My own personal views on the subject.

 

Researching and writing Historical Fiction, for me, is truly worthwhile and life-affirming.

I have read books all my life, both fiction and non-fiction and, whether hardback or paperback, these companions have travelled with me in and out of 22 different homes (I was born into an HM Forces family.) They have decorated floors, shelves, beds, chairs, tables, sideboards, cupboards, the side of the bath, kitchen counters, the hearth, the mantlepiece, the top of the cistern…what I’m saying is that I kinda live and breathe books and the information they contain.

So – this is a pretty good grounding for a writer/researcher of Historical Fiction, I guess.

Also good is an insatiable appetite for weird and wonderful facts. It can be very easy to read up on a subject and then say…’Brilliant. I now know all about that. Let’s start writing it up.’

Noooooooo!

Not only is this wrong, wrong, Wrong. It very sneakily leads us down the road so well-travelled that we end up walking arm-pit deep in a rut, spouting out tired old information with the same words just jiggled about a bit. That is unless you understand the simple fact that ALL history is PROPAGANDA.

SIDE NOTE:

 

Aha! Biased and misleading. That means written by someone who a) knows the truth but
doesn’t want you to know it, b) someone who hasn’t a clue about the truth but just
believes the Primary Source without question.

Without Question

Another pointer to ‘How to do Historical Research.’ QUESTION EVERYTHING. Why? How? When? Where? Who? And …What in the bloody, blue-blazing hell did he/she do that for?

You see, Historical Research would be so much easier if there weren’t so many danged people in it. Dates and facts and natural disasters and whether the stirrup had been invented then are fine. It is those long dead people who can -and very often do- well and truly mess your all and everything up.

People

There’s nowt so queer as folk.

To research and write, we need to get a very good understanding of human nature. We can approach this task from many different angles. Through philosophy, psychology, astrology, people watching-ology, interaction-ology, curiosity-ology. And on and on. Your own nature will dictate the how/when/where bit.

I, personally like Astrology…Sagittarian since you ask. That annoying horse/person who gallops around shooting arrows all over the place whilst spouting their opinions (!) and shouting ‘I’m sooooo bored’ because I have a 3 second attention span.

Enneagrams are also brilliant. OK, since you asked so nicely. I am a 6 with strong 5 tendencies.

SIDE NOTE:

6
THE LOYALIST
The Committed, Security-Oriented Type:
Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious

5
THE INVESTIGATOR

The Intense, Cerebral Type:
Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated

 

In the sources, we will always and forever come up against a grand mix-up of dates, times, days, places, events. When writing fiction, the story should sort out the muddled and various by forcing us into making a decision and sticking to it. BUT – of even greater importance are the questions that we ask said sources. Why did he go there? She has never done that before…why did she do it then, when it was so completely out of character? He was usually abnormally brutal, so why did he show mercy at that moment? 

Why?

Why?

Human Nature is a very queer thing and a good understanding of it (including OUR OWN NATURE) can help us enormously.

Unconditional Belief

I learned very early on in my research days that I could be heavily influenced by the First book I read on any subject. Reading the same subject by a different author made me say…’Yes, but XYZ said the complete opposite and I prefer him to you.’

Then, on reading the 3rd, 4th, 5th author on the same subject, I’d throw my hands in the air and shout ‘DAMMIT ALL. I GIVE UP.’

No. I didn’t give up. I just learned to open my mind and then Choose My Own Version based on all the information gathered. This was an incredibly uplifting and powerful moment. Realising that my own opinion on the subject was also valid and valuable. 

Self- Confidence

I had a good education but never furthered it in the institutional arena. This writing and research stuff is all self-taught. For a very long time this bothered me. I’d never been taught how to research ‘properly.’ I didn’t know how to take notes ‘properly.’ Ergo – I was never going to be a ‘proper’ writer. I dabbled.

Then…time and life and death and good/bad experiences, age and unforeseeable circumstances changed everything.  Researching, writing, putting together stories became What I Do and what I love to do. And it dawned on me that no excuse in the world could alter that. Playing the Blame-Game became boring and tedious and took far too much energy. 

I still have a 3 second attention span, run around like a mad horse and then isolate myself in a room full of books but that’s me. 

And I am a WRITER of Historical Fiction.

Part 2 will follow…sometime…soonish