Writers in the Storm

ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to some really icky computer issues, NakedEditor Tiffany Lawson Inman's post will be delayed until next Friday, Sept 23rd. Since she is AMAZING, we know you'll want to check back then to see it. ~Jenny :-)

Researching The Historical Novel
Part 1 in a series
by Sharla Rae

For the writer who enjoys history, researching is often the best part of writing a historical novel. Even so, deciding where to start can be mind-boggling.

Why Research?

1. Lovers of historical fiction know their history. The facts cannot be faked.
2. Historical facts set the boundaries or limits within which the writer must work.
3. History can be used as external conflict to strengthen the plot while adding deep and rich layers to the story.
4. Throughout time, history has shaped people and vise versa. It “should” be the same with historical characters. Characters are defined by the times, government, social culture language, fashion, entertainments, etc.

So Where Does the Research Start?

To keep things simple, think of researching as the construction of a house from the ground up.The Foundation:
General background research

Like building a new house, researching starts with the foundation. The foundation is the initial or general historical background, the historical facts leading up to and even slightly beyond the time the novel takes place. No culture can be understood without knowledge of its roots and development.

Example: Character idiosyncrasies aside, if a writer wishes to characterize a young Irish immigrant, the Irish heritage and the immigrant experience must be understood. Hence, the writer studies the reasons behind the Irish leaving Ireland and their experiences once they arrived in America.

The same holds true when setting a novel in an unfamiliar city, state or country. Example: Suppose the novel is set in 18^th century England. A study of England’s general history tells the writer what motivated Englishmen of that period and why they reacted differently in a given situation than say an American might.

An overly simplified example: An Englishman of the 18^th century may not have liked a Frenchman. Why? The two countries had frequently been at war.

The Walls of the House:
The Limiting Historical Facts – Who, Where, What, & Why

Once the foundation of the general historical background is laid, it’s time to add walls to the foundation of the house. The walls consist of the factual boundaries that determine the specifics of a story -- the exact who, where, what and whys.

Remember, a house usually has more than four basic exterior walls and that there will be interior walls, too. For the sake of simplicity I’ll discuss four basic exterior walls.

Lets assume the author’s story is about two men who are feuding over a piece of ranch land in the Old West, a common scenario.

General research informs the writer that there were many land conflicts in those days, white man verses Indian, cattlemen verses farmers or sheepherders, people verses the railroads, white man verses Mexican and Spaniards etc.

First Exterior Wall:

During the foundation research an interesting fact turns up. Old Spanish land grants were often not recognized by the US government. Eureka! This is a piece of history that lends itself beautifully to the type of conflict the writer wants to develop.

One character can be a gringo newly arrived on the scene, and one a Spaniard whose land has belonged to his family since the Spanish exploration land grant days. This is a “who” limitation.

Second Exterior Wall:

Since the Spanish dwelled predominately in the Southwest and California, historical facts limit the setting of this story to those areas. This is a “where” limitation.

Study general history of the Southwest and California and especially the Spanish settlers and their backgrounds. How did they come to receive their land grants. Where did most of these types of land disputes happen -- Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, or California? Deciding on a state narrows the location and this is another “where” limitation.

Third Exterior Wall:

Let’s say the author has chosen California as a setting for this story because the history supporting the scenario is especially notable in California. Laws were passed to benefit Americans and many Spanish families lost their land.

Wait! Another Wall? Yes. The year those unfair laws were passed gives a time frame in which this sort of conflict would have taken place. Thus we have a “when” or time limitation.

Fourth Exterior Wall:

A study of those laws and exactly how and why they were passed is needed. This study supports and strengthens the story’s conflict. It’s also limiting because the writer must work within the dictates of the law.

In a way this a “what” and a “who” limitation depending on how you wish to look at it. The “what” is the law itself or the government. The “who” is represented by people the law affected and limits it put on them.

Remember that there can be many exterior and interior walls.

Perhaps facts show that many Spanish ranches were located around Los Angeles. The writer may wish to locate the ranches near that city. Thus, another limit is set -- the specific city. Study old city maps, locate actual businesses and citizens during the time frame. Also, note other events that shaped the area.

The Roof:
Cultural Details Limited to a Specific Area and Period

Research local customs and culture of the time and place. Let’s say you learn there was also an Indian culture. While your story will not focus on this, some background is good for flavor.

Since part of the focus is on the Spanish family, research how they lived, what they did for fun, who were their leaders, Spanish names of things as well as Spanish people names, customs, entertainments etc.

Now look at the gringo culture, their ranches, culture, entertainments, customs. How did the gringos in the area differ from the Spanish? What was the general emotional climate among the Spanish ranchers, the gringos?

This cultural background is another limiting factor that helps the writer shape the personality of characters.

Making the House a Home or Interior Walls:
Décor, Plumbing and Furnishings and Personal Needs, and Everyday life

I’m calling this section the interior walls of the house because everyday life items of a particular era are limiting. An Old West rancher would not own a big screen television. Nor would his wife wear a mini skirt.

Once a house is built, the people who move in make it into a home by surrounding themselves with everyday things that suit their lifestyle, needs, and personal tastes.

What characters surround themselves with tells the reader what kind of people they are and what’s important to them. Of course you must always be conscious of the time period when describing your characters’ living environment.

The following is a list of just a few things that should be considered.

1. Size and number of rooms, interior furnishing, kitchen hardware, sleeping accommodations and etc. should reflect the period, social class, location of their homes, personal tastes etc.
2. Foods must be appropriate to the time and culture. For example, what drinks and foods did the Spanish serve? The Americans?
3. Fashion must fit the period, place, professions etc.
4. Modes of transportation available to them
5. Entertainments
6. Names of professions in and around the city and ranch
7. What newspaper did they read? Was it biased? Would it matter to your story?
8. What did the homes actually look like? Spanish? Americans? Materials used?
9. Ranch equipment and animals on the ranches
10. Etiquette of the Spanish and American at the time
11. Standard education of the two groups
12. Languages spoken, dialects that might be used for atmosphere
13. Religious differences between the two cultures, specific practices, etc.
14. Anything that pertains to some aspect of everyday life.

Research Can Swallow Precious Writing Time. Don’t let it. Part 2 of this series shares tips and tricks to streamline the time-consuming process of research. That post will be up next Wednesday!

What are your favorite types of historical novels? When you start a project, what are some research tricks that you use?

Hi all - Charlotte Carter here!

A writer’s life can be an interesting one. Not only can I go to work in my robe and slippers if I’m so inclined, odd things can happen.

Some years ago one of my Harlequin books was translated into Portugese and sold in Brazil. To my delight, I received some fan mail. It makes my day to receive a fan letter. But in this case I had a small problem.

The letters were written in Portugese.

Fortunately, I speak and read a little Spanish. At least I could tell the reader enjoyed my book. That’s always a relief.

Since I don’t speak Portugese, naturally I wrote back in English to thank her for her note.

This sweet 18-year-old girl was so pleased that a real live author had written to her, she wrote to me again — this time in her school English! Which was harder to understand than her Portugese! :-)

Then there was the fan letter from a prisoner in jail. Hmm, I didn’t write back to him. Lots of big-time authors get those; nobody responds. Ick!

The strangest thing that has happened to me occurred recently. I was writing a Christmas scene for New Beginnings for Guideposts Books. The holiday table was set, all the family members were there, lights twinkling on the tree and it was snowing outside.

My husband walked into my office at that moment bringing me the day’s mail. My VERY FIRST thought was ‘Why is the post office delivering mail on Christmas Day?’

Talk about having to blink to come back to reality! In case you had any doubts, authors really do get into the heads of our characters.

I imagine every career has its odd moments. What strange things have happened to you on your job?

Happy reading......

Books that leave you smiling -
by Charlotte Carter
Big Sky Family, Love Inspired, 10/19/2011
New Beginnings, Guideposts Books, 9/2011

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
We've got some rockstars here at Writers In The Storm over the next week!

• You had Charlotte's fun post today.
• Wednesday will bring you Naked Editor, Tiffany Lawson Inman
• Friday, we welcome Roni Loren
• Next Monday, we have Jami Gold on deck

We might hyperventilate with excitement over all these luminaries HERE at Writers In The Storm!!! We hope you're as excited as we are. :-)

Mystery Maven, Linda O. Johnston is back! We've gotten lots of mysterious questions lately, particularly about writing "process," and Linda O has some answers about plot.

The Plot Thickens
by Linda O. Johnston

My guest blog posts here on Writers in the Storm will largely be descriptive of how I write, focusing on mysteries.  That’s what sets me apart from some of the other bloggers here, since I write mysteries as well as romances.  I’ll tell you what I do and how I do it, and you can determine if you want to incorporate any part of it into your writing, no matter what genre(s) you work in.

Today’s topic, if you haven’t figured it out from the title of this blog, is plotting.

I’m a plotter.  A schemer.  A killer--just in my writing, of course.  But to me, plotting is one of the most enjoyable parts of writing mysteries as well as romances with suspense elements.

As with writing, everyone’s style of plotting is different.  I can describe my process, but it might not be the best one for you.  That’s for you to find out, if you haven’t already.

I’ve been writing for a long time.  My process has changed, become a little more streamlined, but I long ago discovered what works for me.

I’ve always had to plot things out before I write.  Over the years I’ve taken classes and attended talks on various kinds of plotting.

One thing I learned is that some people are “pantsers” who write by the seat of their pants and don’t always know where they’re going.  That sounds especially hard to me if you’re plotting mysteries or suspense, but I suspect those writers at least have some sense of whodunit or how they dun it or why they dun it right from the first.

Others use The Writers Journey kind of plotting.  I gave that a try years ago, but I really didn’t relate to it well.  In case you don’t know what I mean, The Writers Journey is a book by Christopher Vogler that describes plotting by using mythic structure.  If you’re not familiar with it, you might want to at least take a look at it to see if it meshes with your plotting style.

So what’s my method of plotting?  I use a modified sort of screenwriting style, a three-act structure that often starts with a grabber and changes direction with plot points that each turn the story in a different direction in the next “act”, leading to a satisfying ending.

How do I figure all of that out?  Well, I start off with a stream of consciousness kind of description of my story and characters that I type onto my computer.  It’s subject to lots of changes and refinements until I have a pretty good idea of where I’m going.

When I’ve got myself heading in a viable direction, I start working with what I call a plot skeleton, an outline with lots of blanks to be filled in that I’ve created and modified over the years.  Part of it contains the blanks for a screenplay kind of plot.

I also have sections that need to be completed in which my main characters are described.  For my mysteries with ongoing protagonists I don’t necessarily do much with this part since I already know the main people, although I might describe some of the secondary figures who play a large role in the particular story as well as the villain.

If I’m working on a romance, I also go into detail about the external and internal conflicts between the hero and heroine and how they’ll work ‘em all out at the end.  Then there are character arcs.

I’ve added other elements over the years, too, but I don’t always go into detail about them.  They’re good reminders, though, about other points that each story may need to address.

Next, I put together a synopsis.

Years ago, this was the time that I instead did a very detailed scene list, describing exactly what would happen and when.  That worked for me at the time, but I now find that I don’t need--or want--something that structured.  My subconscious does a lot of the day-to-day plotting now, and it’ll tell me before I go to sleep at night what the scenes I’ll be working on the next day should contain.

As a result, a synopsis works better for me.   My synopsis may have a different purpose from your synopsis.  I can sometimes sell books in a series, especially mysteries, as “blind” submissions, which means that I don’t always have to describe what they’re about before I enter into a contract with a publisher for them.  On the other hand, I often still write synopses for sales purposes, too.

If I’m writing one mainly for myself, I will still run it by my editor before I get too far ensconced in the story, just in case she sees something she doesn’t like.  I’d rather change it before I head in the wrong direction and need to edit the whole thing later.

Then, as I write the book, I refer often to my synopsis.  Is it an absolute, immutable bible?  Not at all.  But I’m usually sorry if I veer from it too much, since my gut during the initial plotting seems to work better than straying away from what I first thought of.

That’s pretty much it for plotting and me.  Let me know if you’ve got any questions, and I’ll do my best to answer them--or plot my next book around them!

Do you have any plotting methods to share with us?

Linda O. Johnston is the author of 27 published novels, with more to come.  She currently writes the Pet Rescue Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, a spinoff series from her Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mysteries, also for Berkley .   The second Pet Rescue Mystery, THE MORE THE TERRIER, will be an October release.   She additionally writes paranormal romance for Harlequin Nocturne--the Alpha Force miniseries about a covert military unit of shapeshifters. The latest one, GUARDIAN WOLF, is an August release.  And watch for Linda’s upcoming Harlequin Romantic Suspense!