Sherwood’s answer to “I wanted to ask a question RE your historical fiction pieces. I'm currently on a second rereading o…” > Likes and Comments
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Thank you for your thoughtful response. You have a wonderful point about keeping focused on why you are telling the story in the first place. That is precisely where I tend to falter as I feel so obliged to represent the truth of the time and the story, but which arguably is not always served by being dictatorial with historical accuracy. I haven't delved much into travelogues, but that's a wonderful idea. I often use pictures, photos, paintings, drawings, I do a great deal of writing in museums. What time period would you like to explore that you haven't yet?
I would love to explore early Renaissance and medieval, but I don't read Latin, sigh. If I were younger, I would immerse in Chinese and Japanese history. Indian as well--the Mughal period is so wonderful in so many ways.
Am now very impressed by the 'behind-the-scenes' work that goes on in your novels.
Indeed! I am impressed when an author does their own research but doesn't feel the need to include every single detail. I like to read just enough to date the story to a specific time period but not too much. I hate it when the author dumps information randomly into the novel without it being a part of the plot.
I suspect different readers will feel differently about what is too much, but I try to steer around what the characters consciously would think of. In other words, if I were writing a modern novel, I wouldn't have my heroine get into her car, thinking, "And here I am in my automobile, whose origins go back to a couple of French engineers, but later became part of Henry Ford's mass production, after which . . . [etc]. The story has stopped cold, and the character is telling herself something that people just don't do.
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Abalexan
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Mar 22, 2016 11:11PM
Thank you for your thoughtful response. You have a wonderful point about keeping focused on why you are telling the story in the first place. That is precisely where I tend to falter as I feel so obliged to represent the truth of the time and the story, but which arguably is not always served by being dictatorial with historical accuracy. I haven't delved much into travelogues, but that's a wonderful idea. I often use pictures, photos, paintings, drawings, I do a great deal of writing in museums. What time period would you like to explore that you haven't yet?
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I would love to explore early Renaissance and medieval, but I don't read Latin, sigh. If I were younger, I would immerse in Chinese and Japanese history. Indian as well--the Mughal period is so wonderful in so many ways.
Am now very impressed by the 'behind-the-scenes' work that goes on in your novels.
Indeed! I am impressed when an author does their own research but doesn't feel the need to include every single detail. I like to read just enough to date the story to a specific time period but not too much. I hate it when the author dumps information randomly into the novel without it being a part of the plot.
I suspect different readers will feel differently about what is too much, but I try to steer around what the characters consciously would think of. In other words, if I were writing a modern novel, I wouldn't have my heroine get into her car, thinking, "And here I am in my automobile, whose origins go back to a couple of French engineers, but later became part of Henry Ford's mass production, after which . . . [etc]. The story has stopped cold, and the character is telling herself something that people just don't do.
