Why Your Novel May Not Be Historical Fiction After All

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Discusses the fundamental principles of a historical novel.
Historical and speculative novelist K.M. Weiland offers tips and essays about the writing life to help other writers understand the ins and outs of the craft and the psychology behind the inspiration.
Intro music by Kevin MacLeod: incompetech.com/
Video Transcript: Today, I want to take a minute away from talking about general fiction techniques and focus on a specific genre-that of historical fiction. This is a hugely popular milieu that's really more of a setting or a backdrop than it is an actual genre. You can write a book of practically any genre-mystery, romance, thriller-and put it in a historical setting. So in a nutshell, the only thing that defines a historical novel is its presence in a historical period. We could conceivably take Inception or The Bourne Identity, re-stage them during the American Revolution or the Great Depression, and boom! suddenly they're historicals.
But, somewhat contradictively, simply moving a story to a historical period isn't enough to make it a good historical novel. The bottom line is this: the historical period has to be integral to the story. In other words, if you write a story set during the Alaskan gold rush, but the gold rush itself and/or the Alaskan setting isn't really that important to your story, then that setting is extraneous. Worse, if your characters' actions in this story are ones that would make just as much sense if they were happening in modern-day Manhattan, then you're failing to take advantage of your historical era.
The point of all this is two-fold. 1. For all that a historical setting is just a setting, it's really much more than that. Don't disappoint readers who are looking for an immersive historical experience if your story could just as easily take place in the modern day. 2. Do your research. Make your historical setting pop off the page. You want your readers to feel as if they're living in this foreign time and place. Most of the time, it's the little details much more than the big ones that bring historical novels to life and anchor their characters and plots within the setting.

[@StarlitSeafoam]

Brilliant, brilliant point! This is something that I hopefully am achieving (I think I am) in all my historical tales. I wish more movies and tv shows would take your advice, haha (especially your last point). :)

[@KMWeilandAuthor]

Thanks for watching! I love historical fiction, so it's always a pleasure to see them done right.