The following words caught my attention when I read the article, “Tackling Historical Fiction,” by Susan Sherman, author of The Little Russian, posted on the Writer’s Digest blog.
Thorough research is vital to historical fiction, not only because it sets the stage, but also because it helps fill out the characters giving them dimension and drive. It also helps us with the voice of our characters. … The writer must be careful with research, however. We don’t want our research showing. We don’t want to include so much detail that it ends up weighing down the story and distracting the reader.
I love reading historical fiction, always have. And that is why I decided to tackle a historical fiction piece myself. As noted in Sherman’s article, I too did a lot of research before I started my story. Mine is a multicultural story. My main character is a fourteen-year-old Latina. The setting is Southwest Texas. The time frame is in the late 1930s. I had an idea about the plot and characters. I just needed to research the times.
If you love doing research like I do, the only problem is knowing when to stop. As you dig deeper into history, you find yourself going off track into other intriguing stuff. But I finally did finish my story. It is ready to send out. So wish me luck!
Historical fictiontells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the main characters tend to be fictional. — Wikipedia