![]() Historical novels that do not ring true are not good art. I would rather over-research than under-research. In fact, being trained as an academic researcher, my problem is knowing when researching and start writing). Likewise, I had to learn what skills people had, what the literacy levels were, how people wrote, traveled, what authorities were like…the list seemed endless. I had to learn the social structure, also far different from Western social structures today. Slavery in that world was quite different from slavery in the last 500 years, so there were numerous historical documents and academic papers to read. I already knew a lot about the Roman Empire, history, culture, and even slavery, but I didn’t know enough to write a novel that transported the reader back to that time and place. When I wrote my first historical fiction novel, Onesimus (about a slave in the first century Roman Empire), I performed years of research before beginning the first draft. The farther removed from the author’s own time, the more research is needed. It also requires a good working knowledge of historical events, cultural norms and issues, worldviews, technology, and so much more. Historical fiction typically requires far more research and attention to chronology than any other genre (although that depends on the narrative). It can be as simple as researching a location to make your scenes believable, or learning how to make pastry because the main character is a baker. Good research is part of writing any novel or short story. Researching and Writing Historical Fiction You can download a 20-day demo version for free but if you want to buy it, Aeon Timeline is available for a 20 percent discount until June 14 at. Watching the introductory video can explain the features better than I can, but if you’re creating a tour, exhibit, or article, this might help you organize ideas much better than the traditional outline or stack of cards. If you’re exploring narrative non-fiction or using storytelling techniques in historical interpretation, it will help you construct arcs and identify turning points. But Aeon Timeline goes further by allowing you to tag events and add notes to provide depth, and you can add layers for people or places to visually keep track of what happens to whom or where. ![]() That’s nice, and you might be able to figure out how to manipulate a document, spreadsheet, or database to do this for you. ![]() ![]() Even better, it can zoom in or out so you can examine the details or see the big picture. Like any timeline, you can plot dates of events, put them into categories (e.g., local or national), and display them neatly and chronologically. It’s currently only available for the Mac for $40, but next year they will introduce a version for PC. Help may be on the way through Aeon Timeline by Scribblecode, a timeline tool for fiction writers which can be easily adapted for historical research and interpretation. After you assemble a lot of data, managing those relationships becomes incredibly complex and you’re continually updating charts and reshuffling cards. If you’ve ever been involved in researching or interpreting an historic site, you’ve no doubt assembled a timeline to keep track of events and understand connections between the site, region, and nation. ![]()
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