First Monday Post by Sheila Connolly
I found myself writing not one but two books simultaneously for the past couple of weeks. Well, only one was new, but the other was the edits of a much-reworked version of a different one that I had written months ago, and I’ll admit I had a little trouble remembering what I’d written back then. At least the characters and settings were sufficiently different between the two books that I wasn’t likely to muddle them. (I keep thinking that one of these days I’m going to have all my main characters get stranded in an airport together and talk to each other.)
But sometimes it’s hard to keep timelines straight, even within one series. How many days or weeks have passed? What day of the week is it? That’s been true for the County Cork Mysteries. I know the series began in the spring (lots of symbolism, right? New beginnings, a new life, et cetera). But after that things got a bit murky. I knew it snowed in one book, so that had to be in winter. Yes, there are seasons in Ireland (if not quite as extreme as in the US), and time does pass, so I had to write a chronology to help me remember. Thanks to that I figured out that Maura had arrived in Ireland about 15 months earlier. Funny, it had seemed longer to me. I just finished writing Book 8, which takes place in Maura’s second summer, so things aren’t moving fast). A lot had changed, but Maura still thinks of herself as the new kid in town, and she’s still learning about her new home. That’s actually helpful because she still has a lot to discover (even though she never seems to leave the pub), so I have plot ideas in reserve.
I know there are writers whose series span decades (and I congratulate them!). In their stories, one generation passes away; couples meet and marry; they have children, who go on to live their own lives. And often the world changes around them. Certainly electronics play a bigger role than they once did (though I do remember that in my first published book, Through a Glass, Deadly, which came out in 2008, my protagonist did have a cell phone, but since she seemed to spend a lot of time in the desert in Arizona, I could eliminate cell reception easily.)
It’s fine to write historical (or semi-historical) books, and there are plenty of readers who enjoy them (my mother was one). I tend to stay away from writing about history, except in small snippets, because I believe you have to be careful with the details. I remember years ago reading a book set in the later 18th century, in which an antique desk held an important clue (a photograph) in a secret drawer that hadn’t been opened since it belonged to the first owner in 17-something, which of course the modern sleuth discovered. At which point I stopped dead and said, “excuse me, photography wasn’t invented until around 1824, so that clue couldn’t possibly exist.” (Unless you believe in time travel.) Thanks to Google, that could easily have been fixed.
And if you really want to sneak in a bit of history that interests you, you can find your own empty drawer (yes, I’m guilty—I once put a clue into a mortise joint in the attic of an 18th century house, that I’ve visited more than once. This became very weird when the owner was showing me the attic, and I put my hand on a beam and discovered that the mortise I though I had invented was real and I was holding the matching tenon in my hand (recycled beams–apparently recycling had begun by 1760). No hidden clue there, though.)
I find that the challenge is to give your reader enough detail that they can recognize what era the book is set in, but not so much that they get bored before the story really starts. I know what fun it is to find new (to you) information, and of course you don’t want to waste it since you went to all that work to find it, but not everyone may want to know when gunpowder was invented (700 AD in China, although it wasn’t used for weapons until 904 AD. Don’t worry—I had to look it up.).
I think people expect a writer to tell the truth. You may have a wonderful dramatic idea for an important confrontation or a big reveal, but if you get your facts wrong, some reader is going to complain. Readers want to believe what they are reading could have happened—after all, you’re writing fiction and they know it, so they give you a bit of leeway. You can sneak around that by making a brief statement at the beginning of the book that you’re writing historic fiction and you’ve taken just a few small liberties, and then luring the reader into the story so he or she doesn’t care that horseshoes (the kind with nails) weren’t used until around 900 AD, when your Roman emperor rides off to battle on a shod horse. (And I won’t even get into what your publisher may do with the cover image, which sometimes has nothing to do with the story or the time period.)
Have you found things that are clearly anachronisms in a book you were reading? What did you do? Fling it across the room, cursing? Write the author a polite letter? Or did the writer do such a good job that you want to keep reading anyway?
I’m always impressed by authors who clearly put in a lot of time on researching the details to be accurate. I don’t remember catching any anachronisms, but I remember a book talking about driving all the way into Agua Calientes (the town at the base of Machu Picchu). There are no roads to the town. You must take a train to get there.
Keep up the excellent work, Sheila! Your books are a joy to read.
Thank you! I love to learn about things I’m not familiar with, and it’s a nice break from trying to string words together. Love your Machu Picchu example.
I made sure to look up pub opening and closing hours for the County Cork series, and the conditions under which an underage person can serve in a pub. I was sure if I got it wrong somebody would call me out on it, and all it took was a quick Google search.
The all important chronology, no matter when a book is set! I was delighted to realize Robbie Jordan was exactly the right age to go back to Santa Barbara for her tenth high school reunion (the book I’m currently polishing) – giving me a chance to spend some time there myself at the end of this month.
And of course I do write historicals and work very hard to avoid anachronisms in all kinds of areas. Police procedure, medical knowledge, language, transportation, everyday life, Quaker views – you name it! I’m even a docent at the John Greenleaf Whittier Home so I can really dig into his life at the time. The research is a lot of work, and I love it.
That kind of research makes the era you write about seem more real to you–and you can pass that on to your readers.
Oh, chronology. Kills me everytime. I recently realized I had to know exactly how hold my characters were, so I had to go back to the very first short story and map it out so I could age them properly. Fortunately, it wasn’t too hard.
As for historical, I’m forgiving of small details. But please don’t have major transgressions, like motorized cars in the early 19th century or something. I’m less forgiving if the detail is easily verified by a simple Google search.
One of the stories about my Irish grandfather was that he drove a horse-drawn milk wagon around Manhattan after he arrived in 1911 (and met his future wife while delivering milk at the back door). I had never pictured New York with a lot of horses. So in this case, an “inside” story makes the scene more vivid to me (although I’ve never used it in a book).
I don’t ming the occasional glitch, in a historical particularly, if it’s a small matter, but big things do matter. Even non historical books should be carefully researched if you’ve never been to the place you are writing about. I spent two years in Guam as a military wife, and later read a book that mentioned the island and had a submarine landing in a bay that is so shallow that it’s impossible. Things like that bug me.
There are times that I read something that doesn’t make sense and it sends me scurrying to my computer to check into the subject. I forgive most of those but I do wonder if I become a little jaundiced about it. I guess it goes to the suspension of disbelief.
I have read that writers have to keep a “bible” of facts for a series. I admit that I have long spreadsheets of facts and dates about characters. For some reason, the list always needs other things reviewed and entered. Creating a world needs the same level of detail examination by the author. It is work, lots of work! If readers like a story and an author, it is generally accepted. All of that is a great level of dedication! Thank you for all your work.
When it’s a new-to-me author I do lots of checking online. If I catch an error that seems egregious, I don’t read any more of that author’s work. If I’m angry enough about it, I don’t finish the book. I am currently writing a historical mystery, and I spend a lot of time fact checking. To me, that’s part of the fun.
I know what you mean. Not long ago I started reading a cozy romance that claimed to be set in County Cork. It turned out to be completely generic–I didn’t recognize anything in setting or local speech or even pubs. I was tempted to write the author and ask if she’d ever been there. I gave up reading before I was halfway through.
Small errors won’t bother me enough to stop reading a book, though I do look things up, if it seems incorrect. I make notations on a sticky-note, noting the page, error and stick it inside the back cover of the book. I do give a book/author plenty of leeway as I know it’s all fun and fiction. I have however gotten several second-hand books, where the previous owner Highlighted several errors with a Pink highlighter. Now I must say, that bothered me more than the errors.
I’m sure you visualize the reader grinning wickedly as she slashes chunks of text with her pink highlighter. Makes you wonder why she’s reading the book at all–because she likes the book or just like feeling superior. Do you think she wrote the author?
I once read a historical novel set in the 1920s, in which a female character was referred to as a graduate of a college that didn’t admit women until around fifty years later. I’ve never read another book by that author, although I may give the author another chance.
It’s rare that I find something in a book that I know doesn’t belong. I’ve been known to call an author out for it in a review if I do, however.
I usually send a plight email.
polite (don’t know how that other word(?) got in instead).