Transporting Your Reader: How to Research Historical Fiction

The thing that makes research successful in historical fiction is transporting your reader to the historical time and place. That is your goal. In this blog I’m focusing on research that you need to do to successful envelop your reader in the fictional world, which is one of the number one goals of historical fiction.

photo  ©2011  Rachel Wilder, Flickr

How much do you research?

It depends on the author and the subject. Some authors research for months and months before they feel confident enough to write a historical book. Other authors make sure they have enough information for realism. The most important thing is that readers believe they are in the historical time.

For my first historical fiction novel, I researched for six months because I didn’t know squat about the time period. I remember sitting down to write and realizing I could write one word without knowing how these people lived. I needed to know everything from the way they talked to the way they dressed to what they did for fun. Nevertheless, my second novel only required a couple weeks of research on the subject because I already had the base level stuff from writing my second novel. You will have to research more if you change the time period and location for each novel. Don’t fear that though. Go with your artistic gut.

The great thing about research is it will usually inspire ideas for your story so embrace it as a seriously beneficial part of the writing process.

Level of Accuracy

That’s the most important thing and the goal for your research—making sure you have enough so that readers do not question your historical accuracy. However, no historical fiction novel will be 100 percent accurate. It’s fiction! So where do you draw the line?

Your goal is to transport the reader to the historical time and place. If you reader stops to question whether or not something is true, you have failed to transport them in that moment. So you want enough accuracy and research to make sure readers believe it.

photo  ©2007  Hash Milhan, Flickr

This can work against you too. If you get too factual, you will stumble upon facts that no one can believe. But that’s what actually happened, you’ll argue. It doesn’t matter. Readers are not there for a history lesson. They want to be transported!

Here’s an example from my novel, A White Room. While researching, I found out that Victorian women often didn’t know about sex or about what would happen on their wedding night. People just didn’t talk about it. When I tried to incorporate this idea into my novel, my audience rejected it. Everyone who read it, save for my women’s history professors, outright hated that idea saying it wasn’t accurate, not believable. It was fact but it didn’t matter. So I had to cut it. It’s historical fact but conveying fact is not the goal of writing fiction. Enveloping your reader in the story is the goal.

Location

A lot of historical fiction authors swear by visiting the location of their stories to get a feel for the setting, but it’s not required. I’ve asked editors and agents at conferences—they will not reject you just because you didn’t visit, but it is kind of like an extra bullet on your resume and will really help with the writing process if you have been there, so if it’s possible, visit.

photo  ©2009  HarryHughes, Flickr

If you can’t visit, research using books, the web, and Google Earth, which is great for finding streets and landscape details. I always check out images to get a feel for the details. Try to think about all five senses while researching the setting, so you can answer any of those questions in description: sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound. All locations have elements that affect each sense. That includes taste and smell. Sensory details are the beginning of transporting your reader.

In addition to reading research, don’t be afraid to call people in that location. Museum curators, professors, or even the everyday business person are great resources. I once called a landscaper to ask what kind of trees grow in a certain area. They will be happy to answer a few quick questions to a polite individual who explains he or she is researching for a book. It can be scary to talk to people sometimes, especially to call a stranger and ask for something, but usually people are flattered that someone is interested in their knowledge. Keep that in mind when you get a little nervous and then just do it. This can be a big thing for people, so I’m going to plan to writing a blog just on this research tactic.

Historical Elements

Now this is where the bulk of your research will come in. How much research you conduct really depends on the time period and how much history you want to incorporate into the story.

I figure out what to research by just starting to write the story and when I get to something I can’t describe, I research it. So for my second novel The Binding of SaintBarbara, I got to a scene where my characters were skulking around the streets of Auburn, New York, and I realized I had no idea whether or not the streets would be dirt or cobblestone, lit by lanterns, full of alleyways, or what so I had to look into it.

photo  ©2010  Paul Townsend, Flickr

Now it’s obvious you have to research your subject, say if you are writing about Henry VIII, you know to research him, but to create a historical setting, you also have to research details that might not come up when researching your subject. Here are some examples of things you might need to know about but wouldn’t think to research:

• Fashion – This includes hairstyles, clothes, make-up, facial hair, hats, jewelry, shoes, men’s and women’s.
• Travel – Are there cars? Buggies? Do people walk? Horseback? Trains?
• Language – Now this one can be tricky because you are probably not going to want to be 100 percent true to the historical language because readers can get annoyed by it. Nevertheless, you will want to weave in true historical language tid-bits to help transport the reader. If it’s taking place in France, you can throw in various French expressions. For American historical fiction, I like to find historical phrases and clichés. So my characters might exclaim, “Sin to Moses!”
• Food – It’s important for good characters to do all the things real people do, including eat. How they cook it, store it, where it comes from.
• Common Assumptions – Is the world flat? No but at one time people believed that was the truth.
• Traditions – Is your story taking place at a time that a culture would be celebrating a holiday? When did Americans start celebrating Thanksgiving? How did mid-evil French Queens celebrate Christmas, did they?
• Health – Would they be taking tonics? Cod oil? Would they take medicine everyday to deal with everyday health the way we do or only when they are sick? What does it mean to get sick? What does it mean to have a tooth ache? Are these things manageable or life threatening?
• Everyday Activities – Do people take a tea time? How often do they bathe? What do they do to relax?
• Homes – Homes in different time periods looked much different. While researching Victorian homes I discovered that modern day homes have open floor plans whereas Victorian homes were sectioned off. However, the house in my story plays a major role, so you might not need to figure out actual floor plans. This is why I say try to figure it out as you go. Still, this might be important if you talk about how a character moves from one room to the next. Do they have to go through a door or just walk to the left?
• Money – How did they pay for things and with what type of coinage?
• Entertainment – What did they do for fun?
• Vices – Smoking, drinking, opium?
• Romance – How did people flirt? Did they write poetry? Did they talk to each other’s parents? Did they just offer a dowry for a bride? I once read that in Russia women carried around little books for men to write sonnets in.
• Larger Events – Your characters do not exist in a vacuum. What’s going on in the larger world? What are their opinions about it? Is there a presidential election happening? Race Riots? These events don’t have to be major things, but recognition can be good because readers do get a little kick out knowing what you are talking about when you bring up a historical gem.

These are just some more common details to consider, but don’t think you have to bring up every single one. Remember your job is to transport the reader to a historical time and place. You want details to make the setting as real as possible. If you go over board that will also pull the reader out of the story.

If you can find a book like The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s by Marc McCutcheon. He did all the research into these little details for the 1800s in America. It’s a fabulous resource for research purposes.

I hope this blog was helpful. It’s an overview, so if there’s anything you’d like me to go into more detail about please post a question. Also what are some research techniques you do that can help others?

Follow my blog if you are interested in more advice on how to write historical fiction and learn more about my novels at www.stephaniecarroll.net.