Tea at Trianon: 7 Ways to Avoid Mistakes When Writing Historical Fiction

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

7 Ways to Avoid Mistakes When Writing Historical Fiction

From ProWriting Aid:

1. Have a Clear Idea of How Much Fact You Want in Your Historical Fiction

Think of historical fiction as a spectrum. There are some books, like Wolf Hall, that are heavily factual. In these types of stories, the author fills in only the details they cannot know like specific conversations, internal monologues, or physical reactions.

Then there are other books that are only vaguely historical. Many historical romances, like Harlequin or Regency, fall in this category. You get a sense that it happened in a specific time or place, but the history is mostly limited to the fashion and the setting.

Most historical fiction falls somewhere in between. And let’s be honest, most of us aren’t history scholars. Some information you might get wrong because it’s so obscure (and some reader somewhere will be grumpy about it!) Other things you might want to change to fit your story.

Decide early on how factual (or not) you want your story to be. Let me give you two personal examples. My current work-in-progress takes place in the Golden Age of Piracy, when most ships didn't use wooden wheels for the helm: they had tillers. But that’s not the image most people have of pirate ships, so my ships have wooden wheels.

Another decision I made was what to call my characters’ corsets. Corset wasn’t a word used until later; generally, these were referred to as stays or bodices. But corset is the common term now, and I don’t want to confuse readers who aren’t obsessed with historical fashion like I am.

You’ll save yourself a lot of heartache if you know where you can play with the facts early on. And you can always add a disclaimer at the beginning of the book or an appendix with all the facts you changed at the end. (Read more.)