Blogger: Etta Wilson
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I think I’ve mentioned here that my first employment straight out of college was as a teacher of American history in Virginia. I was expected to spend a good half of the year on the “War Between the States”—and to make the outcome more satisfying than it was in reality to people who lived there. Quite a challenge for someone maybe four years older than the students she taught and not a native Virginian!
But, like most teachers, I did learn a lot about the subject I was teaching and that interest in our nation’s history has stayed with me. That’s why it was exciting to hear and see so much attention being given to historical novels at the American Christian Fiction Writers conference in Indianapolis several days ago. There were awards for the long historical novel, the short historical novel, and the historical novella. It looks as though the interest in historical writing will continue based on the number of historical proposals I saw.
All that interest in writing historical works raised a question for me: What motivates writers to create stories set in earlier times? From my experience, it was seeing young people connect with stories about their area and their ancestors and realizing they were a part of humanity’s stream. But there are many other reasons. What turns you on as a reader and/or writer of historical material? A family storyteller? A particular incident? A discovery of something from the past that has meaning for today? Think back and let me add your reasons to my list.
My favorite aspect of historical novels is transportation. All novels transport, but there is something magical about leaving my time period to sample another.
My goal is to write a series of historicals set in Arizona. I love this state and all it has to offer, but its history is often overshadowed by books set in Texas or California, for example. And when people DO write books set in Arizona’s past, they are usually myopically focused on the 1880’s Tombstone heyday type stuff. But there is a whole lot more to Arizona than Tombstone.
Her real life historical people are colorful and reading about them makes the imagination run wild with fictional people to tell tales.
And last, even though we’ve heard the phrase that history repeats itself, we humans don’t care much for honestly assessing what’s currently happening in light of lessons learned in the past.
But historical fiction allows another vehicle for us to examine modern circumstances and say “hey, this isn’t a new problem after all. But maybe it’ll help me think about the issues in a new way.”
Addendum: Writing all fiction is a challenge, but the particular additional challenge of historical fiction to me, is having to work within the confines of what has already happened and still come up with a fresh, appealing story even though you can’t change the results of history. In other words, I’m a glutton for punishment. 😎
One of the reasons I love to read/write historicals is because it allows me to “live” a time I’d not experience otherwise. For me, history can come alive more powerfully through a piece of fiction than through a historical textbook!
As an young reader, I turned to historical fiction to experience the type of adventures I longed to have, but never could in my suburban, industrialized life. I wanted to race Indian ponies across the plains and hunt buffalo, or live in a bark longhouse, or go west on a wagon train, or learn to hunt and track in the wilderness, or help a runaway slave to escape, or watch a wolf pair raise their pups. At some point in high school I realized that, quite by accident, I’d begun enjoying learning American history, a subject that hadn’t yet engaged me in the classroom. It came alive for me, seen through the eyes of a character I cared about. Upon that realization, I began going about the business of reading historical fiction with the added purpose of educating myself. I’m so entrenched in the addiction now, there’s no help for it.
I love finding a hook — some tidbit of history that I didn’t know about but that gets me excited. Then I love translating my enthusiasm into a book. To me the perfect historical has the history as the setting. The story couldnt take place anywhere else in time. The characters spring from that era and face concerns that would have been real at that time. And if I can make that time come to life for readers I’ve succeeded. And as a reader, i love writers who do the same for me.
For me, it’s a safe method of time-travel. I get the benefits of being immersed in a time period and connecting with the people who lived at that time/place, but I get to do it in safety of my own imagination.
Brenda, I almost mentioned Arizona and New Mexico in the blog I’ve written for Tuesday as places whose history is overlooked. As for your other point about history repeating itself, I do agree to some extent and would have agreed more a few years ago, but the speed of change now and the radical new ways of communicating makes me wonder about certain aspects.
Lori, your path to becoming a prize-winning author is classic in its outline. I’m so glad that you’ve followed it. Many readers will benefit.
I read a lot of juvenile historical fiction while homeschooling my kids. My fourth-grader and I have been swept away on the Oregon trail, an 1840’s clipper ship, into late 18th-century British Parliment, and onto the underground railroad… and that’s just been in the first five weeks of this school year!
To echo Heidi and Lori, my son gets to experience history in a way that becomes much more meaningful for him as he connects with the POV character(s), instead of trying to remember dry facts that have no importance of context for him. The memorization of such facts comes rather easily after he cares about the time period and those people who lived in it.
Cara, you’ve nailed it: “To me the perfect historical has the history as the setting. The story couldn’t take place anywhere else in time.” I think good historicals call for the weaving of setting, plot and character in a stronger way than contemporary novels do.
Though I don’t read a lot of fiction, I enjoy it because it makes hiSTORY come alive – too often our schools make history a dull listing of names and dates, rather than focus on the ongoing story that is life.
Growing up in Pendleton, Oregon, our high school was one hill over from the airport – where Doolittle’s Raiders trained for their raid on Tokyo. We never heard about that in school, however, I learned about it when I flew to college in the midwest and saw the signs at the airport.
Last night my son wanted to read ‘the story about Paul and the snake’. After reading Acts 28 he asked “That was it?” about the few verses about the viper. We then spent about 15 minutes talking about what probably went through Paul’s and the crowd’s minds at each stage of the story.
It is that level of detail and getting into the character that historical fiction allows that our “memorize this” approach to history (and Bible study) sadly tends to overlook.
Rich
I love historical writing for all the reasons already mentioned by others, but tagging onto what Lindsay shared I love the way a historical novel can insert you into history in a way that makes you more aware of why it mattered. In the rear view mirror, it’s easier to see cause and effect, how one event relates to another, and how they all work together to reveal God’s plan for man–His-story. His precepts, after all, are timeless.
I am always amazed at the number of people who can’t get into history in a classroom setting or via textbooks. I devoured every history class I could get my hands on in school and I still read way more non-fiction historical texts than fiction. Gimme those facts and figures! Gimme the blow by blow lowdown. I love it!
I’ve taken interest in historical research and fiction only in the new millenium. I’m going to start my first historical novel soon – and it’s set in the 12th century. Because I discovered it wasn’t like Sir Walter Scott painted it. The middle ages weren’t as dark as we’re told. So I want the world to know and clear those pre-conceptions we have of that time from history books. And doing it with a novel seems more interesting than a non-fiction book, know what I mean?
Also, I’ll be tacklin the third crusade… and I think there’s a lot in common with today’s struggle with Islam – things haven’t changed through the centuries! 🙁
From the time I was very young, I heard the story of a brave little red-head who was stolen by the Indians from her Quaker home during the colonial period and made a happy life for herself when adopted into a native family. I was always fascinated with her courage and spirit.
Later, I read Little House on the Prairie books and Caddie Woodlawn, I decided that perhaps I was just born into the wrong time period. By the time my mother took me to see Sturbridge Village in Massachusettes, at the age of 9, I was ready to be left there. If my mom had given me a dress, and dropped me off to be apprenticed to the broomstick maker or candlemaker, I would have been willing…
I didn’t realize that I was falling in love with American History. When my daughter wanted to join a group of Civil War period reenactors in PA where we lived, I was very willing. So we dressed in period clothes, slept in an officer’s wall tent, poured tea made in a fire pit, and danced at balls.
I collected women’s period diaries and they fascintated me. I think I was determined to prove that I could have made it in those days. Yes, I can pitch a tent in a corset! I am pretty sure at this point, that I am not overgrowing this love affair with the past.
I am very picky when it comes to what I read. I especially notice if the language and “thinking” are period correct. Once you are immersed in a period, any modern thinking stands out like a sore thumb.
Lately, I have read Amber Stockton’s historicals and just loved them.
I too, am glad to see the interest in the ACFW.
I’ve always loved writing, but it was my grandma who first inspired me to write about the historic Smoky Mountains. She introduced me to my ancestors through photos, documents, and her own memory. What a group of interesting people! Hard-working, quiet, tough…Southern Appalachian folk whose traditions fascinated me.
I love the Smokies, their people, and the story they have to tell. I love this place so much, it hurts.
I was born AFTER my time 🙂
~Britt
My family watches a lot of History Channel. My daughter (14) rolls her eyes and leaves the room – guys with guns & tanks & planes. Booooooring. Then one day a few years ago I caught her watching, entranced. They were playing a documentary on Anne Frank. A girl, close to her age, living history. Suddenly WWII was real to her. When we visited Germany and stood in the Nazi stadium at Nuremburg, my daughter refused to stand on the podium – “That’s where he stood – the man who killed Anne Frank.” Yes!!! She got it!!
And I got it too. People (real or fictional) are the key to connecting most people to history. That’s why I write historicals – so readers can FEEL the history, understand what real people encountered years ago, and appreciate what they did to make our world better.
Lindsay, you’ve made a big point for home schooling–getting to experience history once again with your child! Thanks.
Barb, I’m eager to read about the Third Crusade. You’re right about its relevance to today’s situation with Islam. Hope your book turns out well.
Kathy, your point about language and “thinking” being correct for the period is one I meant to comment on. Our language usage has changed so much in the past 20 years, we have to be careful about anachronisms and such or we lose today’s reader. Quite a challenge!
I just recently had a warming experience as I visited Harriet Beecher Stowe’s home in Hartford, Connecticut. I read Uncle Tom’s Cabin several years ago for the first time. It is a hard read but so important. To learn more of Stowe’s life and her day to day affairs, and to recognize how pain added to her ability to write with such compassion was fascinating to me. She was willing to tell the stories that reached hearts that brought about tremendous inroads to end human suffering. She has a quote that is about words being sharper than the sword. I was filled with so many ideas about writing about those who made such a difference with their words. I was and am provoked.