how accurate in time do you have to be?

still alive · May 28, 2012

Hi, all. I'm working on a WIP set in 1922-23 is SW Louisiana that will be a sequel--and for which I hadn't planned! thus I'm stuck with what went before.

So in this one that's a murder mystery sort of--I really don't know what else to term it--but I have a serious problem that I'm hoping isn't really all that serious.

The motive for the murder (or so thought) is an oil lease scam that 1922 is really to early for. It was in the early 1930's before there was enough drilling and production and equipment to make big money scams feasible.

In fact, the Win or Lose Oil company bit (interesting to Google!) was in 1936, so I know that time is legit. Is it enough to do as some authors have done: remind the reader that it's fiction, and the story comes before historical accuracy? Especially when it's not all that far apart?

Or is that cheating the reader--something none of us want to do.

Thanks for your input.

mayqueen · May 28, 2012

I think you have to ask yourself how much the historical inaccuracy will throw the readers. If it's plausible and won't be too jarring, I say go for it. I'm not familiar with that time period or the oil leasing era, but if an oil leasing scam wasn't really possible then, I would approach carefully. You don't want your knowledgeable reader to go, "Oh COME ON!" and put down the book. You want your knowledgeable reader to smile and say, "Okay, I can handle this."

That was probably the least helpful advice ever. "It depends!"

Dave Hardy · May 28, 2012

That's sort of borderline. I'm not sure how familiar people are with the timeline of Louisiana oil production to feel thrown out by a 1920s oil scam. I'm sort of knowledgeable about oil history & I don't think it would bother me.

Here's a thought, you could say this field was unusually rich, unlike other contemporary LA strikes. Alternately, you could move it to E Texas, there were lots of oil booms between Spindletop in 1903 and 1940.

I'm actually heading to some old boom towns up in Callahan & Eastland Co. in a few days.

still alive · May 28, 2012

mayqueen and Dave, thanks. Jennings LA had the first ever oil strike in LA in 1901, and it was drilled by the same guy who did Spindletop. And it was a piercement salt dome well, so that's all okay. It was the leasing practices that give me pause. Drilling and finding oil wasn't the scientific thing it is today, and there weren't a lot of companies hot to lease--or as far as I can discover.

However, by 1932, there was money enough to make stealing very attractive! Esp. political theft of the state's mineral ownership of the bottoms of all water bodies. And in LA that's a lot! One of the crooked leases covered 250,000 acres!
You might want to check it out, Dave. Again google the Win or Lose Oil company. Heirs are still getting millions per year in royalties!

still alive · May 30, 2012

I'm happy to be able to say that I was wrong. There was a huge oil field not too far from where I set "my" parish and town that in 1919-20 was producing plenty.

So I don't even have to lie! I guess the secret is deeper research--and on that subject I read a funny line by John Grisham in his Author's Note to his book PLAYING FOR PIZZA, a non-mystery.

Quote: "so the setting of this book is reasonably accurate, though, as usual, I did not hesitate to take liberties when faced with additional research."

We can all relate to that, I'm sure!
Renee

Deb Kinnard · May 30, 2012

Suggest you get BIG RICH from your library. I forget the author, but shouldn't be hard to find. It goes into several of the big oil families and gets the dates and all. I'm not generally interested in early 20th century oil and its shenanigans, but a friend recommended this nonfic book and I found it riveting.

May your work find favor!

Cornelius Gault · Dec 8, 2012

I find Google and Wikipedia very useful to get a synopsis of which inventions were available during my story's timeline, so I don't write something stupid like "John typed up his resignation" before there was a typewriter.

blacbird · Dec 8, 2012

still alive said:
The motive for the murder (or so thought) is an oil lease scam that 1922 is really to early for. It was in the early 1930's before there was enough drilling and production and equipment to make big money scams feasible.

Au contraire:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal

This is probably the most famous oil-production scandal in U.S. history. Warren Harding conveniently died before the shite really hit the fan, but his Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, wound up in prison over it.

As for the more generic question of how accurate should you be in writing historical fiction, the answer is "damn accurate". No genre audience is more likely to be knowledgeable about factual material than is the historical fiction audience. Or more pissed off if you screw something up.

caw

how accurate in time do you have to be?

still alive

practical experience, FTW

mayqueen

practical experience, FTW

Dave Hardy

Don't let your deal go down,

still alive

practical experience, FTW

still alive

practical experience, FTW

Deb Kinnard

Cornelius Gault

New writer since 07/2012.

blacbird