Four Ideas to make readers relate to Historical Fiction.
- Historical fiction must have feel-real effect
- Find details to transform the historically typecast figures or events into feel-real people and phenomena.
- Give human attributes to characters that are only names in history. They must become relatable to the reader.
- Visualize events and embellish them with plausible details so that the reader can picture them.
- Use language that suits the grandeur of larger than life personalities or events that have changed history. More metaphorical and idiomatic with regional nuances. Get any regional vocabulary validated.
- Make the peripheral characters that take the story forward realistic by giving them the appearance, clothes, gestures and behaviour natural to the historical period of the story.
- Show how the peripheral characters anchored the story or pulled the strings in the plot.
- Research is imperative
- To successfully do the above, continuous research is essential. Sources can be books, PDFs of old books, films, blogs, discussions with historians, visiting the story setting and chatting up local people.
- Do not use all the information research brings up. Be focussed on the story and pick up information relevant to it.
- Use intriguing facts from research to promote your book.
- Describing battles
- Describe vigorous action only in a few sentences and do not repeat them.
- Describe the weapons or the kind of troops used during that battle or period and their efficacy in the specific battle. But avoid technical details.
- Describe the layout of the battlefield for the reader to visualize it.
- Talk about the strategy of the battle; why it changed as the battle proceeded
- Show whether the strategy was a success or a failure through description instead of mentioning in bald facts
- Get the reader into the minds of the warriors. Describe the emotions of the protagonists during the battle; triumphant, over confidence, despair, etc.
- Describe details of a particular fight especially if it is one that your protagonist is fighting. If it ends with his death it will be a wonderful opportunity to hook your reader with a powerful emotional identification with the tragedy.
- Consciously do this
- Never distort historical facts for the sake of your story. Weave your story through the gaps that archived history throws up.
- Do not fall into the pitfall of making your story into an historical account by stating chronological facts or dates. You are narrating a story and keep it that way.
- Make your story into an animated series of scenes that transport your reader to that era. Let your reader become a hidden eyewitness to everything happening in your story.
Sutapa Basu is an award-winning and best-selling author of three historical fiction books, Padmavati, The Legend of Genghis Khan, and The Curse of Nader Shah.
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