Historical Fiction: Creating a World Within a World with Nicole Salomone

Creating a World Within a World explores the process of writing historical fiction for the modern reader.

Writing historical fiction has changed with time. Over the past fifty years, the genre has evolved from stories set in a certain era to stories describing what might have been a plausible occurrence.  Many parts of the story, from the timeline to character fashion, locations, weather, and other verifiable details are expected to be on point.

Join us to learn how to find this information, while also adding bits of ‘fantasy’ in ways to engage the reader.

Nicole Salomone is an historian whose research focuses on the social response to medical ambiguity and specifically the misdiagnosis of death in England during the eighteenth century. She received her BA in history from Fairleigh Dickinson University and her MA in History from Southern New Hampshire University. Nicole has now been active in the historical community for over a decade, including service on the executive board of the National Coalition for Independent Scholars as well as the Medical History Society of New Jersey. Her first book Forgotten, published in 2011, tells the story of medicine during the American Revolution through the perspective of a female narrator. Her second book Challenging Death is expected to be released in February 2021.

Text copy by Sharyn Konyak

UPDATE: Couldn’t attend that Meetup? Please find an in-depth account of Ms. Salomone’s talk in our follow-up post found here: World Within a World

Digital Archive: Stories Behind the Stones: https://storiesbehindthestones.omeka.net/

Digital Archive: The Corner of Oak Tree Place & Arthur Ave: https://historicaldancer.wixsite.com/oaktreeplacenarthur

Book: Forgotten, by Nicole Salomone:
https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Nicole-Salomone/dp/1600477054

https://www.meetup.com/South-Jersey-Writers/events/272341359/

Join the South Jersey Writers’ Group:
https://www.meetup.com/South-Jersey-Writers/

CREATING A WORLD WITHIN A WORLD WHILE MAINTAINING ACCURACY

By Sharyn Konyak

Writing historical fiction in a way audiences understand requires careful attention to the facts. With increased Internet accessibility, the onus falls on writers to meet reader’s heightened expectations for accuracy. For authors writing historical fiction in the digital age, that means they have to get it right. Gone are the days when authors could make up the details of a real place and get away with it. Today’s readers are savvy and willing to fact check warned historian and historical fiction author Nicole Salomone at a recent SJWG meeting. There’s nowhere to hide and lack of attention when getting details right, particularly in the case of historical fiction, are not tolerated.

Salomone does extensive research for her writing, in both the fiction and non-fiction genres. In fact, it was her deep dives into history while addressing issues such as fashion, mores, politics and medical practices for her novel, Forgotten, that led her to pursue a Master’s degree in the subject. But she didn’t limit her research to literature, in an effort to gain an insider’s perspective, she traveled to as many places as she could that still had the look and feel of the 18th Century. Traveling to Philadelphia, PA, Tarrytown, NY, Williamsburg, VA and Morristown, NJ, she gained insight on architecture, how cobblestones felt to work on, the sound of rain on those cobbletstone and how animals behaved and reacted to the environs on the time. 

Tips for Making Your Historical Fiction Story Accurate

World building/Setting

• Go to places similar to those you are writing about to get a sense of the place. 
  • How does it sound? 
  • What does it feel like?
  • What are people wearing?
  • How do they behave?
  • What are typical professions?

Theme

• Must fit within social constraints of the time period
• What issues regarding gender, race and religion will determine the viability of the theme

Plot

• What significant historical events occurred in the time period?
• What societal norms are accepted?
• What were the gender roles of the era? Even if the character is not adhering to them.

Characters and Dialogue

• What language do they speak?
• Should you include foreign languages or words relevant to the locale? If so, it is helpful to define those words to prevent readers from having to leave the world you’ve built in order to gain context
• How do they interact?

Conflict

• What issues are characters facing specific to the time period?
• Why are the conflicts they are experiencing reasonable?

Currency converter generators can be helpful in determining the present day buying power of items. Having a frame of reference for the cost of items and the impact of those costs on your character’s lives allows authors the ability to add a layer of authenticity to their narrative. Several exist for the 18th and 19th centuries. One such converter can be found at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/.

But what if readers take issue with the author’s treatment of a particular topic. Not to worry says Salomone, “There is both power and freedom behind the fiction part of historical fiction. You can easily explain any issues taken with your work as ‘author’s prerogative’”. It is fiction, after all. Having a bibliography can provide helpful literary protection as well, even if the sources are not directly quoted. 

Historical fiction can transport readers to a previous place and time. When doing so, historical authors must remember to build their fictional world while keeping their feet firmly in the historical one.