Why is the journey through a historical novel so different from regular reading?
Because for that brief time,
YOU ARE THERE!
In the 1950s and 1960s,
CBS featured Walter Cronkite narrating a history series that teachers
especially fell in love with. Dramatic presentations of historical events put
the listener or viewer into the scene as it happened. Before becoming a
television series, the programs were heard on the radio.
What made the series
brilliant and endlessly interesting was how Cronkite gave a short introduction,
an announcer gave the date and the event, and then that loud proclamation, “You
are there!” was heard by the audience.
Wow!
Historical events such as signing the
Constitution, Joan of Arc’s dilemma, the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the
death of Cleopatra, famous fights, and legendary tragedies were dramatically
reenacted.
Cronkite noted the type of day it was when the incident occurred, what else was going on in and around the famous happening, even what the weather was like. Thusly, he immersed the viewer in the tone and feeling of that particular time and event. He orally painted the picture for the audience.
Historical fiction writers
paint more than pictures with their words
All writers must paint pictures
with words, but historical writers have to paint museum-quality art with
their words. They must depict the look, feel, smell, and concurrent events of
the time era around their amazing plot. The more skillful the writer is in
employing the five senses without bogging down the reader, the more successful
he is at kidnapping the reader for an unforgettable journey into the
past.
How do you do it? Make readers smell that
apple pie cooling on a window ledge. Make them feel the rain spattering on the protagonist’s silk drop-shoulder hoop dress as she runs for
shelter. Let them see the brilliant sunset beginning to bleed behind your main
character as he tells his finance he is going off to war. Make readers hear
that lonesome train's whistle as clouds of steam permeate the still, frosty night.
A fine line
There are joys and pitfalls to writing historical fiction. It's gloriously fun to delve into other time periods and share your findings along with your plot and characters. It can be so much fun, there is a tendency to overdo. Think about the stomachache you got from eating too much candy when you were a kid. Yikes! Too much of a good thing!
It's the same with overdoing historical facts and trivia as you write your story. It's a fine line. With so much relevant and
irrelevant research the author uncovers while delving into a particular historical time
and subject, he or she must not forget that the reader does not care about every
detail of every piece of furniture, of every room, of every old car, of every battle, and so on.
Don’t kill on-fire interest with trivia that pulls the reader off the main road
and onto a hundred divergent trails. Use what you have garnered in research to
flavor your story. Learn to “paint” a setting in a few words. Find clever ways
to insert facts or feelings that work toward ushering readers into the world you are painting.
If the writer stays in
the moment, so will the reader. Don’t go too crazy with details, keep the facts
pure *or you’ll be found out*, and love every moment of creating something that
will take readers to places they never dreamed they could go.
Then, YOU will be the one declaring,
“You are there!”
***
Jodi Lea Stewart was born in Texas to an "Okie"
mom and a Texan dad. Her younger years were spent in Texas and Oklahoma; hence,
she knows all about biscuits and gravy, blackberry picking, chiggers, and snipe
hunting. At the age of eight, she moved to a vast cattle ranch in the White
Mountains of Arizona. As a teen, she left her studies at the University of
Arizona in Tucson to move to San Francisco, where she learned about peace,
love, and exactly what she DIDN'T want to do with her life. Since then, Jodi
graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Business Management,
raised three children, worked as an electro-mechanical drafter, penned humor
columns for a college periodical, wrote regional western articles, and served
as managing editor of a Fortune 500 corporate newsletter.
She is the
author of a contemporary trilogy set in the Navajo Nation featuring a
Navajo protagonist, as well as two historical novels. Her most recent novels are Blackberry
Road and The Accidental Road. She
currently resides in Arizona with her husband, her delightful 90+-year-old
mother, a crazy Standard poodle named Jazz, two rescue cats, and numerous
gigantic, bossy houseplants.
1956
. . .
THE
ACCIDENTAL ROAD
–
Historical Fiction
It’s
1956, and teenager Kat and her mother escape an abusive situation only to
stumble into the epicenter of crime peddlers invading Arizona and Nevada in the
1950s. Kat is a serious girl who buries herself in novels and movies and tries
to be as inconspicuous as possible. Fading into the background is impossible,
however, with a beautiful social butterfly of a mother who just happens to
resemble Marilyn Monroe. It’s embarrassing, and the unwanted attention her
mother garners could be the downfall of their plan to take Route 66 to the
freedom of a new life.
Print
and eBook available on Amazon.
1934
. . .
BLACKBERRY
ROAD
–
Historical Fiction
Trouble
sneaks in one Oklahoma afternoon in 1934 like an oily twister. A beloved
neighbor is murdered, and a single piece of evidence sends the sheriff to
arrest a black man that a sharecropper’s daughter knows is innocent. Hauntingly
terrifying sounds seeping from the woods lead Biddy into even deeper mysteries
and despair and finally into the shocking truths of that fateful summer.
Audible,
Print, and eBook available on Amazon, etc.
