Critical Artical Summary #2

Historical Fiction

   This article is written by Jo Beverley, and it is about what makes up good historical fiction and how to write it. Ms. Beverley has written a number of books under the historical fiction genre and therefore has much experience with writing and knowing what makes good historical fiction. She tells us that writing historical fiction breaks the rule "Write about what you know". When writing it you go into a world and time that you are not familiar with; a place that you know nothing about. You must research and do a lot of it to be able to have a convincing and accurate novel. The main part of this article is steps to help you write historical fiction, and all of the steps involve research. Through out this article research is what Ms. Beverley is stressing must be involved with writing and must be present. She suggests things like knowing the basic history of the era you are writing about, and this can also help you when reading the book as well. You can have a more accurate view of the time period and how their lives are and were affected during the story. Another suggestion she makes is that good historical fiction focuses on everyday life, and this is what most of you research should be about. This accuracy is the key to what makes the novel worth reading and dependable when referring to the historical part of the book. To get the research you should look at things like newspapers from the times, diaries, memoirs etc. for primary sources. Primary sources; although they are hard to find, are the best type of research because it is direct and in Ms. Beverley's eyes is the research that is the best when writing. "Historical novelists are interrupters of the past for readers in the present". The research is one of the most important parts of writing these books to Ms. Beverley, but she also tells us that not all the facts will help the message you are trying to send. It is still important to have a good plot, but good research makes good historical fiction.