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Historical Fiction: A Growing Trend

© Julia Buitrago

This week, I’m traveling out into somewhat unexplored territory. To date, all the books I have completed are non-fiction historical pieces of prose. (I have many MANY more books in various stages of development, but that’s something else entirely!) I find this genre, although not especially financially rewarding, to be very secure. I’m given a topic. I research it. I write it. I send it off.

Most of the questions I get, however, start off relatively the same: “I’m writing a historical fiction book about my (family member/town/school/favorite decade) and I’m not sure where to start.” One aspect of fiction writing that my husband stresses to me is his ability to sit down at the computer and type for several hours—as if he were giving play-by-play of a movie. He can type in a half hour what takes me an entire day to write as non-fiction. He sits neatly with just the computer while I’ve got notes, photos, and post-it notes strewn throughout the office. Unlike my books, his manuscript does not have to rely on its technical accuracy. He can talk about Wednesday, May 16, 2020 (for those of you who don’t know, May 16 falls on a Saturday in 2020). If I say that the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on June 15, 1997, my book would be shot down by almost every reader. In my genre, dates, names, places, and statistics count.

So where exactly does Historical Fiction fit in. On one side, it IS fiction, which gives the writer a bit of leeway. I can write about John Smith, a Depression-era watch salesman, and his life in New York City, even though he is not a real person. On the other hand, it IS historical, which means that it has to be consistent with historical facts. I could not write about John Smith, a watch salesman living in New York City in the year 1380, for obvious reasons.

The biggest obstacle that a writer of historical fiction faces is that believability barrier. If you can make your audience believe what you are saying, you don’t necessarily have to be correct with all of the facts. If you are writing a historical fiction work based on the life of a relative, you won’t know all the little nuances about their life. Luckily, most readers will be very forgiving if you use a literary license, as long as you don’t abuse it.

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