Heather Hiestand's Musings

Research in an unreal world

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This entry was posted on 9/19/2006 10:03 AM and is filed under On Writing.

I'm finding myself spending lots of time doing research for my second Victoriana tale. My Victoriana is a parallel universe centered on Victorian England. The first story, coming soon from Highland Press, is set in 1862 London, sort of. I have a Victorian flavor, but my historical character details etc. are way off from historical reality. Now, with the second story, I'm wanting to use a more correct historical setting and character details. But as a writer, I have to wonder, why? After all, I've already established this story universe is different than historical reality. As a reader, do you care if any of the facts are historically accurate once we've already established we're not talking about history? In particular, do you want the places in such a tale to be real places? What are you looking for in an alternate reality romance?

Blue Moon Enchantment is finally out! This includes a WWII romance from my friend Judith Laik, as well as other writing buddies. Amazon has it in stock.

 

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    • 9/19/2006 12:02 PM david wrote:
      I'm an avid science fiction reader. Usually, parallel universe stories center around either "close" parallel universes or "distant" ones.

      The "close" ones are historically accurate but with a few strange twists because some event happened (or didn't) or a decision was made (or wasn't) that caused a slight deviation from the reality that we know. The result of that deviation may (or may not) cause a radical change from the reality we know.

      In the "distant" parallel universes the accumulation of alternate decisions and events that happened (or didn't) causes a wildly different history than occurred in our reality.

      It seems to me that you will have to do your research in any case. Whether a story is about "close" or "distant" universes, a writer should explain to knowledgeable readers why the parallel universe environment differs from the one they know. That means a writer has to know the actual history.
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    • 9/19/2006 1:12 PM Eilis Flynn wrote:
      I think flavor over fact! After all, it's a fantasy, right?
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      1. 9/19/2006 2:03 PM Heather Hiestand wrote:
        I guess my opinion is somewhere in the middle. I'm going to try to set "A Skateboarder in Queen Victoria's Court" at Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight. Part of the movie "Mrs. Brown" is set there, so at least I can see what it looks like. I was going to use Windsor Castle, where I've actually been myself (though long ago), but couldn't get my hands immediately on many visual aids. I'd like to get the first draft of the story done. I'm stalled on page 3 without a Victorian setting!
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