of events, going to actual narratives will allow you a better window into the real people that lived.

Both have a purpose. Often, with primary sources, you find pieces of research that others may not have discovered. You can find historical details (food, dress) or the culture of ideas (philosophy, beliefs). Primary sources will also allow you a window into dialect, slang, popular phrases, and so forth.

Over the course of your fiction writing you will most likely encounter and use both.

Where To Find Primary and Secondary Sources for Writing Your Historic Novel?

  • Historical societies
  • Newspapers
  • Library
  • Museums
  • Lectures, classroom
  • Oral history projects
  • Government organizations
  • Journal articles
  • Atlases
  • Historical Statistics
  • Archives
  • Artwork, photos
  • Archaeological sites
  • Genealogy records
  • Colleges
  • Research centers
  • Local people

Online sources

While Wikipedia offers a snapshot and perhaps a place to get a general idea of a particular subject, it shouldn’t be used as the sole source for your work. When writing fiction, (any fiction) you want to be original and unique. Accessing information that is readily accessible may not give you an edge on the next historical writer.

Check the validity of online sources. There are plenty of historical databases and primary sources online and available. Often, colleges will host collections, along with museums. See list for examples.

Online sources for research:

Organizing research

Depending on the scope of your fiction (short story, novel) will depend on how much research you wish to procure. For a short story, it might be enough to use a spreadsheet to organize information. For a novel, however, since the research will take place over many months, it is best to devise a system of organization that works for you at the beginning. You might start a notebook (on the computer) with tabs. Some people put up maps, and use visual boards to collect information or both.

I use a variety of methods. I use pictures, maps, photos for visual research, and I also organize both a paper notebook and a computer file of research, categorized by the essentials. The research can grow rapidly or slowly, but either way, you want to have enough room to store it. Folders are important, and keeping a notepad to take notes on the go is also essential. You never know when you encounter a detail worth remembering.

Some categories that I think are essential to researching are as follows:

  • Traditions/customs (What did they celebrate? What were their traditions?)
  • Dress and appearance (What did they wear?)
  • Food and drink (What did they eat, drink, and how was it prepared?)
  • Landscape (What did the area look like?)
  • Nature (Wildlife, trees, plants)
  • Money
  • Government
  • Daily life (very general, but anything that lends to the average day lived.)
  • Weapons, law enforcement, wars, prison, etc.
  • Transportation (How did they get around?)
  • Mercantile (What businesses existed?)
  • Light sources (how is the room being lit)

You may wish to set up a filing system with these headers, or similar ones that work for you. As you begin to acquire research, you can easily split up the information into the sections. To begin, I think it’s most important to have an idea of the dress and daily life. It will help define the character from the beginning, and allow you details to inform the first few scenes.

Cautions with research

Is there ever an end to research? Probably not. All it takes is to send your character into a place that you have no knowledge about, and you’re right back at it again. I have a character that needed to take a boat and then needed to find out something about sailing.

There is a point, however, when too much research can become overwhelming, or that the research takes the place of writing. I often split my day up with writing in the morning and researching at night. This way, the writing doesn’t get lost. Sometimes, I have to stop in the middle of a scene to work out something, but I stay focused, find what I need and get back to work.

Another caution is to not feel you have to use everything. Most of the research is for your benefit. Most won’t even be used. But the more you know, the more you can inform the work. As an example, I have a huge list of ancient Greek foods, for all occasions, like during battle, festivals, and daily life. Most I will never use. But I have more control when I’m writing to offer variations when it comes to mealtime. Sometimes it’s not even important to mention what is being eaten.

Too much detail can kill a piece. As you begin to build your own catalog, you’ll start to see what details you feel excited about and which ones aren’t so important. Is it important to know that a queen’s dress was stitched in gold? Maybe, if you want to show her regal nature, or to elevate her above the common people. But do we need to know the actual stitching pattern? Probably not. Not unless the main character is a seamstress.  

Research Discovery

One of the most exciting moments in writing historic fiction is when the research and your imagination come together to inform the plot. You might find a detail no one has ever considered, and it sends you in an unpredictable way. Sometimes the history forces the story down a path you didn’t see. These are the ah-ha moments. Be prepared.

Another Caution

Sometimes it is hard to stay too close to the research. We are writing fiction. You want to stay as close to the actual as possible. But at times, it’s just not feasible. You’ll need to keep a balance. Obvious errors would be having your character riding on a train when the train wasn’t invented yet. Or if your character is munching on peanuts, and they weren’t available in that era.

The research should help you, not restrict you. If you get stuck, go with your instinct in telling the story. The key is that as you assimilate the research into the fiction, you essentially create your own world.

Getting Started

For the first week, you’ll be asked to start your research catalog on a historical era/person of interest. (Personally, this is the fun part!) You should select at least one primary document, and from it begin to make a historic “catalog.” These might include personal traits and details, information about setting and time period–anything that you can then use in your fiction. (Use list above for examples).

Once you have a little bit to go on, you should attempt to write some fiction incorporating the research. It need not be a full on story with a plot. It can be short and focused on one item or place.

Let’s say you’re interested in writing about Ben Franklin. You might choose to read his autobiography (primary source). In it you see he started a philosophy club. It sparks your interest. You make a list of details about the club, (when it meets, who attends, where, how often, what the building looks like). From there you should be able to write a short piece about the club and meeting. You might need to fill in the blanks on setting. But at the least, you can reconstruct the place and Franklin’s presence as the organizer. Further, (since Franklin’s autobiography is filled with an array of characters) you might also be able to show the street outside, the different people in town that might stop by, his wife, and so on.

From there, as you write, your imagination takes over. You never know where it will lead. Don’t be afraid of discovery.

Place Holders

Place holders are just that. You may not know every detail as you’re writing. So you put something in and go back to it. I often use the word BLANK throughout the document and search it to find where I left them, and replace them with new information as I glean it. Whatever you don’t know, leave it for another time. Just keep writing.

Writing Exercise

  1. Create a mini catalog of historic details (bulleted or in a spreadsheet is fine). It doesn’t need to be a complete sentence. It can simply be “notes,” like, “offering, olive branches cut, then fire started, oxen killed.”
  2. A short fiction piece (500-1500 words and up) incorporating historic details.

 

Submit for Individualized Feedback

  • Submit your work for developmental editing, line editing, copy editing, editorial assessment and more at Reedsy.com, where hundreds of experienced, awarded writers and editors are ready to read your work and help you make it the best it can be.

     

 

Colleen Morrissey is an author, scholar, and teacher from Omaha, Nebraska. She achieved her B.A. in English at the University of Iowa and her M.A. in English literature at the University of Kansas. She is currently working toward her Ph.D. in English Literature at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Her dissertation, which she will defend in spring 2018, explores 19th-century British literature and culture. She was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 2014 and has been a Best American Short Stories Notable. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Southeast Review, Cincinnati Review, Monkeybicycle (print and audio), and others; her creative nonfiction has appeared in Confrontation; her scholarly writing is forthcoming in the Iowa Journal for Cultural Studies and an edited volume on British women writers; her poetry has appeared in Parcel and Blue Island Review.