Facts + Imagination

"How do you come up with the stories?"

This is the question that is asked many times when I tell people that I write historical fiction books.

I always answer, "The story comes easy."

I have always had a vivid imagination. When school was done for my sisters and I, we would immediately go and play. Coming up with stories for paper-dolls, dollhouse and Playmobil, was our favorite activity. Once a story began, we were lost in the land of imagination. I would always marvel; I considered my sisters the best storytellers. I still do.

So, the story part of writing is almost as if I am reliving my childhood. Coming up with character names, situations, plots, twists and turns is exciting and energizing.

But. . .I also always answer, "It's the history part of historical fiction that is more challenging."

I love history. There is no denying that. However, I find myself in a creative and factual tug-of-war as I write:

How much information is too much so I lose the storytelling aspect and it sounds more like a college essay?

How lenient can I be with history? Is it okay to add a little to the past under the guise of creativity?

What parts of history should be emphasized and others understated in the story?

When these questions and more of the same swirling through my head, I found a great quote: "The thing that most attracts me to historical fiction is taking the factual record as far as it is known, using that as scaffolding, and then letting imagination build the structure that fills in those things we can never find out for sure" (Geraldine Brooks).

I breathed a sigh of relief after I read this. I do have a responsibility to represent history accurately, so it is important for me to rely on research and to do my homework. The readers place their trust in my hands to tell them the truth of the past. This is when history can truly be understood and appreciated.

But also as a storyteller, I have a responsibility to tell history in an entertaining way. I cannot become so bogged down in ensuring that everything is factual and finding that one piece of information that is no where in sight that I do not rely on my characters to fill in those spots that only the imagination can amply complete. This is truly when the story comes to life.

As an example, in the story I am currently writing, my character finds herself leaving her home in Paris. As she is waiting for the train that is going to lead her to her new life, she looks up and spots the Eiffel Tower. Now, this may or may not be the last time she sees this sight that has always impressed her and brought her comfort (you'll have to read the story to find that out!)

As I was writing this part in the story, I became stuck trying to figure out where the train station in Paris was located in the 1940s and wherever it was located, would it truly have a view of the Eiffel Tower? I was hung up on the tiny historical detail, that I was missing the fact that this event in my story is going to add an emotional element that, I hope, will really speak to the readers. Although I could have pulled out a map, I left behind Paris geography in the 1940s and decided to keep the scene in my story whether it matched up historically or not. I felt that it was important to the character.

After this train station, Eiffel Tower instance I began to grasp, little by little, what it means to be a historical fiction author.

Historical fiction is a combination of facts and imagination. Two unlikely entities brought together through the power of storytelling.