History Is In The Details

© Terry Irene Blain, 2007

A few days ago, someone asked why long historicals are longer than long contemporaries. It's because you need more words to make your work 'historical'. A long contemporary is generally about 15,000 words shorter than a long historical. Those extra 15,000 words are all you have to paint your historical picture.

A historical should take the reader to another time and another place. And you do this by the details.

Suppose in a contemporary the hero and/or heroine go to an Italian restaurant. You don't have to say much more that 'Italian restaurant' as readers know what an Italian restaurant (or a country club, or a supermarket, or shopping mall, or what ever is like). In your historical when your hero or heroine goes someplace, you have to let the reader know all the details that their own experience can't provide for them.

All writing classes remind you to use the five senses, and that's especially important for historical writers. How does you scene look? smell? feel? taste? sound?

Your contemporary Italian restaurant description could simply be "they entered the restaurant, which held the faint, delicious smell of garlic. The waiter showed them to a table covered with a red and white checked tablecloth" -- we can fill in the rest.

But what if your hero or heroine enters an inn in 1794 Philadelphia? What images does that bring to your mind right off? Probably not a lot. But that's where the fun of writing a historical is, with the author's research and insight, we can bring the past alive. Here's the scene I wrote for my historical (not that I'm that wonderful, but I don't need to get permission to quote myself):

"April Williamson slowed her pace as she approached the Twelve Tankards Inn. Cool morning sunlight bathed the wooden steps and wide front porch. . . . Male voices drifted from the common room as she climbed the inn's steps. On the porch she paused. . . . Swallowing her nervousness she entered the inn. The dusky interior caused her to hesitate just inside the doorway while her eyes adjusted.

"Light streamed in from the open door behind her, throwing an elongated patch of light on the wide planks of the pegged floor. A stone-flagged fireplace bearing a huge oak mantel dominated the north wall. Solid oak tables and ladder-backed chairs dotted the room which held only two men and the lingering aroma of bacon and sausage."

Notice how this is a lot longer than the Italian restaurant. That's because we have to supply many more details to put the reader in the scene. The writer, not the reader, has to supply the details.

So make sure when your hero and heroine go to a colonial market place, the castle kitchen, the Regency ball, the local county fair in Illinois, the barn in Texas, or wherever -- that the reader can see, hear, smell, taste and feel what the hero and heroine do.

Where do all these details come from? Well, let's admit it, you might have to do some research. But this chapter (and the RWA) is a wealth of information. We all help each other with information we've found, or know where someone might look for the particular detail they need. So finding your scene details really isn't that hard. Do your homework and find out as much as you can.

I generally read a lot of background before I start the actual writing. Whether you do the research first and then write, or write and then do the research for the details is your personal preference.

For me the hard part is not including every little interesting detail that I find. I generally write them all in my first draft and then whittle them down during the rewrite stage. For instance, in the example above, the mantel only made the cut because it was used later in the scene. " . . . he (hero) stood tall enough to rest his arm across the high mantel".

Remember these details are like the tip of an iceberg. You don't want to use everything you find, just the tip. The rest of the iceberg is the knowledge you gain, and while it might not show up specifically in the ms., your depth of knowledge will make your writing better. You want the historical part of historical romance to come through. So don't forget the details.

To quote Henry David Thoreau, Henry David ­ "The universe is not rough-hewn, but perfect in its details". So work to make sure your historical romance is not 'rough-hewn', but reasonably 'perfect in its details' and you'll have historical romance that can transport a reader to another time and another place.

Good luck and keep writing.

© Terry Irene Blain, 2007