2016 Debut Authors Share their Research Tips
[box type="note"]Note from Julie: Today's post is a compilation of advice on historical research from a few members of the Sweet Sixteens, a group of YA and MG authors who are debuting in 2016. You can learn more about the Sweet Sixteens and their upcoming books on their website. I'm very proud to be a part of this great group, and I'm excited to share some writing advice from my fellow debut authors![/box] The idea for this post came from a thread on the Sweet Sixteens' discussion forum. Kali Wallace, who writes YA horror, posted a question for historical fiction writers. I thought it was great that a writer was reaching across genres to ask a question, and the replies were stellar! Thank you all for agreeing to let me share this great discussion with the readers of PubCrawl! (And stay tuned for more of Kali Wallace and YA horror in a future post!) [hr]
I have a question for writers of historical fiction: How do you research for a historical novel? What sort of research do you do? How do you balance getting the period details right with writing for a modern MG/YA audience?
—Kali Wallace, author of Shallow Graves, Katherine Tegen Books 2016. You can visit Kali's website and follow her on twitter @kaliphyte.
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Lois Sepahban
My stories always start with a character, and I think that even in a historical setting, the character's experiences are what make his/her story accessible and interesting for modern readers. But getting the setting details right does require research. Over a period of several months, I devour everything I can find about the setting--books, newspaper articles, diaries, documentaries, and museums. During those months, the story starts to slowly come together in my mind. So as soon as I'm ready to start writing, then I've already done most of the research. I use a notebook to keep track of what I learn, and I always need to go back and dig up new details while I'm drafting. By immersing myself in the history and culture before I start writing, I have found that the details come naturally as I'm drafting. LOIS SEPAHBAN is the author of the upcoming MG Historical, Paper Wishes, coming from FSG/Margaret Ferguson Books in Winter 2016. Learn more about Lois on her website and say hello to her on twitter @LoisSepahban. [hr] Janet B. Taylor
When I FIRST started writing for REALS, I'd planned to write adult historical fiction. I was working with a hisfic author as a "writing coach" who told me—in no uncertain terms—that though I was a good writer, with potential...blah blah...my "voice" was too modern and too "YA". Now, at the time, I didn't really know what "YA" was. And I certainly didn't know what voice meant in writing terms. Soo...I cried. A lot. Then I got to thinking. Okay. Modern voice. YA. Loves historical.....TIME TRAVEL! I've been fascinated by the medieval period for years, and had studied it for a long time. Particularly England and France, and even more specifically, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. (I'd LOVE to write about her one day. Her teenage years are absolutely astounding. However, there are a LOT of wonderful books already written about Eleanor. And I'm not sure I have the chops to go up against someone like Elizabeth Chadwick or Sharon Kay Penman, for instance.) Anyhoo, with that background, I basically did what Lois said. Total immersion for months. Websites. Read a lot. Traveled to Europe a few times. Read a lot. Castles, museums. Oh, did I mention I spent WAY too much money on books so I could read a lot? I got everything about anything to do with time period. I even got to spend the night inside Fontevraud Abbey in France, where Eleanor spent her later years, and is buried. I got to be alone with her (and Henry II and Richard the Lionheart) at night, in the cathedral, all alone. It was magnificent! Now the sequel to my current book will take place in NYC during The Gilded Age 1895. That is requiring a LOT of new, very detailed, very intense research, as I wasn't really familiar with that era. But it's such a cool time and I'm enjoying it very much! JANET B TAYLOR's debut YA Adventure/Time Travel, Into the Dim, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in Spring 2016. Visit Janet on her website and follow her on twitter @Janet_B_Taylor. [hr]
Patrick Samphire
Almost everything I write is set in one historical period or another. I've written short stories in Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt, as well as in the first world war and prehistoric Britain. My novel, Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, is set in 1816, and I'm also working on a novel set in the 1930s. But the shameful truth is that I'm an absolutely terrible researcher. I hate doing it. I pick up some incredibly informative, vastly heavy reference book and I rarely get past the introduction before my brain melts into a puddle of supreme apathy. I just can't bring myself to do it. Come on. I can't be the only one, right? So, I have developed a special method of Historical Research for the Historically Ignorant and Terminally Lazy:
Watch movies and read books set in the relevant period, to get a basic idea of what the period was like. You have to be careful that you're not picking books and movies by people who are equally Historically Ignorant and Terminally Lazy. For my 1816 book, that meant reading Jane Austen, Bernard Cornwell and Georgette Heyer and watching lots of Jane Austen adaptations. Yeah, and some people claim this is work...
Write your book.
Figure out all the bits you should have researched and go and look them up. Wikipedia is, of course, not particularly accurate about many things, but admit it, we all use it... Alternatively, ask my wife (you'll have to find someone else to ask; sorry). My wife loves doing historical research. She reads books like that for fun. She even has degrees in this kind of stuff.
Realise that what you have in the book can't possibly have happened, because you didn't bother to research it in advance.
Rewrite, making it less impossible.
Blame the wizards/fairies/aliens. My books tend to have pretty heavy fantasy or science fiction elements, so when I get something wrong, I just blame the influence of magic/technology for changes to real history.
Now no one will realize how little you actually know about your historical period. Unless you write a blog entry admitting it.
PATRICK SAMPHIRE is the author of the upcoming MG Adventure, Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, coming from Christy Ottaviano Books (Henry Holt / Macmillan) in January 2016. Learn more about Patrick on his website and say hello to him on twitter @patricksamphire. [hr]
Heidi Heilig
For starters, picking historical fantasy/time travel over straight up historical fiction made things easier when it came to research. In the world of the book, characters can travel to historical and mythological maps, so I am not tied strictly to widely-agreed-upon reality. That said, accurate history can really make the fantasy aspect shine. When I did my research, reading was key for me, and I often went down the research rabbit hole for hours on something small that never made it into the final draft--or even the draft I was working on at the time. But that time wasn't wasted--having all that information in a soup in my head made it easy to pick small things out and weave them into a detailed story. Obviously, primary factual documents were very useful--boat time tables, newspaper articles--but I also found fiction of the time period very helpful for dialogue and speech cadence. Old pictures helped (the bulk of the story takes place in 1884 so there are some) and maps, of course, so I could see, for example, what areas of town smelled because they were near the tannery or how noisy things were due to proximity to the market. Paintings, art, or songs of the time helped me humanize the characters and understand what people filled their time with when they weren't doing Important Book Things, because I have this tendency to see historical people as Very Serious. In the future, I hope to be skilled enough to do straight up historical fiction. I love history. I think there are some issues that are universal. No matter when, teens are always growing up, or falling in love, or looking for their place in the world. HEIDI HEILIG's debut YA Fantasy/Time Travel, The Girl from Everywhere, will be published by Greenwillow/HarperCollins in February, 2016. You can learn more about her on her website and follow her on Twitter @heidiheilig. [hr] What are your thoughts on historical fiction? Do you use any of these techniques when you research? Please share you thoughts in the comments!