Historia!

One of the workshops that I took at the NJRW conference was on historical accuracy or how much history to use when you write a historical.

I admit it, I belong to the history police. I've been known to throw books across the room when I spot a historical inaccuracy. Maybe it's because I grew up reading authors like Anya Seton, Jean Plaidy, Thomas B. Costain, Frank Yerby, and others that I'm so picky about historical accuracy. I was once so incensed by an author's taking liberties with history that I was unable to read any of her books for years.

What was I so peeved about? Well, the book was set in 1607 in Jamestown and the heroine remembered her mother, an actress in Shakespeare's troup. She wrote a long passage of the heroine reminiscing about her mother playing Juliet and Lady MacBeth. Well, there were no actresses in England until the Restoration. This book was written long before Shakespeare in Love, with it's plot of a well-born woman pretending to be a man, so that she can act. The book hit the wall so hard, I think it left a dent.

After taking this workshop, I realize that I'm pretty much in the minority when it comes to the issue of historical accuracy. I used to love that Susan Johnson had copious footnotes, and would tell the reader if she changed something for the benefit of her story.

Some readers prefer historicals that are what they call 'wallpaper historicals' meaning that the history is sketched in lightly if at all. For example, although Jane Austen's novels are true to the mores of the times, there is very little in her books about the war between England and France. Other authors who use history lightly if at all, are Julia Quinn. Now, I like Julia Quinn's book. I think her characters are delightful, but her stories could exist in pretty much anytime period in English history.

What I love are historicals that are equal parts history and romance. Meaning that the author has chosen a particular period or year for a reason. Think Margaret Mitchell and Gone With the Wind. The Civil War is so much a part of that novel, yet there is a wonderful love story between Rhett and Scarlett (although she doesn't know she's in love with Rhett, prefering the gentlemanly Ashley). Forever Amber wouldn't be the same story if it weren't set during The Restoration of Charles II.

Oh, and one woman in the workshop actually said that if you read enough historical novels in a particular time period, then you don't really need to research. WTF? Just because I've read most of Georgette Heyer and everything Mary Balogh wrote, not to mention Jane Austen, that doesn't mean that I don't have to do research, if I'm writing a Regency. Of course you do. Who knows what they might have missed or gotten wrong (not Jane Austen). Even George Clooney had two or three sources when he was writing Goodnight and Goodluck.

Because I know so much history, I'm incredibly picky about the historicals that I read, which is probably why I don't read that many anymore. What really gets my goat though, besides characters that don't seem remotely English, are the misuses of titles. I can't tell you how many regencies I've read that get this simple fact wrong. Books that have second sons of Earls as Lords instead of honorables or characters who are married to Lord's referred to by their Christian names as Lady Mary or Lady Elizabeth when they would really be referred to by their husband's name (it's his title) as Lady Edward or Lady Richard. And it's so easy to check. Burke's peerage and Debrett's can be found in any library.

One of the things that keeps me from writing an historical, is the research. I couldn't even begin to start writing until I'd done at least 3 or 4 months of research, and write now there are other books I want to write. That's not to say that I won't eventually try my hand at one.

So basically there was no consensus on how much history to use in a historical, just your own taste and what is selling in the marketplace. If you like light historicals where the history is basically wallpaper, that's what you should write. If you like your historicals based more in fact, than that's what you should write, just make sure it doesn't overshadow the romance or sound like a history paper.