Writing Historicals

I picked up a batch of old magazines at a library sale. In The Writer magazine, March 1990, Rosalyn Alsobrook wrote an article on "When You Write a Historical Romance." Her advice is excellent for writing any sort of historical. To quote a small part:

Not only must the setting and the time period...be portrayed accurately, it has to be made an actual part of the story. The conflicts in your story should develop from true events or known customs of the time and place...

and

[Your characters] must be a product of their time....Their personalities and mannerisms must mesh with...the historical era...

She also points out that the historical elements should be accurate and interesting, but only included as backdrop or as a catalyst in the conflict.

For example, I read a historical novel where the author paused to explain the meaning of a tavern's name when that information wasn't needed to understand the story. Worse, that information was given in the middle of a "life-in-danger" scene and it totally drained away the tension.

Finally, she points out that heavy dialect can be very difficult for a reader to work through and will slow your story's pace.

Insert a word here and a phrase there to give the reader...the characteristic speech patterns...

And that's enough to get the idea across.

Writing Tidbits #10

Creating Tension

Since, in the majority of books, the hero(ine) of the book does win in the end against all odds, how can the author make the reader worry the hero(ine) might not succeed?

The most common tactic is to have the hero try to solve the problem and fail, then try something else to solve the problem and fail, and finally try a last solution and succeed.

Here are some other examples of how to do it. (While I'm generally using fantasy set-ups as examples, the underlying principles can be used in other genre.)

1) Hero Todd loses a sword match against his friend Nate. Later, Nate fights against Villain Harod. Harod defeats/kills Nate. Todd vows to kill Harod in revenge, but he wonders how he can since Nate (who was a better fighter) failed.

As in, have A lose against B in getting the girl, solving the mystery, winning the fight. Have B lose against C in the same sort of activity. Finally, pit A against C, let A have a few doubts about his ability to win, and the reader will feel uncertain, too. The solution may be that A uses a different method to fight than B did (as in, using his brains instead of a sword or listening to the girl's dreams instead of buying expensive gifts).

2) This is based on a book I recently read. Each of the main characters are given a cryptic, personalized prophesy of what to avoid doing (like "don't kill a crow"). If they do this action, they will die within a few hours. One by one, these characters accidently do the very thing they were warned against--usually because they didn't realize the danger until the action was already taken--and each dies. Our hero is then given his death-prophecy. Will he recognize the danger in time to avoid his fate?

Here we have several people failing at the same task our hero is given. He may succeed at anything he puts his hand to, but this side danger might easily kill him before his main objective is complete.

3) Our hero can succeed alone against any odds, but he has to protect someone he cares about and/or is important to his ultimate success. This character is usually a child, though in the past it was often 'the helpless female.' The tension comes with the question "can the hero keep this other character alive?"

4) Again, our hero can protect himself just fine, but he needs the help of several other characters to ultimately win the day. (The characters may bring specialized knowledge or skills or they may be leaders of troops that are needed or whatever.) We don't doubt the hero can win his fight, but his bad temper alienates the others he needs or someone is trying (and maybe succeeding) in killing these other characters or they aren't convinced that there is a danger or that the hero's scheme is the right one. Now you have tension.

Writing Tidbits #9

Show the Action!

Watch out for the talking-head syndrome. In some books, the characters sit around planning future actions (battles, research, discoveries, etc.), then the next scene occurs after the fact and has those people (or others) standing around talking about how that action went. Don't wimp out: show the action happening instead of giving the reader a news report about it! It's a lot more interesting.

Sometimes "news reports" are necessary, but beware. A book with too many of these talking-head scenes may have the illusion of things happening, but nothing actually does.

Writing Tidbit #8

Tension & Pacing

If someone or something is threatening your point-of-view character's life, don't spend time describing her surroundings in great detail. First, it will drastically decrease the tension and slow the pacing when it needs to be fast. Second, a threatened person doesn't pay attention to their surroundings (except for people who may help, for escape routes, or for potential weapons) because their attention is on the danger and how to deal with that danger.

Also, use short or shorter sentences to help increase the feeling of tension. Longer sentences take longer for the reader to process, so they slow the pace and dilute the feeling of danger.

Writing Tidbit #7

Intuition

If you get the sneaking feeling that a scene doesn't work, the pace is dragging, a point-of-view character won't be interesting enough to keep the reader's attention, etc.: sorry, but you're right.

Enlist the help of your first readers to diagnose the problem since they can give you a fresh view of the work. Don't try to prop the scene or character up, but look for the underlying problem and fix that. (I know, easier said than done.)

If the character is boring, then maybe you're using the wrong character as your point-of-view character or her actions are too predictable. If the pace is too slow, then maybe some of the information or description needs to be cut or moved to a new place. If the scene doesn't work, maybe it's because nothing really changes, no new questions are raised, or it lacks tension. Or maybe it's something else. Take courage and keep digging...

Writing Tidbits #6

Dialogue
Keep an eye out for unnatural sounding dialogue. This often occurs when two characters are talking over information primarily to inform the reader of that information. It also happens when the author is attempting to hide information from the reader that the characters know and are referring to in their dialogue. Have someone read over the dialogue to make sure it sounds natural.

On your final draft, read the whole story out loud. This will help you find too-long, awkward, and unnatural-sounding sentences.

Writing Tidbits #5

Withholding Information

If the point-of-view character knows something, then you must tell the reader that information when the character is thinking about it. Withholding "obvious" information only irritates the reader.

For example, I read a book were a point-of-view character is upset by "the green object"...and she knows what it is. Later, she actually handles it, yet she still thinks of it as "the green object." Near the end, we finally find out it is a green bikini bottom. The mystery would only have increased, not decreased, by giving this information from the start. I would even say that the reader should have known why the bikini bottom troubled her (since she would know). If this spoiled the tension of the story, then she shouldn't have been used as a point-of-view character.

The artificial withholding of information only weakens a tale. If you feel the need to do it, then something foundational isn't working in the story and the artificial withholding of information won't fix it.