Thread: Ways to bring real history into historical fiction?

Hello to everybody! I am brand new to this forum and I've been working on my first novel for less than a year, so I'm a major newby. But I am wrestling with something and I could use some different perspectives. I'm fairly certain that I am not the only writer who faces this problem:

How do you work the real historical events into your fictional story? In my particular story, the characters and plot are very much triggered and affected by the historical events of that time and place, so it seems necessary include them as an explaination for what's happening.

I had the clever idea to write a short chapter on the life of the main character's father, using highlights from his life to show the history and lead up to the main story. Since stopping the story every couple pages to insert a paragraph that seems straight out of a history textbook is unacceptable, I tried working the history in as part of the story, whether in coversations or experiences. But this made my short chapter very long, and a friend who read it said he thought he was reading about the main character - until he died and the real main character showed up. I'm also getting readers invested in a character who dies early in the story, which might leave them feeling disappointed, misled, or cheated. So having about 100 pages, at the beginning of the book, that are NOT about the main character directly doesn't seem like a good idea either.

So I am considering these other options. Please comment on which you think is better or add a different approach of your own.

1. Use the short stories from the life of the father in between the chapters of the main story as flashbacks, and as the reason for what's happening in the story.

2. Scrap the father's life as a seperate story and try to mention the historical events as part of the main story. For example, father tells son about his own life and explains why they are experiencing the dangers and difficulties in the present.

3. Many books include a map to help readers visualize kingdom boundaries and travel distances. Why not include a timeline of relevant historical events which affect the fictional lives of your characters?

I realize the reader mostly wants an entertaining story, but if they see what really happened according to history, wouldn't it make the fiction seem more plausible, believable, and therefore more entertaining?

I am assuming the story can stand alone to some degree without the historical context, in that case I would go for the third option, the others are going to give a contrived air to the story. I make the provisio because there are always some people who will simply skip anything at the beginning, author's note, acknowledgements, preface, contents and your time line, for them maybe you could include some of the essential information in the text. For those of us who actually read books in the way the author intended a time line would be great, you could refer back to it at relevant points.

Yes, I see your points. The story is indeed "contrived". In fact, I've spent a lot of time contriving it. But I understand the goal is to keep the reader from getting the sense that it is contrived.

I do like maps and charts in novels, and refer back to them while reading, but as you say, not everybody reads this way. I like your suggestion to include limited historical references in the story and include a timeline of events as well, but I'll have to cut out a lot of what I have now. In visiting other forums and guides, I've seen it often mentioned that there is a temptation to include too much of our research in the story - a temptation to be resisted.

As your first sentence suggests, the question for me is: how much of the story "could stand alone without the historical context"? Where is the line between necessary explainations and extra information that might, or might not, make the story and characters more interesting? Thanks again for your response.

I'm working in the same arena, and have found that having your story revolve around an historical event is fairly easy to cobble together, but writing a story that is based on a historical event can be much more difficult. The closer to the event your characters and action are, the more research you have to do. To be completely accurate, a story has to be read for historical errors to ensure you did not miss anything, or put something in that did not happen. Collaboration with someone with a degree in History that specializes in the time you are trying to bring to life would be helpful.
An easier tack is to write around historical events, where the action and the characters can move around problem areas in their own version of the past. They will only be intersecting with historical events and characters from time to time to give a greater sense of realism. From this premise, historically based fiction (e.g. Gone with the Wind and others) allows the user to "suspend disbelief" without having to read a dramatized version of an historical event.
You can write around history and include real people doing things that have not been recorded, though you face the danger that the reader will no longer believe that the event is possible.
My best suggestion in this regards is to read the works of authors who work in this genre and see how they do it.
If your action is completely without historic reference, you begin to write in the realm of "alternate history". This, of course, means you intend to rewrite history to make an interesting story, a "what if this happened" kind of thing.
My best answer, as I am writing in the same genre, is research. Know the time that you are writing about and become something of an expert in it. Learning as much about a timeframe opens many new pieces of information you may not have originally thought of. This gives your characters more purpose, more motive in their actions, and more believability in your story.
Visiting historic sites can give you a better feel for how things were. The problem is that many places have changed dramatically since the time the story was based. If you can't go to the place, getting old maps, old diaries, and reading the various histories of the place will give your story more information than the story will need, but will guide your writing and keep your story from straying from the believable.
For my story, I have purchased a number of books and maps from the time frame, been to the library several times and done research, and done several Internet searches to iron out specific details.
How far back your story goes brings with it interesting questions. How did the people back then go to the bathroom? What did they drink, most commonly. There was no refrigeration, nor electric stoves before the 20th century, so how did they cook? The questions go on and on.

Thanks for the advice, plbuster. It is very encouraging because I have already done a lot of research at the library, on the internet, purchased reference books, and have emailed a couple experts. I don't really trust internet info as much as books, so I try to cross reference internet information from multiple sites to make sure they agree (because they frequently do not).

I have also read five other books in the past few months by five different authors who wrote about feudal Japan and early Edo Period Japan (you asked what I'm writing about). They all had different approaches but they all had at least some success, so it was very educational. And I've watched a lot of samurai movies, observing dress, architecture, accepted social behavior, etc. I like the old black & white movies better because they just seem more true to the old times. It's almost as if 90's and 2000's filmmakers lost some of that old flavor. But it could be my imagination! My favorite books in the period I'm writing about are by Dale Furutani and I.J. Parker, probably because they write in the down-to-earth, practical style that I seem to gravitate toward in my own writing.

What interested me about your post was that it seems you separate historical fiction into at least three types:
1. "...a story based on a historical event" or "a dramatized version of a historical event".
2. A story which "revolves around a historical event" or writing "around historical events".
3. Alternate history, or a story "without historic reference".

Of course I am trying to find where my work fits into these categories, and where the books I've read fit in. I think fall under the second classification. My characters are very much affected and driven by historical events of the time, but they are not directly part of it and have their own personal stories. While I am checking my facts carefully about the real people and places I mention, I am taking some artistic liberty and inserting some things that could have happened but were probably unlikely. Documented Japanese history is mostly about daimyo, shogun, and emperor. My story is about the lower classes, so it should be easy to keep them from contradicting recorded history, as long as I get the culture right. (For example: American men shake hands and slap each other on the back, while Japanese men rarely touched each other in public.)

I did read an alternate history. It was about a large fictional island and fictional kingdoms, but the culture, customs, clothing, and names were Japanese. In fact, I got briefly confused when the author used the names of real historical people and places in her fictional world (only a couple times). It was almost like a Japanese version of George R.R. Martin's "Fire and Ice" series. Five books in the "Tales of the Otori" series, so Lian Hearn must be doing well.

A few weeks ago I read "Blood Ninja" by Nick Lake. That is alternate history for sure! I enjoyed the story but I got hung up on the fact he used real historical people but messed up the time line, even having people meet who were never alive at the same time. But hey, he's writing about ninja being vampires. Once you go that far, I guess we can't be too picky about historical accuracy.

Come to think of it, it seems most authors I've read so far avoid basing their story in a real historical event, probably for the reasons you mentioned. It takes more research and there is a greater chance knowledgeable readers will spot inaccuracies.

Thanks again for the advice! It definitely helps my understanding.

Many books include a map to help readers visualize kingdom boundaries and travel distances. Why not include a timeline of relevant historical events which affect the fictional lives of your characters?

I used a map of the coast of Mexico from the time period that I was writing about for historical accuracy. I couldn't very well say, "They sailed to Playa Del Carmen" as it didn't exist back then. Instead I used the ones that did exist like Panuco and Tabasco. I referred to this map often as it also showed the shipping lanes and what the territories were named back then...



I also built model ships of that time so i would understand the layout of the ship. The cannon decks, the capstan that raised the anchor as men marched in a circle around it, the chicken coop located on the back of the ship so the smell drifted away. It also helped me with the terminology of the parts of the ship such as the foremast, mainmast, mizzenmast, yardarms, ratlines and such...





Do your research well. I needed to know what the King's name was in 1614. How quickly they could load a cannon, the effective range of it. What were living conditions like in the area that I was writing about? What was the social structure?

Although my work is a work of fiction, I researched what was going on in the area at the time. Who was at war with who? Pirates abounded in that time and area. Then I worked in the characters and fleshed them out. An innocent man accused of piracy becomes a pirate after they kill his father in a false arrest. In need of a crew, he frees slaves by killing their owners. A stubborn, spoiled young princess used to having her way demanding to see the new colonies. Captured by this crew, she soon learns that the slaves were not at all like she had been taught, in time, she comes to love them. She then also, reluctantly learns that her father is making a lot of money from the sale of the slaves.

Yes, by taking real life events, no matter how small they may seem, you can then add the emotions that would be attached to these events. The eventual resentment that she comes to have for her father fore making money from the slaves misery, having their children taken away and sold. , the rebellion of the local people for being taxed by an enormously wealthy king and the corrupt local government. The devotion of the slaves now free men, having once been whipped just because the master came home drunk.

Often, the devil is in the details, the seemingly small things that are actually monstrous when you examine them in the light of human emotion. Study the time period well, if possible, go there and get a real feel for the land. I traveled the Yucatan a lot and this really aided in my writing about the rainy season, that attack that took place on the one muddy road that lead through the jungle. The wagons could not turn back. The denseness of the surrounding jungle. If you can't go there, read a lot about the terrain.

Yes, you can weave actual history into a work of fiction and the particular event does not have to be enormous or have even made the history books. It just has to something that everyone can relate to and get absorbed in.

If you have read any of Clive Cussler's works, you will find he begins in an historical context, then starts into his NUMA fiction story based on a dramatized and often fictinalized version of the historical event. He includes a map to orient the reader with the geography and location. Your story about Japan sounds extremely interesting.
Killing off protagonist 1 does not create any problems with readership, as the events set the stage for protagonist 2. This is a common thread in oriental literature, art, and film making. Remember all those movies about a student revenging the death of his master, or his family, or his shogun?
You may consider a "part 1" and a "part 2", perhaps with different titles, to seperate the two time frames.
A map of the area of Japan from that time frame could set up the story for "part 1", and a different graphic, a map of a castle and surrounding area in which a specific action takes place, can introduce "part 2".
Including graphics of Japanes dress, armour and weapons, artwork, and sketches of period structures can fill out the written text with visuals to give the reader a better understanding of what they are reading about. In the west, this is especially helpful, as few of us have seen traditional japanese weddings, temples, castles and the like. Perhaps by adding a graphic before each chapter will aid the reader in visualizing the story.
This is not only common today and commercial (e.g. Clive Cussler) but is also quite conventional and time honored (e.g. Sir Aurther Conan Doyle, and his character Sherlock Holmes).
Having been to and lived in Japan for a time, I am looking forward to the publication of your work. I would recommend, if possible, to have the story read by a person familiar with Japanese culture and history, perhaps even one of japanese descent if possible. It's not necessary, but he(she, they?) could help fix errors in the text before final publication.

My published novel sits within a period of time, the Napoleonic wars, of which vast amounts have been written. That said, most peoples "knowledge" comes from popular fiction not the vast array of historical sources. However many of those sources are sufficiently riven with holes and personal points of view that there are spaces within history within which to weave fictional adventures.

Wow, Ditch! So you are the one who wrote Pirates of the Caribbean! Seriously, I can tell you're someone who takes their research and authenticity very seriously! I probably wouldn't try to make a samurai sword or sew a kimono. Unfortunately, I don't have the resources to visit Japan right now, but I have been studying the terrain and climate in the specific places I write about, like you suggested.

Originally Posted by plbuster

If you have read any of Clive Cussler's works, you will find he begins in an historical context, then starts into his NUMA fiction story based on a dramatized and often fictinalized version of the historical event. He includes a map to orient the reader with the geography and location. Your story about Japan sounds extremely interesting.
Killing off protagonist 1 does not create any problems with readership, as the events set the stage for protagonist 2. This is a common thread in oriental literature, art, and film making. Remember all those movies about a student revenging the death of his master, or his family, or his shogun?
You may consider a "part 1" and a "part 2", perhaps with different titles, to seperate the two time frames.
A map of the area of Japan from that time frame could set up the story for "part 1", and a different graphic, a map of a castle and surrounding area in which a specific action takes place, can introduce "part 2".
Including graphics of Japanes dress, armour and weapons, artwork, and sketches of period structures can fill out the written text with visuals to give the reader a better understanding of what they are reading about. In the west, this is especially helpful, as few of us have seen traditional japanese weddings, temples, castles and the like. Perhaps by adding a graphic before each chapter will aid the reader in visualizing the story.
This is not only common today and commercial (e.g. Clive Cussler) but is also quite conventional and time honored (e.g. Sir Aurther Conan Doyle, and his character Sherlock Holmes).
Having been to and lived in Japan for a time, I am looking forward to the publication of your work. I would recommend, if possible, to have the story read by a person familiar with Japanese culture and history, perhaps even one of japanese descent if possible. It's not necessary, but he(she, they?) could help fix errors in the text before final publication.

Thanks plbuster. I really like your idea about inserting graphics at the beginning of chapters. Guess I should find someone who can draw better than I can. And I do see your point about protagonist 2 revenging the death of protagonist 1. It is a popular theme. One of my favorite movies is Jet Li's remake of Bruce Lee's "Chinese Connection" called "Fist of Legend". I have not done a lot of research on it, but I believe the kung fu master who was killed/poisoned was a real person. The movie is an exaggerated, fictitious dramatization, and probably much more entertaining that what actually happened.

I actually had 3 parts in mind for my book. Part 1 would be a series of highlights over the first 30 years of the main character's father's life. Since this period spans 1598 to 1620's, it provides an opportunity to show the changes and adjustments Japanese had to make as the country went from being feudal and came under a single shogunate rule. Samurai had to find civilian jobs and offices, Christians saw their religion go from supported to outlawed, and 20 years earlier the shinobi (ninja) were mostly massacred by Oda Nobunaga, though he allowed a few to escape. So there were several classes struggling with change in this time span.
Part 2 sees the young son of a Shinto father and Christian mother orphaned in the chaos of the Shimabara Rebellion. And here's the part that is historically not likely, though not impossible. After being knocked unconscious by bandits, he is rescued by a shinobi and lives for several years in his mountain village, struggling to learn a completely different way of life from how he was raised.
Part 3 starts when he returns to his home islands, finding the changes that have come about as a result of the near total loss and replacement of the population in the area. He has made a vow to protect family's like his own from being slaughtered and tortured, so he starts a new double life as a merchant by day and a Japanese Robin Hood of sorts by night. The people he secretly helps are the beginning of many generations of Kakure Kirishitan (hidden Christians). Keeping true to history, he may be able to help a few (win a few battles) but he can't win the war. Catholicism was illegal until the Meiji Restoration in the 1860's.

It may sound like I am biased toward the persecuted Christians of the time, and I probably am a little, but I also show in the story that there were several good reasons for the shogunate government kicking out foreigners and the foreign religion. The fact is, Japan was just about the only Asian country who was never occupied or controlled by a foreign power until World War II. China, Indonesia, India, Thailand, the Philippines were all occupied by Europeans. This and several other warning signs made them take drastic measures to prevent foreign countries from getting their foot in the door, so to speak.

Anyway, I started researching over a very broad period and narrowed it down to this time because so many changes were going on, which in my mind, makes for a lot of foundation material to write about and build stories from.

Wow! So you lived in Japan? I actually want to visit and have "googled" a ton of pics and info, but I also fear things have changed so much in 350 years. I do think my work should be checked for accuracy, like you say. No matter how carefully I research, I'll never know everything about Japanese culture and history.

Thanks for the points you made and advice. It was all helpful.

Originally Posted by egriffith

Wow, Ditch! So you are the one who wrote Pirates of the Caribbean! Seriously, I can tell you're someone who takes their research and authenticity very seriously! I probably wouldn't try to make a samurai sword or sew a kimono. Unfortunately, I don't have the resources to visit Japan right now, but I have been studying the terrain and climate in the specific places I write about, like you suggested.

My wife and I got married before the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" was ever heard of. We met online, spoke for a year, then she finally agreed to meet me in Galveston. I set up a meeting at a little Mom and Pop Mexican place. We both were pretty nervous so I suggested we move to the Poop Deck, a bar with a nice view of the Gulf. Time passed and we decided to get married. Marie, the owner of the bar said they had a costume wedding, you could come dressed as anything as long as you were in a costume. We both thought this was pretty cool and thought about it. I said, "We have both lived outside of the law and done time for it... pirates. Let's have a pirate wedding.

She agreed that the women could dress as wenches, we had both done the formal thing before and this sounded like fun.

i then said, "I've been a firefighter for 23 years, I want the Galveston fire Department to pull a pumper up right here, put all of the pirates on top and parade us up and down the sea wall. i want the Chaplain of the the fire department to marry us on that jetty." I pointed out to the sea. A few months later...



My traveling the Yucatan and diving on shipwrecks began long before I ever started my story, but they sure helped me to visualize the setting. Just immerse your mind in the culture. Once you begin writing historical fiction, you will be amazed at the amount of research that you will have to do. Luckily, Japan has a lot written about it's history as well as paintings. I had to research did they have dyes back then? Did the women wear makeup? What were the torture devices they used? What weapons did they have?

Also, keep a "cheat sheet" in a separate file on your computer. You may introduce a character or name a ship, then five chapters later need the name of that person or ship. a cheat sheet keeps you from having to go back looking for that information. And last but not least, back everything up to Mozy or at least a flash drive.

Originally Posted by Ditch

I also built model ships of that time so i would understand the layout of the ship. The cannon decks, the capstan that raised the anchor as men marched in a circle around it, the chicken coop located on the back of the ship so the smell drifted away. It also helped me with the terminology of the parts of the ship such as the foremast, mainmast, mizzenmast, yardarms, ratlines and such...







Often, the devil is in the details,

I shall have to go back to my reference books. I always thought an anchor was raised with a windlass, whereas a capstan was used for tightening or shortening ropes, for example, mooring lines.

You are correct sir, both methods were employed at different times in history. the model ships that I built from the era of my book (three of them) used a capstan. a windlass was also used but may have come later as an improvement, as it was a winch. A capstan was a very tedious way of raising an anchor. Here is one reference..

Sea shanty - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the days when human muscles were the only power source available aboard ship, sea shanties served a practical purpose: the rhythm of the song served to synchronize the movements of the sailors as they toiled at repetitive tasks. They also served a social purpose: singing and listening to songs is pleasant; it alleviates boredom and lightens the burden of hard work, of which there was no shortage on long voyages in those days.
Despite this, the Royal Navy banned singing during work—it was thought the noise would make it harder for the crew to hear commands—though capstan work was accompanied by the bosun's pipe and it was traditional for a fiddler to play when the anchor was being raised.

"Japan was just about the only Asian country who was never occupied or controlled by a foreign power until World War II. China, Indonesia, India, Thailand, the Philippines were all occupied by Europeans."

I need to correct myself (before somebody else does). Thailand was never colonized or controlled by Europeans. Vietnam came under French control, but not until 1859. Gotta get my facts straight before rattling off what I think I know.

Wow! What a wedding! Pirates on a firetruck. I'd never see that coming in a million years! I also met my wife online. Long story. But I had an Indonesian wedding with 500+ people! Indonesians don't just invite close friends and family (like most of the people I know). They invite everybody they've ever met and can find an address to send an invitation. And if you're Indonesian and get invited to the wedding of someone you don't remember, you go anyway, just for the food! I felt like a clown wearing Chinese style robes and a crown-like hat, but sometimes we men do silly things like that to please the women we love.

Thanks for the tips on research and keeping a cheat sheet. I am doing some of that but need to get more organized. I actually write to files on a flash drive and back it up to the computer at home. That way I can write on lunch break at work, or anywhere else I have access to a computer. I had to stop writing yesterday to check when hour glasses and pocket watches were invented and came to be widely used. You are right, a lot more research than I expected when I started writing.