How Historical do you like your Historicals?

History or Fantasy?

The current adaptation by the BBC of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace seems to be flavour of the month, both on screen and in the newspapers, as Tolstoy’s written incestuous relationship “subtly alluded to” turns into on-screen nudity, presumably to sex up the story for a modern audience. After all, 40% of people polled by the BBC admitted they’d lied about reading the book. However, it isn’t the sexing up of body parts that brings the most shock-horror reactions, it’s the anachronisms: an out-of-politic military decoration, velvet worn on a battlefield, modern make-up, and a certain one-shouldered mauve satin dress. Ignoring the highly dubious cut, its colour didn’t exist in clothes until the 1890s.

Do we care? Should we care?

Also currently on British television screens is ITV’s Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands which was avidly awaited by this viewer and dumped after the second episode in favour of housework. Any housework. The only connection this has to the Anglo-Saxon poem is the hero's name. The howl of derision on Twitter had to be seen to be believed.

Yet what about the acclaimed series Wolf Hall, adapted by the BBC from Hilary Mantel’s novels set in the court of King Henry VIII, shot both in natural light and in candlelight? It had its detractors: an Elizabethan house used instead of a Tudor, its drab tapestries, its slow pace blamed for a slump in audience figures. Ah... audience figures. Not ‘sexed up’ enough, or not ‘dumbed down’ enough for a mass audience? I found it gripping, the double-dealing undercurrents both horrific and creepy. I’ve not read the books (I make no apology and I’m certainly not lying about it) but I know that a first-person narration, through the historical Thomas Cromwell, was used to bring an immediacy across an extended time frame.

I mention this because I’ve just finished reading The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman, in which is also used a first-person narration, through the historical Dr John Dee, mathematician and court astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I. As well as humanising a name from the somewhat distant past, it certainly helped to deftly convey both historical context and minutiae without getting in the way of the story.

And this, I think, is the entire point: to put across a detailed historical background without info-dumping it on the reader. If readers wanted to read the history they would have picked up a history book not a novel; if viewers wanted to watch history they would not be watching a drama but a documentary, however factionalised such have become. Yet dramas, in novel or screen form, are often the first door to exploration of a historical period. Perhaps those who live by audience ratings don’t care enough whether there is a second, but I believe writers should. I think most writers do, hence the sometimes detailed ‘Historical Notes’ to be found after the fiction has concluded.

Am I alone? How historical do you like your Historicals?

Those Resolutions - Update

Mid-month is about the time all those New Year's Resolutions start to wobble. Have mine?

Surprisingly enough, no. I say this because I am truly surprised they are working as well as they are. The key has been to turn my work-day life around, so I shall be sticking with the change: mornings are exercise, housework, decluttering (believe me, it's needed), and social media; afternoons are dedicated to writing; evenings to reading & relaxation with a quick drop in to social media.

The concerted exercise is definitely having an effect on my endurance. As to the writing, after delivering a short-short for an anthology, and putting to bed a longer short story, I am back on with the work-in-progress Pilgrims of the Pool. And about time, too.

Cutting to the Bone - #Editing

How do you write your fiction? I currently write detailed, building tone and atmosphere in pastel layers to create a vibrant depth in which to seed information and incidents that echo other parts of the story as it builds to a series of harvest points.  

This doesn’t happen over a single page, or even a couple; it needs space. But what if there is only the single page? For an anthology submission I’ve been cutting a Horror short story – 2,750 words – down to 666. Trying to write “up” to 666 words I found beyond me. When I was teaching, my mantra was... if a story is to be cut by more than 25%, then it needs to be rewritten not edited. 

Did I follow my own advice? No. I excised, I trimmed, I amalgamated. It took seven passes to get within ten words of the target. Only on the eighth pass did I start rewriting, replacing word for word, to ensure that the atmosphere, the tension, the building dread necessary to the genre, was present in the quantities that would elicit the targeted reader reaction. 

Did it work? I’m told so, and I certainly feel that I’ve brought the story to fruition. But it was my third story, so I still believe that not every concept can be cut to the bone and survive intact. Would I like to take such a knife to my current detailed writing? Emphatically no. However, it’s a great exercise for opening a writer’s eyes and showing what is possible. Give it a go.

Those Resolutions

Yes, it's the New Year and, although we really don’t believe we’ll keep any resolutions we make, we feel that we should at least show willing.

Followers of these posts know that I started what amounts to my New Year’s resolutions way back in early December, under the thought umbrella of there has to be a better way than this... The marketing & promotion side of that will continue.

I also have the regaining of my health to consider, in fact prioritise, because without health none of us can work to our potential, and sitting at a keyboard for hours on end is not exactly conducive. So this festive season has been a time to take stock.

I’ve always thought of myself as a morning person – not a 5am morning person; that’s the middle of the night – but a morning was when I used to be at my freshest. Now it’s when I’m my creakiest, when I’m most interrupted, and distracted. So I’m turning my working day around, and I’ll try it for a month to see how it goes.

And that’s my advice. If it hasn’t worked well in the previous year why continue down the same path in the coming year? To turn our lives around we often have to... turn our lives around.

Best of luck with keeping your own resolutions. And a Happy New Year!

 

How about you? Has a New Year’s Resolution blossomed into a life-changing event?