I wrote up outline notes for the speech. I'm happy to share. I do expand on each topic off the cuff, but these are my guideline topics.
Historical Fiction – The Joys of Researching the Impossible
Today is Talk Like A Pirate Day, Arrr! But if I do that the entire speech, no one would follow, so I’m afraid I’ll have to forgo that particular bit of quasi-historical fun.
I’m Christy Nicholas. I’m an author, an artist, and an accountant. I have a deep abiding love for Ireland, Scotland and all things historical and magical.
When I was younger, I loved science fiction and fantasy. Part of this affection was for the classics – Robert Heinlein, Tolkein, Asimov, etc. As a result, I developed a love of the medieval settings many fantasy novels love to live in. As I got older, I didn’t look to the future as much as I delved into the past, so I started researching the facts behind the fiction.
Combine that with a bit of obsessive personality and a passion for reading, and you end up with a library of over 1500 books.
Three Basic Types of Historical Fiction:
- Novels with historic people as the main characters: Sharon Kay Penman, Philippa Gregory, Robert Graves, Morgan Llewellyn, Elizabeth Chadwick, Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe, Rob Roy)
- Novels with historic events as the background, but fictional main characters: Bernard Cornwell, Edward Rutherferd, Ken Follett, Alexandre Dumas
- Historical fantasy/alternate world history: Me, Katherine Kurtz (Camber Chronicles), Juliet Marillier (Daughter of the Forest), Diana Gabaladon
Conflict between authenticity and readability to the modern audience
- Language – when writing about 12[SUP]th[/SUP] century Ireland, you cannot use the language of the time. English didn’t exist as we can read it until much later!
- Names – how authentic do you want the spelling? Can people pronounce names like Muirceartach ua conchobair = Murtagh O’Connor.
- Words – different meanings then and now.
- Nice – silly, foolish, simple
- Awful – worthy of awe
- Wench – female child became female servant became wanton woman
- Naughty – you had nothing
- Meat – solid food of any kind, as opposed to animal flesh.
- Normally, it’s a fine line between using words that ‘sound’ historic, a few outdated idioms, names, or phrases, and becoming incomprehensible
- Dorothy Dunnett’s 16[SUP]th[/SUP] century Scottish characters use quotations from Renaissance verse in old languages (untranslated) such as Old French, Scottish Gaelic, Doric, Old Scots. No context.
- Using authentic songs or poems – FINDING authentic songs or poems!
- Anachronistic items, phrases, words – etymonline!
- Profanity – Today we tend to use bodily functions as expletives, as they were taboo not too long ago – like the 1950s. fuck (15[SUP]th[/SUP] c) or shit (Germanic roots).
- In medieval times, it was considered far worse to blaspheme – use God’s name in vain. That’s why ‘bloody’ was so bad – it referred to Christ’s wounds on the cross. God’s bones, Christ’s fingernails, etc. – wishing actual harm to God!
- Then you get into creative cursing, an especial talent of both Shakespeare and any Gaelic person. Fantastic words such as Fopdoodle, Jobbernowl, Lickspittle, Nobthatcher.
- “May the cat eat you and may the divil eat the cat”
- “May you all go to hell and not have a drop of porter to quench your eternal thirst”
Which brings me to resources, an eternal sore spot. There seems to be a direct correlation between ease of use and usefulness in historic resources.
- The easiest to find are articles and published works on the internet. However, it is often very difficult to determine the authenticity of these resources. Free is worth what you pay for it!
- Books on Amazon/used book sales are great, but you have to know what to look for. It’s not efficient to buy a whole book for one piece of data.
- Scholarly works – some available online, some on dedicated scholar sites like jstor.com (open access to scholarly articles/journals/academic papers)
- Some things on Gutenburg project. My favorite are the Annals of Ireland
- Interviews with historical experts – very difficult to find/arrange!
- Finding ANY information on particular things –
- What flower grew in April in Ireland that is native and can help coughs
- Details of pre-Roman Irish funerals
- Typical dinner in 5[SUP]th[/SUP] century Ireland. Or lunch. Or breakfast.
- Clothing/costume detail. Don’t do a Braveheart.
I typically spend a couple of weeks researching things, places, events, etc. before I even start writing my synopsis for the story. I want to find a place where there is a conflict. It could be big or small, political or physical, but there must be conflict. A plague, an invasion, a coupe, a shift in beliefs, a contested succession, even a neighbor’s dispute. Conflict is what drives a story. It doesn’t have to be save-the-world, it could just be save-YOUR-world.
Once I have a conflict (Annals of Ireland) I can determine place. Then I research the lives of people in that place at that time. Clothing. Food. Customs. Daily life. Traditions. Beliefs. Superstitions. Healing. Drink. Family. Housing.
Now I have conflict and setting. Are there any historic people that might touch the lives of my characters? A king, a bishop, an adventurer, a bard? Maybe they encounter a monster out of legend – a Fae, a Banshee, a Goddess. What were the beliefs of such a being at the time? (No Victorian cherubic fairies, please!)
Names! I love names. I search the Annals for typical names of the time. I need to balance between memorable, pronouncable, authentic and having a local flavor. Connor is great – Muirceartach ua Conchobair not so much.
Once I have all of these, I can start writing my story out. Of course, for every 1000 words written, I’ve stopped at least 3 times to spot-research things. Did whiskey exist then? What are the canonical hours? Did the poor use beeswax candles? What did people sit on in the 12[SUP]th[/SUP] century? Could a woman divorce according to Canon Law? What about Gaelic Law? Which held sway at the time?
Even with all the research, I will find things after I write the first draft that don’t make sense. Was the word ‘member’ used to describe the penis (yes, from the 13[SUP]th[/SUP] century at least)? Did adults drink milk (in Ireland, yes). Did the word Catholic exist then? (16[SUP]th[/SUP] century)
It’s a juggling act, an art form and an obsessive’s nightmare – but it’s also incredibly satisfying to have woven this tapestry of moving parts into a hopefully cohesive, entertaining, and reasonably accurate novel of historical fiction.
(Jade, you'll have to tell me how it goes!)
