Writing Historical Fiction - George Washington Slept Where?

Ah as fiction readers and writers we all dream of far off exotic lands, interesting places and scenarios to explore, and fascinating people who live more exciting lives than we do (I am not sure but I don't think I ever read about James Bond sitting in his PJ's eating pizza at his computer, er.. not that I ever do...). Some even dream of far away times, whether as a science fiction writer one thinks of the future, or one thinks of past times. I know my wife loves reading about the middle ages. Me, I prefer the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Whatever time period, past, present or future, is your favorite or preference, you find many stories written about each period.

Of the three time periods, writing historical fiction is probably the hardest . For present day issues you can just write about the world around you. For futuristic science fiction and fantasy, well you make up the world and its rules. But when writing about the past, one has to be very careful and make sure you do your research.

Some questions you need to answer are:

• What and how did people eat back in your period?
• What did they wear?
• How did they get their goods?
• How long does it take to travel 5, 10, 100 miles?
• What were the social customs?
• What were the trends of the day?
• What were the major news stories of the day?
• What kind of houses, how did they heat them and how many to a room?
• What were the houses made of?
• And so on and so forth.

You see you have to be careful not to imbue your characters with modern day values or thoughts. True most of human nature hasn't changed over the last few million years, but our attitudes and how we believed the world to be was different even 25 years ago compared to today (Inter what? World Wide What?, yes I remember time before the internet PC's and GUIs, how did we ever survive back then?). People who read historical fiction know about and are interested in the period you will be writing about. And they tend to be very knowledgeable and if you try and pull a fast one, well they will suss you out and throw your book away, very fast. So do your research.

Be very careful when writing abut historical figures as well. You can't be making up new stories about them as you might end up being sued for libel (yes it seems even the dead have rights these days) by their heirs or historical societies. The best thing to do is create your own character who might have known the person, or served with them etc. They can have some interaction with the historical character, but no new made up deep dark secrets should be invented. Events can be used, but again be sure to stick to the facts, just stretch the behind the scenes, you just add thoughts of your character who was there, but not necessarily a major player in the history books.

What genre works with historical fiction? Well just about any if you really think about it. You can have a detective investigating the Boston Tea Party, or maybe a romance aboard the Lusitania, or maybe an adventure with the Crusaders, or a student of Leonardo Da Vinci's. Maybe even write a story, and go back and change a few tidbits here and there, and all of a sudden you are in the 18th Century court of the Czar of Russia! The ideas are endless, and only hampered by your imagination. Just get your facts right and you can do anything.

All in all writing historical fiction is a fun escape to a bygone era, one where you can wonder what it was like to be in a simpler time. Get it right and you can find unbridled success. Just be sure to take care and do your research or the readers will skewer your work.

Mahalo.

Come back next time for more tips, tricks and techniques to assist you in your writing,marketing and sales efforts. Remember we're all in this together and I'm pulling for you.

Mahalo.

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A View on The State of Marketing, Advetising and Pop Culture From the Heartland-Intorduction

Advertising and Marketing are two of the most important, but widely misused tools a company has in its arsenal.

So much of what passes for Advertising these days seems to miss the mark either by trying to be too cutesy or just plain boring The trick of course is to get the message across without insulting the intelligence of the intended market or confusing or boring them so that they just tune it all out. Let's face it the world is getting more and more competitive these days, and having one's voice heard is very difficult. It also is harder for the targets of these messages to pay attention.

I will be discussing ads, mainly from TV, but also from print media, billboards and of course my favorite medium, the Internet. Also I will discuss how Pop Culture influences marketing and advertising trends, and how advertising and marketing are used in Pop Culture Media (i.e. the way certain reality shows on Bravo TV tie in their sponsors with their activities).

I will discuss the good, the bad and the ugly (but not necessarily at the same time) and why a certain piece either hit the right note, or was just a waste of time and money. I will offer my suggestions (okay, opinions) on how they could have done better.

Again these will be mainly just my opinions (or opinions of friends and family members) based upon my many years of working in the marketing and sales field, as well as being inundated with countless number of commercials, ads, billboards etc. throughout my life.

Read, enjoy, get mad, smile, cry and maybe even learn a few tips and techniques that you can use for yourself. Intelligent comments are always welcome, and appreciated.

Mahalo.