By Suzanne Morgan Williams
But some interesting questions have come up as I work on the
historical. It’s not only based on real people, but the plot is true too. That
said, there’s precious little information about these people themselves. I’m
totally creating their characters. As a writer, that’s good. It gives me
flexibility and I’m quite capable of researching to make them believable, and
fashioned to their times. This is historical fiction. But, they were real.
There are documents about them and letters. So how much will my fiction
influence any subsequent thoughts about these folks? Probably not much. But I’m
thinking about it.
I have three projects “pending” in various stages of development.
One is a fictionalized memoir. (yes, I finally said, “why not?” some of my life
is pretty interesting and relevant.) One is contemporary research based
fiction, and one – wait for it – is definitely historical fiction. The memoir
is half done and resting. The contemporary has been out to a couple of editors
and is waiting for revision. The historical is in that “hot writing” stage
where, working from a very rough outline, I’m just writing to the end. I’ll see
what I get.
But some interesting questions have come up as I work on the
historical. It’s not only based on real people, but the plot is true too. That
said, there’s precious little information about these people themselves. I’m
totally creating their characters. As a writer, that’s good. It gives me
flexibility and I’m quite capable of researching to make them believable, and
fashioned to their times. This is historical fiction. But, they were real.
There are documents about them and letters. So how much will my fiction
influence any subsequent thoughts about these folks? Probably not much. But I’m
thinking about it.
Maybe I should just change the names. But what I find
fascinating is that the story, the plot, is real. Maybe I shouldn’t embellish
the plot at all. It’s pretty good as it stands. But with a couple of other
characters and some more confrontation the tension is better. With the addition
of specific talents and traits that I’m assigning to them, the characters come
alive. So I’m probably going to go for full out for historical fiction.
The manuscript will be true to its times. The setting,
history, and some extent even the voices will be researched. But the characters
– they are themselves. They will be molded from my ideas, my research, and good
story. Is that wrong? Do I need to change the names? Can I manage with
including an end note that explains what we know is true, what is probably
true, and what I cooked up in service to the story?
For now, I’m writing the manuscript, but before I submit it
for publication I have to answer these questions. Your thoughts?
I think you are doing it right, and I think that very few writers of historical fiction, or even biography, do otherwise. If the characterizations you create for these real people leads them to do the things they are actually known to have done, your conjecture about their personality is as good as anyone's guess.
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