Balancing between unknown and known

Who's your audience?

You need to provide as much information and context as is necessary for members of your intended audience to follow the story. That doesn't mean dumbing it down or treating the audience like stupid children for whom everything has to be explained in infodumps of one-syllable words -- but it does mean making sure there are enough clues and pointers that a reasonably alert reader can pick them up and stay oriented to the things that are important. (And for any given historical setting more remote than 20c, you can probably count on most people coming into it with very little familiarity, regardless of their racial or cultural background.)

Agreed. You need to identify your audience and write to them, not as uncultured idiots, but as readers who are keen to explore a new period or culture.

I feel like most people who read historical fiction do so because they enjoy learning something, so they expect to not know everything. I agree with gothicangel: write up. Write the book you want to write and tell that story. But realize you will have to give context and cultural history in a way that isn't an infodump. If you have to, put your historical note at the beginning of the novel to give your readers more of a starting point.

I'm of the opinion that truly good historical writing will pull the reader in, regardless of how much she already knows about that time or people.

Never write down to your audience. It's insulting.

(And wait till you hear from the people who know more—or think they know more—about the subject than you do.)

Perhaps...

just now you are worrying too much about the reader.

Write for yourself first.

You really love this period/era/culture? Then write with enthusiasm and enjoyment. Tell a good story with vivid likeable characters and your readers will read on, wanting to know what happens next.

Once your first draft is complete then you can worry about how much to explain for your readers.

From previous discussion of your WIP, it sounds ambitious. I think as a writers, we tend to get excited about the stuff that interests us, new things we discover, and then struggle to convey that to the reader in a natural way.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Discovery is an exciting thing and a lot of readers want to have a book that gives them things to discover. That's what makes historical fiction cool, a rattling good story & the sense of wonder that comes from exploring new vistas. OK, I stole "sense of wonder" from SF, but HF should be wonderous. Go for it!

You can include a glossary, if you don't want to describe everything. Plot-relevant information should be in the story, though.

Are all your characters immersed in the culture, or do you have a visitor from elsewhere, that could receive detailed explanations?

Rachel Udin said:

Thanks for all of the replies! Since I have no idea what my readership would look like, I decided for a survey so I know what to put into context more and what not to.


At the rewriting/editing stage for the section. I need to edit it to get it to flow so I can get the other POV to flow around it smoothly. Once I get India off my back, then it becomes much easier to do Korea.

I'm kinda following the format of Jean Plaidy a bit... who usually started her Queen in the country of origin and then moved them to the new country later so she could establish culture shock, adaptation, growth, etc.

Click to expand...

This sounds like a good plan, especially if you're dealing with two cultures that might be unfamiliar to many of your readers. Yes, you'll have to slide in the information, regardless, but when the Queen goes to Korea, the reader can go along with her, see the place through her eyes. The first section, in India, will already have shown us what her 'normal' is.

Hello, Rachel! I actually read your blog post about writing POCs a couple of days ago, and found it so thoughtful and worthwhile. It's hard for me to understand how a culture who know they might be a minority in, say, mainstream American or Euro culture, would be offended by seeing it put out there for those who may be unfamiliar with their history etc. The useless liberal in me sort of thinks, wouldn't that be a positive from both sides, but I may be missing the finer points of your fears.

The advice here has been really good. Write to the story, write to what it demands, and find the ways to do that without its being "dumbed down." Laying the groundwork doesn't have to be patronizing.

The strategy you're talking about is ideal, and for the history nerds among us, the learning is the BEST stuff!

Oops!

You're editing. Sorry about that.

I think your using a stranger to the culture will be very helpful to the reader.

Look for long bits of explanation. If you have to explain something find another way to write it. If it is still not feeling right, still too talky-telly then delete it.

Don't worry too much about it. If your story is a page turner then readers will accept strange things more easily. They want to know what happens!