Thread: Historical Fiction Help

I’m thinking about writing a mystery series set in some period of American history. The premise of the mystery series is that it’s told from the perspective of a young, blind boy. These are the ideas (The cities are all fictional and the protagonists are teens):

(1) Set in 1775, Ashwick, Massachusetts, the main character is a young French orphan name Aimon “Amos” Garnier who lives in a tavern. Eventually, he’s booted out of the tavern by the brutish owner, Charles Wilkins and he moves into a farm.

(2) Set in 1855, Port Lisha, Alabama, the main character is a young Mexican orphan named Miguel Sanchez who lives on a plantation under the care of Nathaniel Maywalker. He was discovered in 1848 by Nathaniel and his fellow band of volunteers in a church in Mexico City. Taking pity on the boy, Nathaniel takes him in.

(3) Set in 1952, New Yorkshire, Georgia, the main character is a young boy named Lewis Grantville. His mother, Laura Truman Grantville, is a performer and his British father, Gordon Grantville, is a WWII veteran. (Laura was married to another man before she met Gordon. Lewis is Gordon’s stepson.)

The trouble is, I can't pick out which of the three would be the best setting to tell the story. Especially with Miguel since his story is pratically Amos', except in the mid-1800s and the boy's Mexican. I had considered the 1950s simply because its more recent and some of my favorite music came from this era.

What should I do? How do I know which era is the best? I know I can just write all three of them as seperate mystery series, but the question is, which series would best fit the mystery series featuring my blind detective?

Hmm, this is an intriguing dilemma. So the question you're primarily concerned with is which will make for the best setting for a blind detective? I suppose there are specifically a few issues to take into consideration. First of all, the further back in history go, the less technology you will have to work with in the story. For example, if you were to use the second idea, taking place in 1855, there would probably be many relatively new, possibly experimental, techniques and tools that one could use to solve a "mystery" (this mostly assuming that you're talking about crime). Whereas by the 1950s there would be a lot of well-established methods and in 1775 there wouldn't be much in the way of technology at all. Of course, no matter what you're character will be both young and blind, so I'm not sure how much of such methods he would be using himself - there's always the option, too, of having him be friends with someone who does have access to those sorts of tools.

Thinking about it from that point of view could lead you in two directions: if you want it to be easier for your character, or if you want the mystery to be solved in primarily a physical-evidence-based way, then using one of the later dates would probably work best. However, if the idea is more that this character is very clever, and perhaps perceptive in ways that other people are not because of his blindness, then I think 1775 would be a good choice.

All three are good choices from a social/political standpoint as well. There would be lots going on historically in each setting to inform the mystery if you wanted to go that route.

If this were my story, the time period I would choose would be 1775. I think this would be a good choice because I personally think that the best way in which to use this character is to make him quick for his age, and perceptive - he picks up on people's tones, sounds that other people don't notice, scents maybe. If you were to use a later date, I feel like the main character wouldn't be able to do as much to solve the mystery on his own; he would need more help. It seems to me that the best way to use this character is to put him in a position where, despite his age and blindness, he is actually better equipped in a lot of ways to solve this mystery.

I hope this helps - you've got a really interesting idea here!

Originally Posted by LlamainTARDIS

(2) Set in 1855, Port Lisha, Alabama, the main character is a young Mexican orphan named Miguel Sanchez who lives on a plantation under the care of Nathaniel Maywalker. He was discovered in 1848 by Nathaniel and his fellow band of volunteers in a church in Mexico City. Taking pity on the boy, Nathaniel takes him in.

Pesonally, I think this one has bags of potential. Could raise many questions about the human condition, morality and so forth. Lots of dangerous things that your young blind protagonist could hear and pick up on. Although I have to say, I think all three scenarios are definitely workable. Perhaps they could be linked to tell a story over a broader timescale? However that probably wouldn't work seeing as you have a specific protagonist driving your narrative. Just musing out loud now, not very helpful, sorry.

Really interested to see where this goes. Best of luck

I always figured 1855 was best because I love the 1800s a bit more than I do the 1700s. I'm into the medicene and technology of that era while the 1700s, people were...well...not as advanced. :p

Plus, hasn't the Revolutionary War been told and retold? No offense, but I'm kinda tired of reading books set during this period. America's under the oppression of Britain, the British soldiers are dicks, etc. Even though my Colonial detective has no personal interest in the war, this is the world he lives in. He'll hear about the king imposing monsterous taxes on people. He'll still have to deal with people who are loyal or against the British crown.

I like the 1855 one because it has a lot of potential because here you have a slave owner that "freed" a boy from what was going to be a life of hell as a blind orphan in the slums of Mexico City after the War, yet he holds a group of people slaves, to do to them what he so wishes. Miguel also has a dark secret that he doesn't wish for his caretakers to know less they think ill of him. Also, the story before the American Civil War hasn't been told that much, so it will give me an opportunity to explore what happened then.

All are excellent but please don't write in red it will set off a maassssiveee bomb in my head. There it goes.

Okay, sorry about that.

I wonder: Is it all right to switch the setting despite the fact I wrote a chapter in the Colonial American mystery and shown it to my Fiction Writing class as an assignment? I have this feeling that because I did that, its set in stone and I have to write about Amos and Colonial America even though I might really want to do Miguel instead.