Fictionalizing real historical figures #HNSNA2023

Margaret George is an expert at turning figures from the past into wonderful historical fiction with award-winning novels such as The Memoirs of Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Mary Called Magdalene, The Confessions of Young Nero, The Autobiography of Henry VIII With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers and more. I had the pleasure of attending her class on that very topic during the recent Historical Novel Society conference in San Antonio. So, what advice did Margaret offer?

Margaret covered three main topics: Fiction Writing in General, Historical Fiction in General, and Turning Real Historical Characters into Fiction, aka biographical fiction. I’m going to share my notes from the third topic.

• Non-fiction omits the motivations of real figures; in historical fiction, you have the power to bring those motivations and emotions into the history of a given figure.
• You must explore WHY you want to write about a particular real person. Margaret says that getting your motivation clear is an important question. She gave us a few possibilities to consider:
  • do you want to be that person? Let’s say a famous inventor or a well-known WWI flying ace.
  • do you feel a bond with that person or the need to do something for that historical figure? As an example, perhaps you feel that Richard III is badly maligned and you might be able to rehabilitate his reputation. Margaret George, for example, wrote two novels to show another side to Emperor Nero.
  • do you feel the need to bring someone out of the historical shadows? Perhaps a female scientist whose work was overlooked or a painter whose art was overshadowed by some other famous painter of the time.
  • Margaret told us that sometimes it feels like a character has chosen you!
• You should also consider other important questions before embarking on biographical fiction.
  • do you want to spend a lot of time with this person? Writing a full-length novel takes months and months and oodles of research!
  • do you want to experience the life they lived?
• The process or creating your novel becomes like the job of a detective as you chase down clues about your historical figure. Many of these clues come from the written word, the historical record.
• Margaret mentioned a number of research sources to consider:
  • archeology
  • old maps
  • artworks of the time – statues, portraits, art, poems
  • coins as they often have an image of someone real
  • museum exhibits
  • walk in their footsteps – for example, visit the Tower of London in the winter to get a true sense of the isolation, the damp, the noises and so on
  • movies for things like costumes and food
  • reenactments
  • jewelry
• Make sure you do your own research as you need to immerse yourself in the time period and circumstances of your chosen character and you might otherwise miss that small, insightful detail.
• Use your characters thoughts, dialogue, reactions, and actions to bring out the facts and the reality of the period. The old adage of show don’t tell.
• When there are gaps in the research, use whatever you know and what you believe it most likely to be true. As an example, when Margaret wrote her novel, The Memoirs of Cleopatra, she discovered documentation that Cleopatra spoke eight languages. Latin wasn’t mentioned. What would Cleopatra do in advance of her meeting with Caesar? Wouldn’t she undertake a crash course in Latin?

• Use real people you know as models for your secondary characters. Imagine these real people as part of your story. Because you know them, your minor characters will take on more life and depth.
• Give your character a childhood and use that to explore their motivations and emotions. For example, Hilary Mantel gives Cromwell a father who kicked him regularly as a child.
• Find a novel that does what you want to do with your fictionalized person. Study that novel carefully. Examine the choices the author made and consider why they made those choices. Use the novel as a model for your writing.

You can read other posts featuring Margaret George: Reflections on Writing Historical Fiction, Fatal Attraction: Margaret George Talks about Nero, Spotlight on Margaret George.

I’ll be writing more posts based on sessions I attended at the conference. Look for topics such as Page Turning Secrets with James Scott Bell, Storytelling in the 21st Century with Libbie Grant (aka Olivia Hawker), Marketing Historical Fiction, State of the State (a view of publishing from agents and editors), Dazzling Dialogue and other topics.

By the way, the conference was wonderful and so well run! In addition to the presentations and panels I attended, I met many new authors and spent time with old friends. The next North American conference will be in Las Vegas in 2025, and the next UK conference will be in Devon in September 2024.

FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION FOLLOW A WRITER OF HISTORY 

M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel is THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, a dual timeline set in Hong Kong. Mary’s other novels, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.