Does this sound familiar?

The story line is incredible. The book, impossible to put down. As you turn page after page, the minutes slip by unnoticed. Food means nothing to you as you feel the emotions of the characters, share their struggles, and revel in their joys. The clock strikes the hour as your reach the last page and gently close the book. It was perfect. You fall asleep wishing you could have lived then and longing for morning when you can read the next book and tell your friends about them.

Then . . .

Yeah, then. You tell your friend and she gives you a smile and says, “I read it, but it’s not historical. Things didn’t happen that way. The author took a lot of liberties with history.”

Your joy is shattered. You either get mad at your friend and mutter something about “what do you know about history!” or you shrug it off as though it really doesn’t matter. However, inside, you feel let down and don’t want to read another book by that author again. But they were such a good writer! They had such a way with words! Why didn’t they spend more time doing research?

 

One of the things that really drives me crazy when I read books is finding historical mistakes. Not just little things like someone in 1820 calling their father “Dad” (though I will probably fuss a little over that), but mistakes that change history, or put the wrong travel into a different time. Mistakes that make the characters say “Okay” or give the “okay sign” when it wasn’t a common thing or worse yet, hadn’t even been created! When the story sounds half old-fashioned and half modern, when inventions are either ignored or too common, when the characters act like modern teens or get called teens when the word wasn’t even invented . . . And I could go on and on and–but you get the picture.

Yep, I’m one of those crazy people who want to read books that are real. (My best friends would say I was a history snob.) I don’t want to trust an author that this is how it was only to find out later that much of it was made up.

But what if you are the author? What if you are going to write that historical fiction book? Do you have to do research? Can’t you just not call your book “historical”? Or perhaps you have read other historical fiction and their characters said/did/acted–– (fill in the blank). Maybe you don’t really care if your book is accurate or not. It may not bother you at all.

But let me tell you, it matters! There are people who believe that if it’s published in a book and it seems historical, than it is true.

So, what are you going to do about it? You want your story to be as accurate as possible, sound as authentic as you can make it, and be an author that readers can trust to tell them about history.

Do historical “liberties” bother you in books? Are you the friend who tells others that “such-and-such” book isn’t accurate? Do you wish you had some advice for getting your story historical? If so, then be sure to come back next week when I’ll share 6 tips for writing a better historical fiction book.