My Workshop at the inaugural Grassroots Writers' Gathering in Dorrigo April 2014 © Wendy Laharnar
Introduction
For many centuries History was written for a purpose -- to
praise people, justify actions or teach values, among other reasons. In the
late 19th century, some scholars began to reject the kind of history that
became common in the European Enlightenment. Instead of writing history
"with a purpose," they began to follow the lead of a German historian
named Leopold Von Ranke who said historians should "simply show how it
really was." http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his480/lectures/500fact.htm
As a Historian, the writer owes it to his reader to be as
accurate as possible, but at the same time we need to maintain interest for the
reader. The best way to do this is to take the broad picture and hone in on the
individual. Make it personal.
As Historical Fiction writers we can do both. We can
manipulate history, showing either the glossy and/or bleak version of the
‘fact’, even turn history on its head or we can be true to history by showing
both sides.
However, unless you have created a different world in a
different time and transported people out of their own reality, there are some
things you can’t make up, you should get them right: dates, events, well-known
people, battles, ships’ names, aircraft types, countries. They are easy to
check.
Often, it’s the little things you hear in passing that give
a story zing. You should note them for future use, like the first carrots were
purple; in New Guinea
table salt turns to paste in the heat and leather shoes go mouldy after three
weeks, so everyone wears plastic.
When the research you seek to prove you right, doesn’t, you
can still find your way around it. I came across the inventor of meringue in
the 17th Century, Gasparini, and wanted to use the info, but that
cook was much later than my character from 1307AD. I used it anyway. I gave my
character the same surname, Gasparin, and figured there was no reason to
believe my man was not the ancestor of the cook who, quite possibly, received
the secret recipe passed down through the family by my Gasparin; my novel is
fiction, after all. (I made a note of this in the glossary).
Historical Research - Why do we need to research?
- To broaden our knowledge on our preferred topic.
- To answer questions raised in the course of our story.
- To decide for ourselves what is truth, half truth, or myth. Did Marie Antoinette really say ‘let them eat cake’? Did King John really sign the Magna Carta? http://www.writespirit.net/greatest-historical-myths/
Or was Stone Henge really built by Druids?
http://listverse.com/2013/01/14/10-common-myths-about-famous-landmarks/
- To distinguish one era from another. Roman/medieval = different costumes.
Look at paintings of the times to note differences in appearance and dress.
- To explore an earlier philosophy, ethic, attitude. Paganism, Alchemy. The early Church.
- To explain religious and scientific misunderstandings and persecution and place them in context with the times. Dante (1265-1321), Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Galileo (1564-1642), Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834), WWI (1914-18), WWII (1939-45)
- To get ideas, not just for our main story but to nudge us when the story stalls.
- To be specific. Your reader is along for the ride of his life and wants to experience life as it was. He wants to see and hear the people, see and smell the place, taste the food and feel the texture of the buildings and clothes.
- To find the right word and the right spelling
- To get the facts right.
Superstitions. Be very careful in which country you place your black cat. e.g they bring good luck in Japan and bad luck in the USA.
Check song lyrics and quotation are correct. There are many misquoted quotations and who said it. http://www.dailywritingtips.com/16-misquoted-quotations/
Don’t misquote unless it’s clear you want the character to look foolish, not the author.
Check directions. A friend from WA had Bathurst (Central West NSW) east of Sydney but that put Bathurst in the Pacific Ocean. Understandable because, just as Sydneysiders, on the east coast, think in terms of land being in the west, she was used to thinking of land in the east.
- To authenticate our story, enlighten the reader and keep their trust.
- To avoid mistakes like:
In one book I edited the King began his rule a year earlier than he actually did and the wrong titles like ‘your eminence’ were applied to a lord rather than a cardinal. These are easy to check. Once the reader picks you up on a couple of obvious mistakes they won’t trust you and are likely to close the book or read on to see if they can find more mistakes but they are unlikely to read for the story value.
Using language or slang or makes of cars from the wrong era or country reduces the story’s credibility so does the wrong food, music, games, entertainment, customs.
Where to Look
Cemeteries and headstones
Archaeological digs, or artefacts in museums.
- Autobiographies
of those who lived through the event
- Old
newsreels
Question authorities
Church records
War records
Medical records
Dental records
Police records
Census records
Births, Deaths and Marriages
Ancestry.com for a fee - sometimes they have 14 day free trials.
Atlases –maps and nautical charts The boundaries have change many times throughout history, so have the names of the territories.
Original Botanical books – Flora and Fauna (No point adding an extinct animal to a different historical period.)
Old photos and original paintings, graffiti, etchings on walls
Visit the area for physical details of the landscape, walk inside and study castles and cathedrals, ancient ships, and museums general and specific (maritime, medical, costume, weapons and implements)
If you want to describe a crossbow it’s better to look at one (primary source) hold it, if possible, and describe it first hand. (take a photo to refresh your memory –that’s a secondary source.)
Walk among the ruins.
Contact people who live in the area. Ask them what they remember about the old days. Note the differences. Where was the smithy’s forge. Was there a water mill.
National Trust might have answers or point you in the right direction.
Local Historical Society might have access to some primary sources.
Education and resources
Old Properties and houses.
Original Costumes, clothes, samplers –for fabric and thread
Old recipe books – Recipes tell the ingredients available and cooking methods.
Antique shops - Furniture for materials used, ornaments, jewellery household goods.
Imagine, our mail and possessions could become someone’s primary source in the future.
Secondary Sources - Second hand information.
Newspaper archives, National
archives,
Ask descendents
National Trust guides have
information.
Online Societies– yahoo
groups lots of people keen to share their knowledge or local.
Contact a historical society
or Medieval re enactment society.
Copies of costumes and
samplers
Libraries
– BOOKS and Archives
Reads several text books on your era or
topic. Don’t rely on just one. That author might not be accurate. He might be
biased. Fortunately Shakespeare was not a historian because his works were
influenced by the need not to offend Elizabeth
1. If Richard III had been a Lancaster rather
than a York, Will,
most likely, would have been portrayed him more sympathetically.
High School text books have the basics in
history: timelines, work, games, every day events, torture, weapons –get the
dates right and if you are mentioning kings and historical figures make sure
they are in context. If you are writing in the Regency period, don’t give them
Victorian attitudes or let them wear medieval costumes.
Nursery rhymes have interesting histories.
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/
Some conflicting interpretations
e.g Ring a Ring a Rosie here http://listverse.com/2012/11/28/10-sinister-origins-of-nursery-rhymes/
Historical Texts. Some historians are less
respected than others so read many texts
Classical literature. We can’t rely on Shakespeare
for accuracy, but the satirists like Chaucer, Pope & Swift deal in hidden
truths. Dickens, Jane Austin, etc, who wrote of their own times do give us a
clear, perhaps biased, picture of the attitudes and show us what entertained
their own audiences.
Books by the ancient Greek and Roman
historians are insightful.
- Herodotus (484-425 BC), Greek,
known as ‘The Father of History’ and also ‘The Father of Lies’ is fascinating. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus
- Tacitus, considered to be one of
the greatest Roman historians, is known for his penetrating insights into the
psychology of power politics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus
Medical books for medical diseases and
terminology, treatments and implements.
Books on the use of herbs and ancient
healing methods.
Books
or websites on the History of Costume - http://darklady60.piczo.com/fashionthruthecenturies?cr=5&linkvar=000044
Historical novels and movies can help.
Someone researched these so they can be a third source to give you a sense of
the attitudes of the times but don’t rely too heavily on these. If they are
wrong in any aspect, you will be too.
Recipes in a novel might have come from
the author’s research or her imagination. Better to Google the recipe to and
double check your facts.
Music & Musical
Instruments add realism and set an era– e.g. monks choirs, minuet, jazz, rock
n’ roll, rap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lExW80sXsHs
https://www.google.com.au/#q=Music+through+the+ages
Search the web for specific topics and
the big historical events. Although Wikipedia is frowned upon as a reliable
resource, it’s a good place to start. Most of the articles cite the references
they used from books and provide links to extra online articles. This website is a good example of one family’s
history and a large collection of letters from the son, an Australian soldier
in WWI http://www.smythe.id.au/letters/viv_19.htm
Red Cross
and
Australian Gov – War Memorial website http://www.awm.gov.au/
The Pleasures and Pitfalls
Pleasures
Discovering information you need to make your story fit snugly into your chosen era.
Discovering new or little known facts to amaze you
Getting to know famous characters you’ve wondered about
Escaping the rat race of modern life for a few hours, weeks, months, years, depending on how many different tangents your research takes you.
Wonderful outings to great places
Meeting fascinating, well informed people
Making new friends in person and on line
Pitfalls
Not having a clear objective – know what you want answered.
Being rushed and misinformed.
Relying on someone else's research and later find they got it wrong and therefore you got it wrong.
Not being objective -- you might rely too heavily on bias, your own or the article's.
Allowing yourself to be sidetracked and spend too much time away from the actual writing.
e.g. while researching the daily life in a medieval monastery your interest is captured by the architecture and sculptures à the archangel Gabriel à after whom is named the angelica plant à which has healing properties much like …à
Becoming obsessed with research
Not knowing when enough is enough.
Including too much, or unnecessary, research information that bogs down the story and doesn’t carry the story forward.
Succumbing to the temptation to insert interesting back-story or fascinating information you might have just learnt, into the action and totally destroy the tension in your scene.
e.g. The noble lord stood before her, sword in hand, his gazed focused firmly on her heaving breast. She smiled, whipped off the beaded coif, *which had been fashioned for her mother, the queen, by the nuns in Cordial Abbey. The nuns had used the beads from their rosary under threatening orders from the king who gave his sacrilegious wife whatever she desired. Now the princess* shook out her long red hair and moved into the arms of the nobleman, determined to take her heart’s desire.
(coif: a woman's net hair covering or a nun's skull cap.)
Ho hum. Who cares? The story stopped dead in its tracks and placed me on the sidelines. Now, I’m more interested in the king’s ‘threatening orders’ and the ‘sacrilegious wife’. I’d be Googling this, if I hadn’t just made it up. J I lost interest in the scene with the princess when the tension broke at ‘*which’.
hg
Always keep a record of your links and books titles and page numbers. You will need them to check details and you won’t want to spend time searching for the item again. Some publishers ask for a bibliography to check your facts correct.
Discovering information you need to make your story fit snugly into your chosen era.
Discovering new or little known facts to amaze you
Getting to know famous characters you’ve wondered about
Escaping the rat race of modern life for a few hours, weeks, months, years, depending on how many different tangents your research takes you.
Wonderful outings to great places
Meeting fascinating, well informed people
Making new friends in person and on line
Pitfalls
Not having a clear objective – know what you want answered.
Being rushed and misinformed.
Relying on someone else's research and later find they got it wrong and therefore you got it wrong.
Not being objective -- you might rely too heavily on bias, your own or the article's.
Allowing yourself to be sidetracked and spend too much time away from the actual writing.
e.g. while researching the daily life in a medieval monastery your interest is captured by the architecture and sculptures à the archangel Gabriel à after whom is named the angelica plant à which has healing properties much like …à
Becoming obsessed with research
Not knowing when enough is enough.
Including too much, or unnecessary, research information that bogs down the story and doesn’t carry the story forward.
Succumbing to the temptation to insert interesting back-story or fascinating information you might have just learnt, into the action and totally destroy the tension in your scene.
e.g. The noble lord stood before her, sword in hand, his gazed focused firmly on her heaving breast. She smiled, whipped off the beaded coif, *which had been fashioned for her mother, the queen, by the nuns in Cordial Abbey. The nuns had used the beads from their rosary under threatening orders from the king who gave his sacrilegious wife whatever she desired. Now the princess* shook out her long red hair and moved into the arms of the nobleman, determined to take her heart’s desire.
(coif: a woman's net hair covering or a nun's skull cap.)
Ho hum. Who cares? The story stopped dead in its tracks and placed me on the sidelines. Now, I’m more interested in the king’s ‘threatening orders’ and the ‘sacrilegious wife’. I’d be Googling this, if I hadn’t just made it up. J I lost interest in the scene with the princess when the tension broke at ‘*which’.
hg
Always keep a record of your links and books titles and page numbers. You will need them to check details and you won’t want to spend time searching for the item again. Some publishers ask for a bibliography to check your facts correct.
My Research
My main purpose for writing this novel was to transport modern day High School students deep into History and let them experience medieval life for themselves. I also wanted to learn something for myself, so chose a legend I knew very little about.
I researched the Wilhelm Tell legend and decided I wanted to reinvent it because there are two sides to every story. Even tyrants have loved ones and there is a very fine line between the freedom fighter and the terrorist. So my hero is a descendent of the tyrant Governor Gessler, killed by Wilhelm Tell in the name of ‘freedom.’
I wrote eight chapters but the story stalled, so, I travelled to Switzerland…twice…to walk in Tell’s footsteps. Those areas became the primary source for my settings; the villages of Bürglen and Altdorf, the Hollow Way, the beautiful Lake Luzern and the snow covered Alps.
While there, I visited the Tell Museum and others in Altdorf and Zurich. I noted the reaction of my granddaughters – one, in winter, was unimpressed with the sharp dominating mountains so close and surrounding our narrow valley. She worried there’d be an avalanche and was happy to leave. The other, in summer, loved the area and would have stayed longer.
I approached a local woman who spoke some English and asked her a few questions. We frequently contact each other, now, by email. This contact with Connie made it possible for me to ask her more questions and double check landmarks. She also helped me with the language I used for authenticity. We have a lasting friendship.
From my observation, I realized I’d need herbal remedies, a monastery for the times, a dungeon and torture, an alchemist’s lab and an inn. These new elements led to more intensive research and a complete overhaul of the story. The plot took a new path (I did retain some of the original text but used it differently) and I had my comparison for the modern day and medieval attitudes, the town square and villages.
During the final edits, I abandoned the cards Stefan used in the dungeon for his magic tricks in 1307AD because I discovered ‘the first reference to cards in Europe was in Spain (1371) and cards were first described in detail in Switzerland in 1377 by a monk in Basle named John of Rheinfelden’. More research found the types of coins used at that time, so I used them instead.
I wondered, if I was sent back to 1307AD, like my pacifist, Stefan, what would I be most interested in? Convincing W. Tell not to kill the governor and prevent the legend from happening, for one thing. I’d want to meet the tyrant, Gov Gessler and see how the medieval nobles and peasants dressed and how they coped with the conflicting philosophies of Christianity and science when they still believed in pagan worship and alchemy. I’d want to experience life among the peasants and in a medieval monastery.
I discovered religious understanding was based on primitive knowledge, superstition and magic. e.g. They believed the universe was flat and a total solar eclipse was the angry eye of God. The clergy mistrusted alchemists, who were trying to learn through science and questioned the established church teaching. Would they believe me if I told them the truth? I found all of the research fascinating and spent many happy hours reading about alchemists and their craft as well as how our scientists believe wormholes work. That’s why it took years rather than months to complete the coming of age adventure story The Unhewn Stone. I miss the 14th century.
My Author page at MuseItUp Publishing. http://tinyurl.com/mgzm6h3
Amazon - The Unhewn Stone. http://tinyurl.com/77csqwh
My email is here. I'd love to talk to you about writing.