The Layers of Writing Historicals

Writing historical mysteries comes with its own set of problems. There’s already the problem of writing a historical but on top of that is this layer of mystery woven throughout. Dorothy Sayers talked about her Lord Peter Wimsey book BUSMAN’S HONEYMOON as a love story interrupted by a mystery, and that’s how I see historical mysteries. A perfectly good historical novel interrupted by murder.

As with science fiction or fantasy, there is a certain amount of world-building that needs to happen, and by that I mean that the reader must be thoroughly positioned in that time and place. The smells, the sounds, the feel of it all must be part of the prose without devolving into a travel log or documentary. Everything must be real for the characters and no one should seem out of place. And because readers of historical fiction and mysteries are very particular and have purposely stepped into your world to time travel, the history has got to be authentic.

But how does that work when you are writing a work of fiction to begin with?

I consider the history the skeleton of my story. If the skeleton isn’t sound, that is, if it’s made of fictional history, then it doesn’t give enough structure to the rest of it. It’s also more of a challenge to bend the fiction to suit the history rather than the other way around. And let’s be frank. Writing about Henry VIII’s court is already fraught. So many readers “know” the history. Ah, but do they? Have they researched it like I have, or are they relying on films and other fictional depictions?

And I have put that other layer on top, seeing the world of Henry’s court through the eyes of the court jester. Which means well-known events are portrayed with an eyewitness’s experience and in a certain level of society. It’s going to mean something different to the jester than it would to one of Henry’s trusted but perhaps manipulative crony.

Research, as you can imagine, is the most time-consuming part of the writing process. I do some initial research before I start to write so I can ground myself in what’s going on at the time, but even as I write there are constantly things that need to be addressed with further research. The real people who walk into the story must be investigated. Some complicated point of politics must be simplified. Hampton Court looms large in the whole picture most people have of Henry VIII, but I’m in the throes of writing the fourth book in the series and we haven’t been there yet, mostly because it depends on what point of history is happening in that story, and we always seem to wind up at Greenwich…which was Henry’s favorite palace anyway.

How is this research accomplished? Plain old-fashioned book reading, which means a trip to my local university library (And by the way, do not ignore those footnotes. I have found the best turns of plot in just the footnotes.)

Then there is the internet. I can contact people in archives across the pond to get information I need and sometimes I can simply Google something, like a cathedral floor plan, and it comes up! More and more archives are available on the web, and more information than ever is uploaded. Gotta love the internet! But beware. Check your sources and double check.

There’s hands on research, too. I have a collection of medieval weaponry, mostly daggers and swords, mail, helmets, pieces of armor. How did it feel to wear these items, to use them? What do the clothes feel like? What does the food taste like? I’ve made the food, brewed the ale. All of these things have to be done to really get a feel for the era.

I’ve often been asked if I would like to time travel back to England in the fifteenth century. If I could get access to a time machine, I would certainly go back and step out. I’d love to really smell those streets and the people. I’d like to taste the food the way they cooked it rather than relying on the medieval recipes I have. I would like to see the shopkeepers and touch the wares they are selling. I’d like to eaves drop on conversations to hear the cadence of the language and how they used their words and how they pronounced them.

And then, I’d climb back in that time machine and go home, because I’m rather fond of antibiotics and indoor plumbing.

A novel is that time machine, at least for the readers. I like to let them walk around in it.