I’m traveling right now, so Rue Allyn graciously offered to take over my blog for the day. Rue writs across several genres, including historical. She is also a sister military veteran.
Take it away, Rue!!
TITLE: Historical Detail: The good, the bad, and the challenge
Ella, thank you very much for inviting me to visit with your followers today. Some of them may wonder what an author of medieval and western historical romances is doing on a blog largely dedicated to regency romance. The key is in the love of historical detail that makes a romance come alive. We all know that character and conflict drive a good story, but in a historical setting even the best character and conflict will fail if the historical details are implausible. At the same time, we write fiction—NOT history. So those purists who find the shift of a year or phrase unknown in print before the timeline of a story might wish to re-consider their expectations. For the author, finding the right balance between documented history and good fiction is a challenge.
A terrifically glaring example of historical inaccuracy in a fictional setting is the movie version of The Lone Ranger. I enjoyed this movie tremendously, partly because I did not expect historical accuracy. For instance, the story is set in Texas during 1869. However, a large number of scenes were filmed in Monument Valley which is geographically fixed in Arizona and Utah (hundreds of miles from Promontory Point where the Transcontinental Railroad linked up). The story is predicated on a railroad land grab scheme involving the transcontinental railroad. In itself that’s very plausible, but not when the transcontinental railroad does not and never did pass through Texas. As history, the movie is appalling. As story, I found it delightful. The scenery did not take away from the narrative. Details of historical dress and behavior were entirely plausible. Speech patterns and vocabulary choices were right on target. I could, and did, suspend my disbelief of the location inaccuracies.
By way of contrast the recent remake of True Grit, with Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn (IMHO this version is a vast improvement on the very enjoyable John Wayne original) comes to mind as a shining example of historical accuracy in fiction. Location, dress, speech, behaviors in True Grit all combine to support and enhance a terrific story that engrossed me so much, I didn’t notice a single historical inaccuracies. Some things about True Grit are improbable, i.e. a thirteen year old girl accompanying the men searching for her father’s killer, but the improbable is made possible within the historical context.
Was The Lone Ranger a better movie than True Grit? No, both are excellent stories, given appropriate expectations.
In my own work I strive for the kind of accuracy that makes the improbable possible for the reader. In One Night’s Desire, the improbability is that a woman would know photography and work as a photographer on an exploratory expedition in the Yellowstone area of the US. History makes this probable because Henry Jackson was the photographer for the official US government expeditionary force that mapped the Yellowstone area. Women like Calamity Jane were known to dress like men and perform jobs commonly given to men. I could go on at great length to provide other examples of the good, bad and difficult use of historical detail in fiction. However, I think you get my point. Writers have a responsibility to use history to enhance the story experience for readers. Nonetheless, do not allow a small inaccuracy to destroy a good story for you, especially when all other details contribute to a plausible fictive world.
If you’d like to know more about One Night’s Desire here’s the blurb followed by a link to an excerpt.
A WOMAN ON THE RUN: Rustlers, claim jumpers and fire, nothing will stop Kiera Alden from reuniting her family. But an accusation of murder threatens her dreams and sets Marshall Evrett Quinn on her trail. She may be able to escape prison bars and eventually prove her innocence, but she can’t escape Quinn’s love.
A LAWMAN IN HOT PURSUIT: Marshall Evrett Quinn is relentless in pursuit of law-breakers, and pretty Kiera Alden is no exception. Clever and courageous, she evades him until a chance encounter turns the tables. Finally he has this elusive desperado under arrest, but success is bittersweet when she captures his heart.
EXCERPT LINK: http://rueallyn.com/2c2ONDexcerpt.html
One Night’s Desire and its sister book One Moment’s Pleasure are heavily discounted at Amazon for the entire month of July
ABOUT RUE: Author of historical, contemporary, and erotic romances, Rue Allyn fell in love with happily ever after the day she heard her first story. She is deliriously married to her sweetheart of many years and loves to hear from readers about their favorite books and real life adventures. Learn more about Rue and her books at http://RueAllyn.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/RueAllynAuthor?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RueAllyn
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5031290.Rue_Allyn
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rue-Allyn/e/B00AUBF3NI/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Blog: http://rueallynauthorblog.com/
KEYWORDS: western historical, Rue Allyn, Crimson Romance Publishing, US Marshals, Wyoming, Shoshone, Horse Stealing, Claim jumping, sacrifice, Shoshone, Yellowstone, Wind River, mountains
ellaquinnauthor
Ella Quinn ~ Author 
Rue, I must agree that as authors, we shouldn’t worry about minor historical inaccuracies. It doesn’t bother me a bit when a writer talks about the fireplace mantle in a book set in 887 AD, but it would bother me a lot if they mentioned Henry VIII’s seventh wife or the Civil War still going strong in 1866.
As far as plots and characters, if it is even remotely ‘possible’ that a certain character did a certain thing, then I go for it in my writing. History is filled with real people doing some extremely improbable things, so why shouldn’t my characters do the same?
I don’t at all find it ‘impossible’ that a woman might be a photographer in the Old West. I’m looking forward to finding out how you handled the difficulties she would have faced and her triumphs.
Mairi, Thanks so much for the comment. Nice to know someone else sees this issue in the same light.
I can’t imagine why Ella didn’t ask me to take over..
Imagining…imagining…imagining…
Okay, I understand why Ella didn’t ask me to take over.
I never have a problem believing that women dressed and pretended to be men so they could do interesting things in the past, because there is sufficient evidence to prove that occurred. So I object to the classification of improbable and wish to replace it with ‘unexpected’ only Ella wisely didn’t give me the password to her blog.
🙂
🙂 Unexpected is an excellent term and I will consider its use when I address this topic in the future. Thanks very much for the comment Liz.
This was great!
I try to get all the historical facts and terminolgy correct, but know I’ve made some mistakes. Hopefully they aren’t too glaring like the one my daughter and I saw in a movie some months ago. The movie was set in 1847 and one of the characters commented about just seeing Jane Austen walk past. Hard to do since she’ been dead for decades.
🙂 Oh heavens, that would be a problem. The nice thing about historicals is that the farther back in history you go the less proof there is of specific dates for specific events. Thanks for the comment Collette.
There are some inaccuracies that will throw me out of a book. Things like title problems and doorknobs, in a Regency or early Victorian.
Fascinating Ella. It seems the more expert we are in a time period the more specific the plausibility issues become. Thanks for the comment.
Excellent post, Rue. Like you, I pick up on historical inaccuracies in movies, but that doesn’t keep me from enjoying the show if the story is good. Especially if it is *really* good.
I write pirates and I’ve done loads of extensive research. I try to get the terminology down, as well as the plausible action. Imagine my surprise when, despite the incredible amount of fantasy, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is largely accurate in terminology and action.
Love the blurb. One Night’s Desire sounds like a fresh, fun historical.
Love pirate stories. I’m a layman as far as pirates are concerned, but the inaccuracies in the PoC franchise don’t surprise me. Nonetheless, I found them roaring good movies with very compelling characters. Thanks for the kind words and the comment.
Ella thank you so much for the opportunity to visit with you and your followers today. Hope you’re having a terrific trip.
I am having a good time. Thank you for asking, Rue.
Having seen both versions of True Grit (and reading the book) I enjoyed both but the Jeff Bridges was definitely truer to the book. When it comes to historical movies, I’m willing to suspend my disbelief to a point. As an RN I don’t watch medical shows. Somebody asked me many years ago if I watched ER to which I replied, “Why? I can go downstairs for that.” 🙂
Hilarious and in a way sad. Thank you very much for your comment.
Great post! I’m on your side. I can suspend my disbelief unless they’re glaring errors. It bothers me more if the heroines hair changes color. Things like that. lol
Well, Stacey, I almost don’t want to tell you, but in the interests of full disclosure, in One Night’s Desire, the heroine’s hair color does change. Now, I’m certain you didn’t refer to incidents where for disguise a character deliberately changes the color of his/her hair. I’m betting you meant those lovely instances where for whatever reason a charcter is blond at the start of the story then magically–without any effort on the character’s part–becomes a brunette or a red-head. I get a chuckle out of those myself, and they can send me scurrying back to the first appearance of the character to check. Thanks for your comment.
there are….stupid typo… *sigh*
🙂