The Joy of Historical Fiction

Today’s guest is Tamera Lynn Kraft.  She writes historical fiction Kraftset in the United States because, she says, there are so many stories in American history.  She has received a second place in the NOCW contest and a third place in the TARA Writer’s contest. She is a finalist in the Frasier Writing Contest. Here’s what she has to say about research for historicas.

Researching Historicals

Researching historicals is a lot of fun for those of us fortunate enough to write them, but they can also be challenging. The key is to make the history around the event a major part of the story without making the reader feel like she’s getting a history lesson. One of the greatest things writers can do is to immerse themselves in the time period they’re writing about.

Culture: Every era in history has a culture that is unique for that time Kraft - 1920 Fashionperiod. For instance, a novella I wrote called Resurrection of Hope is set in rural America in 1919-1920. During that time period, modern conveniences were starting to make their way into the average household, but many rural farms still didn’t have running water or electricity. Silent movies and roller skating rinks were where most people went for entertainment. Fashion was all over the place. Older women wore dresses to their ankle and their long hair in buns. Young city women called flappers wore their skirts almost to their knees, cut their hair, and sometimes even wore make-up. Many of the women in that time were somewhere in between. It was a time of transition into a new modern era, but it wasn’t quite there.

Historical Events: The events that were going on during the time period you are writing about need to influence the characters in your story just as they did in that day. For instance, a story written during the post-World War 1 era would not be as effective and believable if it didn’t have at least a mention of the great influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. Over 24 million people, some say as high as 50 million, died from the flu during that two-year period. It killed more people than the Great War, and every family was affected.

If you’re writing a story set in the late 1860s or 1870s, you’ll need to include the Civil War in your story. Remember that even though the war was over, every family was affected by it in some way. It was still fresh in their memories and needs to be addressed. Whatever era you are writing in, brainstorm about the historical events that affected everyday life.

Mindsets: Too many writers make the mistake of giving their characters a twenty-first century mindset. This is one of the easiest ways to make your characters unbelievable and to take the reader out of the era your story is about. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a career woman in the 1800s or a pacifist during World War 2, but if you have characters who defy the normal mores of that day, they need to have a reason for doing so.

I once wrote a novel set during the Civil War that had a female journalist who believed in women’s rights. I could get away with this because my main character was raised by a suffragette and graduated Oberlin College, the only coed college in the US before the Civil War that allowed both blacks and women to get college degrees and champion civil rights for both. Most of my other characters in this novel were surprised or hostile about her choice to be a career woman. It worked because even with my main character’s strong opinions, she still behaved, dressed, and had the morals of a nineteenth century woman.

One way to get into the mindsets of the people in the era you are writing about is to read journals, newspaper articles, and magazine of the time. That will help you understand their frame of reference. What we consider outdated and antiquated thinking was what was to them reasonable and sensible for that day. Don’t explain away their modes of thinking and behavior. Write the characters as they were in that era, and let the reader take away what she will from it.

Kraft - ResurrectionOfHopeCoverArt72dpiHere is the book blurb for her novel Resurrection of Hope.

She thought he was her knight in shining armor, but will a marriage of convenience prove her wrong?

After Vivian’s fiancé dies in the Great War, she thinks her life is over. But Henry, her fiancé’s best friend, comes to the rescue offering a marriage of convenience. He claims he promised his friend he would take care of her. She grows to love him, but she knows it will never work because he never shows any love for her.

Henry adores Vivian and has pledged to take care of her, but he won’t risk their friendship by letting her know. She’s still in love with the man who died in the Great War. He won’t risk heartache by revealing his true emotions.

You can find her books on Amazon as well as Barnes and Noble, Desert Breeze Publishing, and All Romance eBooks.

You can contact Tamera on her website at http://tameralynnkraft.net  or

Facebook: http://facebook.com/tameralynnkraft

Twitter: http://twitter.com/tamerakraft

 

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