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I do
you need enough to set the time period and enough to give the reader a taste of the era. Remember to include slices of everyday life as most historical fiction readers want to see them.
Also, get the details right, there will always be someone out there that will know if they are and point them out.
Shawn
you need enough to set the time period and enough to give the reader a taste of the era. Remember to include slices of everyday life as most historical fiction readers want to see them.
Also, get the details right, there will always be someone out there that will know if they are and point them out.
Shawn
Re: I do
Yeah, that's my problem. I've been researching for over a year and have so much information. The more I've learned, the more I feel I'm not going to be able to keep the historians happy. Now I wish I had started regular fiction but I've put so much into it so far.
Yeah, that's my problem. I've been researching for over a year and have so much information. The more I've learned, the more I feel I'm not going to be able to keep the historians happy. Now I wish I had started regular fiction but I've put so much into it so far.
Re: I do
Include no more detail than is necessary to your story.
You won't know how much detail is too much detail until you write the book. Then you can examine it.
But by all means don't make the reader suffer for your research.
Include no more detail than is necessary to your story.
You won't know how much detail is too much detail until you write the book. Then you can examine it.
But by all means don't make the reader suffer for your research.
Short story contests
Yes I write historical literary fiction. I've found that getting the story down first and then adding my historical details as sensory detail helps to control possible fact overloads.
If you try to limit your historical detail to the smell, touch, taste, and sound details and make the characters and plot reveal the historical attitudes, ideas or facts then hopefully you haven't burdened the reader.
There are some good articles for historical writers at the Historical Novel Society website: www.historicalnovelsociety.org
Rose Tremain has two very good articles on writing historical fiction in the Writer's Room on www.bbc.co.uk
Yes I write historical literary fiction. I've found that getting the story down first and then adding my historical details as sensory detail helps to control possible fact overloads.
If you try to limit your historical detail to the smell, touch, taste, and sound details and make the characters and plot reveal the historical attitudes, ideas or facts then hopefully you haven't burdened the reader.
There are some good articles for historical writers at the Historical Novel Society website: www.historicalnovelsociety.org
Rose Tremain has two very good articles on writing historical fiction in the Writer's Room on www.bbc.co.uk
Re: Short story contests
I write historical erotica and even though I'm sure it's more the rude bits rather than the history that people buy them for, I still like to get it right:
What are people wearing, eating, drinking? What are living conditions like? What are attitudes to women like? What's the social structure? etc, etc etc.
It should all be woven through your story though, not imposed on it.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
aq
P.S. If you ever want to know how to build a motte and bailey castle or whether the Normans had chamber-pots, I'm your girl.
I write historical erotica and even though I'm sure it's more the rude bits rather than the history that people buy them for, I still like to get it right:
What are people wearing, eating, drinking? What are living conditions like? What are attitudes to women like? What's the social structure? etc, etc etc.
It should all be woven through your story though, not imposed on it.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
aq
P.S. If you ever want to know how to build a motte and bailey castle or whether the Normans had chamber-pots, I'm your girl.
Re: Short story contests
Arrowqueen, I have never heard of this as a genre. Is there anything of yours published in the states--or maybe on line--that I could get hold of? I'd be most interested to read some.
Cindy
Arrowqueen, I have never heard of this as a genre. Is there anything of yours published in the states--or maybe on line--that I could get hold of? I'd be most interested to read some.
Cindy
Re: Short story contests
Hi Cindy,
I'm on amazon.com under Kate Benedict, complete with free sample of 'Wages of Sin' (set at the time of Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries.)
Cheers,
aq
Hi Cindy,
I'm on amazon.com under Kate Benedict, complete with free sample of 'Wages of Sin' (set at the time of Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries.)
Cheers,
aq
Re: Short story contests
How much is too much detail?
Only you know your story well enough to answer this. I am writing a Historical Semi-fiction where the detail is the story. On the other hand if you are just setting a scene like in a castle overlooking a moat lokking out to the feild where the enemy is readying a catapult. That might be enough of history with a mention to the year and the region and continue with the love / Knight / Damsel etc. which is the real story.
There never too much detail in a first draft. Write it and weed it out later while editing.
rt
How much is too much detail?
Only you know your story well enough to answer this. I am writing a Historical Semi-fiction where the detail is the story. On the other hand if you are just setting a scene like in a castle overlooking a moat lokking out to the feild where the enemy is readying a catapult. That might be enough of history with a mention to the year and the region and continue with the love / Knight / Damsel etc. which is the real story.
There never too much detail in a first draft. Write it and weed it out later while editing.
rt
Re: Short story contests
Thanks for the help. Although I suspected the answers everyone gave it's reassuring to know I'm on the same page as people here. Thanks!
I'm really trying to focus on the story and hiding the details of the history but sometimes I think I never add enough. I guess I'll just wait until the first draft is complete.
Thanks for the links too!
Thanks for the help. Although I suspected the answers everyone gave it's reassuring to know I'm on the same page as people here. Thanks!
I'm really trying to focus on the story and hiding the details of the history but sometimes I think I never add enough. I guess I'll just wait until the first draft is complete.
Thanks for the links too!
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