How Much Research is Enough to Write an Authentic Novel? | StoryCraft Advent Calendar Day 5
I didn’t realize I was writing historical fiction until my third historical novel.
I know, that sounds impossible, but it’s the truth. Because I was layering my stories within contemporary frameworks, I considered myself a contemporary novelist. I was also writing about eras I’d actually lived in, which didn’t really feel historical. First was the Indie Sleaze era of the 2010s, which was when I cut my figurative teeth, and then the grunge era of the 90s, when I was technically alive.
Most of the details of those two books came from my own memories, with a few Google searches to verify dates and moments I couldn’t quite place, lost to the annals of my own mind. I had direct access to those historical events because I’d lived them, so I didn’t necessarily think of them as being “historical.” Part of that was also me refusing to acknowledge that the 90s were, in fact, thirty years ago. Ouch.
When I started developing the next book, The Virtuosos, the story that materialized was from a vastly different era, the 1830s in France, and I knew I had to do some serious research. This would be Historical with a capital H. Writing a Historical novel is surprisingly similar to writing Science Fiction or Fantasy. Even though the world you’re writing in is technically the same as ours, everything about it is different, from the customs to the clothing to the politics to the money. It’s impossible to just start writing without understanding exactly what lifestyles people were living in that era and the historical context leading up to it.
I decided to take a course in Historical Literature, which you can find on Coursera if you’re interested: https://www.coursera.org/learn/historical-fiction?msockid=2463dc0ce8e564570957c8d1e94f65a2 I was taking this seriously. I’ve always loved reading historical fiction and watching period films and shows, so I started rewatching my favorites, searching for the small details that felt important to each story.
For example, the small camera zooms in Pride and Prejudice (2005), that bring a level of modernity to the film.
One of the important aspects about writing Historical fiction is that you’re never just writing in one time period. Your audience is time traveling, and so you need to contextualize every moment so it feels momentous to the contemporary reader.
You need to understand what your reader is looking for, and be able to provide that experience on two different levels.
It needs to feel authentic to the time the story takes place in.
It also needs to feel real to the reader who might be reading now, or even in the future.
It’s difficult to get inside the mind of people you have no direct access to, and so when I started researching the 1830s, I knew I needed to understand not only what was going on at that exact time period, but also the 30 years before it. After all, who influenced the people who influenced my characters?
I decided to play with a group of Romantic Era artists, so I began learning everything I could about the real-world artists of that time. I started with Frederic Chopin, George Sand, and Franz Liszt, but then I needed to understand their inspirations, which spurred me on to learn about Beethoven and the Young Romantics of England like John Keats and Lord Byron, and then Mary Shelley, which led to the Lake District Poets like Coleridge, and the list goes on and on.
For me, the question wasn’t “how much research is enough,” but instead “how do you know when to stop researching?” How do you stop yourself from spiraling down a Wikipedia rabbit hole and not actually, you know… writing?
Because research doesn’t mean much if there isn’t an actual novel to house it all.
I quickly realized I needed to develop the story at the same time as doing my research, and this actually opened up a whole new world for me. As I was learning the customs and history of the time, I started adding those details to my characters, which provided inspiration for the next plot points. Oh, the French Revolution just happened? That better play a part. Oh, artists were transitioning to pieces about freedom and nature and expression? My characters better be doing that, too. Life becomes art becomes life, a cycle of research and creation that builds and builds on each other.
I could have spent years researching the Romantics. There’s just so much rich history and drama within this sub-group of artists and writers, but I knew my story had to have a specific point-of-view, so I finally decided to settle on 1830 in Paris, with a Finnish Protagonist to drill that specificity even further. The story wasn’t just about history anymore, I’d added my own personal stakes. How does a Finnish writer settle into Parisian society? How does she decide what art to create and for which audience?
I chose the time of multiple French Revolutions, and I couldn’t accurately tell my story without including the political upheaval of that era and how it would have affected my characters. Just like a fantasy novel, I had to build out an entire world. What did daily life look like? What were my characters’ goals? What were their dreams, and what were their struggles?
I began to build out the lives of these characters, figuring out when they would have been born and how their childhoods would have gone. Using my research of real artists of the era, I could piece together some of the common struggles of that world. Most importantly, I had to weave the stories of women who would not have had as many rights at the time, especially if they weren’t royalty.
I think that no matter what kind of story you want to tell, you have the responsibility of telling it honestly and accurately, and that includes representing how the world really is or was. It would have been untrue of me to show a historical world where my characters weren’t dealing with the real struggles of the day. How George Sand had a male pseudonym to sell her novels. How class struggle became so much a part of everyone’s lives that they revolted against the monarchy.
In order to take your research seriously, it’s important to be organized, and if I could go back to the start of this project, I would begin with a list of all the things I needed to know in order to tell my story.
When does the story exist?
What is the current political climate?
What led to this political climate?
When was the Protagonist born?
What happened during their childhood?
What has led to their status quo at the beginning of the story?
What is happening in the lands surrounding your setting? How could it affect your story?
Who are the important people of this time and what were their struggles?
Which artistic movements were happening and how were they inspired?
Will you include real people, or fictionalizations?
Most importantly, don’t miss the story within the research. Just like in building a fantasy world, it’s easy to get lost in Wikipedia clicks and Youtube rabbit holes, but research doesn’t write a novel. We must, at some point, start writing, and you will never know everything. You will always write yourself a note along the way that says “could this have happened here?”
You can always fill in the blanks on the next draft.
-L.
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