What era are you writing about?

One of my WIPs is in the 1930s at the height of the Holodomor in Soviet-occupied Ukraine. It's deeply political, and to borrow a quote from a very wise movie character: "And that's all I have to say...about that."

My current WIP is a hodgepodge of horror/romance/paranormal set in an historical setting, the summer and early autumn of 1923 in my hometown. The other novel I wrote is similar, but takes place in the middle-late 15th century primarily in the Hungarian Empire. It was going to be a story told over three or four books (a chronological series) but I fell out of love for it, at least for now. I think my more current work will be an easier sell if I decide to publish it, if it's good enough anyway, if I ever finish it.

My novel is based on the clay tablets found near the Mesopotamian city of Uruk and date back to around 3500 BC. I have a particular interest in that period and region, as I was born not very far from the original historical site. I have just started on chapter 3.

Do future eras not count as eras? My story takes place in the early 22nd century.

Right now, London and environs in 1810. But I've also written about 1837 London, 1838 Ireland, 1815 London and Brussels, 1901 Newport and the Adirondacks, and 1917 Cape Cod.

MaeZe said:

Do future eras not count as eras? My story takes place in the early 22nd century.

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Well, yes, but this is the historical fiction subforum. Still, sounds interesting: the near-future.

My WIP takes place in 1888 Southern California. I have a thing for stories set in old West (but with female protagonist) and Colonial America.

Seems like historical fiction is harder and harder to find, much to my dismay.

albrock said:

My novel that's coming out in May is 20th century (1920s), and my WIP is 1950s. Still, I have a soft spot in my heart for the medieval and Tudor eras.

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So glad I saw this post. Your book looks like something I'd really enjoy reading! Going to check it out. And looks like you had some great reviews -- congratulations!

Pattyrobby said:

So glad I saw this post. Your book looks like something I'd really enjoy reading! Going to check it out. And looks like you had some great reviews -- congratulations!

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Thank you! Glad to hear you're interested. If you read, hope you enjoy!

MaeZe said:

Do future eras not count as eras? My story takes place in the early 22nd century.

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Era, yes. Historical, no.

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One point five million years ago up to the present, with twenty-four stops in the ages between.

Mine begins in 1888 -- the Gilded Age and goes from a small midwestern town to New York City. Big contrast.

1732

I have ideas for novels set in:

5th century BC Athens (about how a spurned hetaira sought vengeance on Alkibiades and consequently brought down the Athenian empire)
4th century BC Thebes (parallel story about 2 lovers in the sacred band, and Alexander / Hephaistion leading up to them meeting at the battle of Chaironeia)
1st century BC Britain (about the daughter of Caractacus, who is captured with her father when he is defeated by Claudius and taken to Rome)


I also have ideas for 4 more Egyptian books though, and despite what publishers say about there being no market for them, I'm damn well gonna write those first.

cdecho said:

Mine begins in 1888 -- the Gilded Age and goes from a small midwestern town to New York City. Big contrast.

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Hope they get to New York after the big blizzard of 88. That was nuts.

My story takes place in 1958, during fall and winter. The location is at NYC, a place that I live right next to. I'm very confident and excited to write my book! I've even taken research one step further by researching 1950s maps in the NYC Public Library. (Really cool place to check out if you're taking a trip to the city.)

I'm all over the place. I just submitted a novel set in pre-history (500BCE Ireland), I've got another novel in beta that's Early Modern Ireland (1798), and my new WIP is medieval Ireland (1177).

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And the novel I'm planning after this is two different periods - 1992 Miami and 12th century Iceland.

Most of my stories take place in Next Sunday AD.

Every now and again I'll write something that took place in the last twenty years, but rarely do I write a full blown period piece.

My current WIP is set in 1760s London, with the potential for a few stories following different family members over the decade. I was originally planning it as a Regency romance but the social context worked much better if it was set a few decades earlier.

The next story ideas in the queue are set during the War of the Roses in the 1460s and the Viking raids on Ireland.

I don't know whether I'm on the right forum, but I would welcome some advice or an opinion relating to writing historical fiction, and that is I have written a short novel, (approx 34,00 words) with 11 chapters, about a young British woman, who in Chapters 1-2 re-kindles her love of cycling, and enters competitions on a local and national level, chapters 3-7, she, along with 3 other UK females compete in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games as a cyclist, against females from three other countries, and her perception of the Games and her time in Munich, and the ultimately horrific deaths that befell the Israeli athletes. Although I wasn't born until a year after the Munich Oympics, I have done research and that no female cyclists competed in the Olympics until 1984. But as my story is fiction, and since the Munich Olympics, were a new and exciting event, up until the death of the Israeli athletes, which also singnifies highly, I want female cycling to be an event in my book, so what I want to know is it ok to make changes when writing a book with a sporting theme such as mine, by adding another sport, as long as the pertinent facts are left unchanged? Thank you.

Hi, Selkiegirl! Welcome. Let me see if I can answer your questions.

There are no historical fiction police. You won't get in trouble. Your readers might not like it, though. As a reader, I'm willing to accept some changes in established fact, but--and it's a big but--only changes that have no significant bearing on history or the character of the person. For instance, I'm thinking of a book I read about Thomas Jefferson. The author noted that she gave Jefferson a terrible migraine headache a few months before he actually had the terrible headache (a recorded event). That's fine by me, and it served the story. Now, it would be different if she'd switched things around so that, say, Jefferson was in the US during the Constitutional Convention; that would significantly change the reality of his life and American history.

In my opinion, adding a whole sport to the Munich Olympics--a very well-chronicled and well-remembered event--seems to put a toe over the line. It would throw me off as soon as I realized there actually was no women's cycling in the Munch Olympics. There were plenty of sports contested. Maybe have your characters compete in one of them instead. I'd be way more okay with adding one athlete to a sport that was being contested than adding a whole sport to the Games just for one character.

Also, 34k isn't a short novel, per se--it's a novella. Novels generally run 80-120k words. Even short ones are more like 65k. Do you mean that it isn't done yet? Or maybe it's YA, which runs shorter?

What do you mean when you say the Munich games were new and exciting? The modern Games have been going since 1896, and obviously the ancient ones were, well, ancient.

AngeliZ2K - Thank you very much for your comments and advice, my book is a novella, and is completed. I don't just have my main character competing in the Munich Games, three other UK females do, as well as women from France USA and Germany, so I hoped, this would be acceptable to say in my book, providing the historical facts are unchanged, although chapters 3-7 are set in Munich, it's only in chapter 5, that the characters compete. Also, because other historical fiction writers have made changes to their books; but left the main facts alone, I thought what I was doing would be fine. One example, being The Other Boleyn Girl? Sorry, I digress. The reason I said the Munich Olympics were a new and exciting event, I actually meant for the beginning of that decade, because for the first time new satellite technology enabled millions of people could watch the Games from around the world, and that more nations competed than ever before, and because the Germans wanted their Games to be totally different from the 1936 Games, which Hitler used for his own personal gain, I read this in the brilliant One Day In September, by Simon Reeve, and watched the film by the same name, narrated by Hollywood actor Michael Douglas, sorry for not clarifying on that one.

Selkiegirl said:

AngeliZ2K - Thank you very much for your comments and advice, my book is a novella, and is completed. I don't just have my main character competing in the Munich Games, three other UK females do, as well as women from France USA and Germany, so I hoped, this would be acceptable to say in my book, providing the historical facts are unchanged, although chapters 3-7 are set in Munich, it's only in chapter 5, that the characters compete. Also, because other historical fiction writers have made changes to their books; but left the main facts alone, I thought what I was doing would be fine. One example, being The Other Boleyn Girl? Sorry, I digress. The reason I said the Munich Olympics were a new and exciting event, I actually meant for the beginning of that decade, because for the first time new satellite technology enabled millions of people could watch the Games from around the world, and that more nations competed than ever before, and because the Germans wanted their Games to be totally different from the 1936 Games, which Hitler used for his own personal gain, I read this in the brilliant One Day In September, by Simon Reeve, and watched the film by the same name, narrated by Hollywood actor Michael Douglas, sorry for not clarifying on that one.

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Well, the thing with something like The Other Boleyn Girl is that a) it's centuries back and b) there are events and personalities in there that are and have been disputed by historians, so Philippa Gregory made choices that suited the version of history she was telling. I personally wouldn't know the difference if one sport was in the Munich Games that actually wasn't, since I was born more than a decade after, but with it being--as you've said--such a well-covered event, you might be in slightly sticky ground because people (and Google) are going to know. Is there a reason your characters have to participate specifically in cycling?

The reason I wanted my characters to participate in cycling at the Munich Games is: A, Is because I'm a keen cyclist myself, and I wanted to use that, as it has been said, as a writer you should add a little of yourself in that, and I wanted to see how it would work, in the sense of make my story sound more realistic, even though it's fiction. B, It is fiction, so I thought it would be ok to do that, as long as I kept the historical facts exactly the same, C, Since there were male cycling participants, why not have females? D, I wanted to write about which cycling races Liz (the main character) and the others participated in the way I thought and hoped would sound right. E, I am writing about Liz in the first person, as if I am talking about myself, and Liz talks more about her perception of the Munich Olympics, as a whole, as well her own success, such as the happy times there, noting the achievements of other athletes, but on Septmeber 5th 1972 the 'Happy Games' changed because of that awful tragedy that occurred afterwards, with regrads to the death of the Israeli's, which changes how she feels, in the sense she shared the same sadness as everyone else there. I hope that helped.

Selkiegirl, you can write whatever you want. Just be aware that you might get some pushback from readers. In my opinion, you don't have a strong case for putting your character in a sport that wasn't contested at those Olympics. Reason A is simply "because I like cycling". That's a fine reason to write about cycling, but not to write about a woman cyclist competing in a competition where there were no female cyclists, not when she could compete in a number of other sports instead. What do you like about cycling? Can't that be grafted onto another sport? Reason B is not an argument; just because you can doesn't mean you should. Reason C: well, your character isn't male. I don't see how D is a reason for bending history--it sounds again as if you want to write about cycling. Which, again, is fine, but in this very specific context it isn't correct. Same with E. Your arguments seem to boil down to the fact that you like cycling and so you want to write about a cyclist.

If you're actually looking for advice and feedback (and not just approval), then here is mine (for what it's worth): change one aspect of your character to make her fit the very specific context you chose: Make Liz a male character. Make Liz a runner. Make Liz a spectator who happens to bike around a lot during the Games. You're choosing to bend history when there are a lot of relatively easy ways to make it fit. I think you should make that effort.

Once again, this is my approach, and it's up to you to decide if you want to do this.

Angeliz2K Thank you very much for that, I could change my story to fit with the Olympics, where Liz and her teammates participate in another event, which females actually competed in back in 1972, but could still have an inclusion of where Liz and her teammates participate in a cycling event in Munich, outside of the Olympics, say at a charity race . Speaking of the Olympics, though on an unrelated matter, well done to your country, U.S.A for winning the Rio Olympics, plus I'm pleased with team GB's efforts in this year's Paralympics so far; and doing so well in Rio Olympics.