One of the reasons I used to think that writing historical fiction
was not for me was that I didn’t think I knew enough about history. I had the
idea that it would be better to write about ‘what I knew’ because it would save
me a bit of time. If I based fiction on familiar, everyday facts, then I could
put the energy I would have put into finding out about farthingales or dropsy
into writing the actual story.
So my first novel was set in my home town, Brighton, in what was
then the present day. (The year 2000 or thereabouts.) But it turned out that
research was essential if that story was to work. When confronted with the
blank page, unless you can really recall the precise texture and detail of an
experience, you have three choices:
1. Use your imagination
2. Be extremely brief.
3. Find out about the precise texture and
detail of the experience.
Choices one and two are fine, and I use them regularly. In fact,
all fiction is a mix of research, memory and imagination, and if you aren't
prepared to go for it and make stuff up, you are probably better off doing
something else. Brevity and elision are gifts to the writer – fading in an out
of scenes, cutting to the chase, avoiding adverbs and adjectives Unless
Absolutely Necessary – this is good, effective writing.
But Choice 3 will get you in the end. You need to know your
subject. You need to know your subject if you are writing chick lit, or crime,
or a literary novel set in a call centre. There is no escape from this. And
when you set out on your finding out mission, the greatest surprise of all is
that it is extremely enjoyable.
As long as you keep your story and your reasons
for doing your research in mind, and don’t panic about spending time away from
writing new words down, this part of the writing process not only grounds your
story in actuality and real events, it also inspires lots of new ideas, and
helps you refine existing ones. Becoming an anorak is among the great pleasures of
writing.
I am starting a new historical novel now, set in a new period.
(The Restoration.) And I'm going through the same process I went through with
Dark Aemilia. The first stage is scoping out – I am reading big, fat books
about Charles II and the other major players in the period, and slightly
thinner books about Restoration drama. I’m not sure what I will need for my
story at this stage, so I am assuming I will need everything. I am a bit like
someone packing up before emigrating, because writing a new historical novel,
set in an unfamiliar period, is like moving to another country.
