Historical Fiction Workshop: Week 2, Hi-Story

Jul 21, 201516 min read

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Published: Jul 21, 2015

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The lessons actually begin. Let's do this

This week we will be talking about not how to write accurate history, but how to write a story. Just because you chose a genre to write in doesn't mean the story element is somehow less important than the background your chose. It still has to be literature.

Lesson 2: Building a HistFic story

First, let's talk about what Historical Fiction is. A lot of people seem to think that if something is historical fiction, that it needs to revolve around a specific historical event. It doesn't. In fact, the fiction part of the genre allows you to invent your own. But remember, this isn't AU (that´s a whole different genre!). We're going to take a real setting, with real facts, and build a story from it. If you want to use a real event, that's fine. But if you are interested in a time period or general area, that's also fine.

Historical Fiction is hard because it requires so much research. You need to work a lot, read a lot about your period, research, write, scrap, research more, find out half of what you wrote was historically inaccurate, and so rewrite. Which may make you wonder, why bother writing it when you could set the story in the now? The first and most obvious reason is probably because you actually like history, so the research, while frustrating at times, is actually kind of fun. But more than that, history is important. Whether we are remembering a person or an event, history is our collective memory, and we need it as a benchmark for how far we've come, and what went wrong before so we can fix it.

The point of historical fiction goes one step further, it's not a book of straight facts. It's a story, so its goal is to connect with people, and to help them relate. I think, personally, that relating to the past gives you empathy in the now, and a story is a good way to take an idea out of the realm of abstract and make it more tangible. Nothing makes it more apparent to me that everyone should have the right to vote than reading a good story about a time when they didn't.

Two cents from neurotype-on-discord :

Because history repeats itself - or at least follows common patterns - historical fiction is as much a venue to discuss contemporary issues as fantasy or science fiction (the latter in particular was used extensively during the 50s and 60s to comment on things like the Cold War arms race). Camus uses the Algerian setting of The Plague as an allegory for the passivity of Nazi-occupied France; in doing so, he gives people a chance to think about the issue without immediately hitting the knee-jerk emotional response that recent events so often evoke.

Of course, sometimes it's just interesting to learn about history through a fictional story, where you have more control over where the characters end up.

So what do we need to think about at the outset here?

Point #1: History is the Background

This is probably the most important point I will make in this entire workshop, so pay attention: remember that your story is the main focus of what you´re doing. If you just write the history, you'll be writing a text book. Even if you're going to write about an event that really happened, that gives you a chronology, not a story. You can know the time and place of some events, but ask yourself: how does your character learn, grow (or not grow), how does their personal plots rise and fall?

Ultimately, a story is about people. So focus hard on how the events you have chosen, fictional or non, affect the people you are choosing to write about. Once you figure that out, write about that. That is your story. Not the chain of historical events.

Point # 2: Don't get too attached.

Whatever you come up with this week, realize that over the course of research, it is going to change. With Historical Fiction, if you're going to do it right, it's going to need to be historically accurate - that's part of the point of writing HistFic. How people interacted with each other, their gender roles, class system, cultural values, and state of mind will all affect the story, and chances are you won't discover how all of the factors at play until you really delve into the research.

So for now, try to come up with a loose sketch so to speak.

Point #3: Obscure things will hurt your cause. Popular things will also hurt your cause. So if you pick them, be sure of why you did it so you don't burn out in Week 3.

Remember that since this workshop is running on a limited time frame, and so is your life most likely, choosing something obscure if you haven´t already done the background digging is going to make it nearly impossible for you to complete on time, or to find sources quickly that are accurate and worth having. I am not saying don't do it. I am saying that you are running the risk of frustrating yourself, so know why you chose what you did, and make sure your interest is solid.

Now, last year we had a participant who chose an event which only has 3 known sources in the world, and all of them are biased. But she did a bangup job on her story because she was interested and driven by her interest. It turned out to be worth the frustration.

On the flip side, chosing something wildly popular (WWII Germany, I am looking at you), you might have the problem of too many sources to wade through in order to find pertinent info. The research aspect of something with close to a million sources is beyond overwhelming. So if you have picked something popular, this week's exercise is incredibly important for you. Once you have your plot nailed down, if you have done it well, then you will know precisely what you need to research.

Your Exercise for This Week:

Instructions: Give me plot arcs. Lots of them. Follow the specific instructions below. You can either make a new scraps deviation, or add to your already existing one, and when you have it uploaded, link it to this journal so that we can keep track and leave feedback. You will need to have this deviation uploaded to scraps because it will keep all of your research and ideas condensed into one place.

I don't want any generalized crap this week. I want story. I want plot points, I want character trajectories. I want you know why you started writing this story and what you are trying to say with it. So give me the following:

Bullet; Black

Give me two sentences per important character: where do they start, where do they end up at the end of the story. Not all characters have to change. Some, namely supporting characters, might be static, or their growth is unknown in the context of the story. But I want to know what happens to each of your important characters, if they change or not, and why. (I will provide an example in my own deviation and link it here).
Bullet; Blue

Give me an idea of your main character's arc. And remember that brevity is the soul of wit, so don't write me a novel, just write me a few sentences. At least, what conflict are you thinking of, what is going to challenge this person, and how is it going to challenge them. Is a lover going to leave them? Lose something? Gain something? Gain something only to find out it wasn’t what they wanted, or that an outside circumstance will immediately threaten the new happiness? Perfectly normal person whose world is about to be turned upside down? Give me 3-5 points about their personal trajectory. (again, example will be provided).
Bullet; Black