This week on Novel Points of View, I've invited historical novelist Liz Hurst to tell us something about how she goes about writing about real historical characters. Here's her excellent post on the subject - and there's lots to learn from this! I too have begun using real people in my fiction and it's a tricky thing to get right. Over to Liz.
Writing fictional stories around existing characters from history has proved to be a bigger challenge than I anticipated, but one that I am enjoying very much indeed, especially now that my first full-length historical novel has been launched and now I can concentrate on the next one. I have come across a number of issues when writing about real people, some of which I will talk about today.
Finding a character
Women’s voices as a whole have been suppressed for centuries. The main goal of my mission was to bring these women to the fore, for their voices to be heard. However, I love medieval history and, with a few notable exceptions, most European records centre around kings, princes, dukes and popes, all vying for power. It’s as if the women did nothing except sit at home weaving yet another tapestry, wondering whether their menfolk would return home from the battlefield in one piece. This is rubbish, of course, but finding women about whom to write becomes ever more difficult the further back in history one chooses to delve.
For example, my novel, A Light Shines in Darkness, features a fourteenth century noblewoman from what is now the Umbria region of central Italy. Nothing was written about this fascinating woman until 200 years after her death, it seems. The texts which do exist provide confusing and conflicting information. [Roberta A. McKelvie O.S.F., Retrieving a Living Tradition: Angelina di Montegiove] In the end, I chose to pick and choose the bits that interested me and discard the rest. Poetic licence, you might say.
Researching the character
Assuming I now have a person around whom I can construct an interesting story, the next hurdle is research. I aim to be as realistic as possible when describing the world in which my stories are set: clothes worn, food eaten, the differences between rich and poor during that particular period, etc. I also like to make occasional references to important events of the geographical location, to really ground the reader in that world. It’s unrealistic, for example, to set your story in mid-fourteenth century Western Europe without at least some mention of the Black Death, which ravaged the continent and wiped out around a third of the population.
Fact v fiction
So, I have my protagonist, and I’ve learned enough about her time period to be able to start plotting my story. Where do I draw the line between fact and fiction? Which parts of her life do I keep, and how much do I create from my imagination?
This is a tricky one. In my view, it depends upon the message you want to send to the reader. In Angelina’s world, she is surrounded by girls who are given in marriage as political pawns, to cement alliances between powerful noble families and guarantee wealth for the next generation. Angelina doesn’t want this for herself and instead chooses to remain chaste, much to the frustration of her nonna. It suited my message, therefore, to include certain information about her family and their allegiances. It is worth noting, that my villain, Biordo Michelotti, was a real person, too, although his actions in the story are entirely fictional.
I am thoroughly looking forward to putting more of these principles into practice when I find my next novel subject. Which could be any day now.
About the Author
Elizabeth was born and bred in the picturesque harbour town of Whitehaven in the northwest of England, where the long, wet winters moulded her into a voracious reader of fiction to escape the dismal weather.
Having started writing around the age of 40, she later set about creating a freelance editing and proofreading business, EMH Editorial Services. In 2018, she quit the corporate world and concentrated her energy towards her love of the written word.
Elizabeth now lives with her partner in the warm and sunny south of France.
Fabulous post, Liz, thank you! Liz's novel A Light Shines in the Darkness is available to buy here.
Liz can be found on social media:
This is fascinating!! Not least because I am working on Book 2, which features a woman with a story worth telling. This presents additional difficulties for me, beaing a man!
ReplyDeleteAn excellent post all round ;)
We write men so you can write women! Good luck with your book.
DeleteI am in awe of historical novelists, having to pay such attention to detail, as well as juggling all the usual requirements of novel writing! Good luck with book two.
ReplyDeleteI love the research, the little details you find out and just have to slot in somewhere!
DeleteWhat a great guest post! Even though you focus on historical fiction, this is good stuff for all story. Well done.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I love research, too.