Last night I finished writing a guest post which (hopefully) will
appear in December on 4covert2overt - A Day in the Spotlight. The piece was about putting detail into your
historical romance novels and making sure that a) you’ve got enough in there,
and b) it’s accurate.
I won’t rehash the article, but after it was done I decided I want to
say a bit more on the subject. What prompted me to write the post was a reader
review on Amazon for Legend of the Mist (my latest novel, for those of you that
don’t know). In it, the reader said: “the author took quite a bit of
information from the ancient times and made it relevant for me.”
I’m thrilled to hear stuff like that, because obviously that is the
most challenging part of historical romance: making it believable and relevant.
I’ve had comments and reviews like this before, where the authenticity of my
historical detail is praised. I’ve even
had someone remark that they thought I was an expert in the genre.
No, I’m not sounding my own horn, I actually have a point. And here it
is …
I’m not an expert. Not even close.
What you see in my novels is the result of a combination of critical
thinking and a lot of Googling. And here’s the other thing … it’s not a difficult
skill to master; anyone can do it.
Take, as an example, Legend of the Mist. In it, the brochs of ancient
Scotland are a key feature. I describe not only what they were used for, but also
how they were constructed in enough detail that they are easy to visualize.
But believe it or not, up until February, 2013 when I read Monica
McCarty’s The Chief (in which a broch was featured) I had no real concept of
what a broch was. All I knew was that it was an ancient stone structure that had
fallen out of use by the time of Robert the Bruce. What that structure was for
and what it looked like I had no idea.
It could just as easily have been a commode as a castle for all I knew!
To find out, I Googled “what is a broch,” and (besides the occasional
image tagged with a misspell of “brooch”) I got enough information to describe
one. Only then did I decide to add it to my story. If I hadn’t read The Chief
there would probably be no broch in Legend of the Mist.
I can give another example from my first novel, Bride of Dunloch. In
it, I had to figure out how Jane would have boiled water alone in the woods to
care for a wounded enemy warrior named Robbie. And, of course, the first image
that popped into my head was a cast iron cauldron hanging over a fire on a
tripod.
This is where critical thinking came in handy. I had to ask: how
realistic would that have been? Did peasants use tripods? What about hunters
and nomads? It’s unlikely that tiny, feminine Jane would have snuck a heavy tripod
from Dunloch castle out into the woods in the middle of the night.
It was then that I realized I would need another way for her to boil
water.
So I looked it up by Googling “how did people cook in ancient times?”
And not long after I found the specifics of stone boiling, where stones heated
by fire were dropped in pots of water to create a boil.
There’s no secret to knowing that kind of detail. It’s nothing more than
knowing when to ask the questions.
This is an easy skill to acquire if you are a writer of historical
fiction. What I do, anyone can do. When you’re in the writing stage the
internet should be your best friend. Assess your manuscript with a critical eye
and determine where detail is required (hint: lots of places
– the more the better). Then look the detail up to ensure it’s accurate. This
is what will make your historical novel stand out and resonate with
authenticity.
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