Name:  Lorna Dickinson

Hometown: Looe, Cornwall, England

Book Title:  I Am a Feather

Genre: Historical Fiction based around real events.

Dorrance Publishing (DP): Describe your book in 10 words or less:

Lorna Dickinson (LD): America’s origin story is not what you think it is.

DP: What made you want to write your book?

LD: Getting frustrated with reading Thanksgiving stories with no basis in fact.

DP: How long did it take you to write your book?

LD: It took years of research, thinking someone must have written this story already then realising if I didn’t write it no one else would.

DP: How do you choose the names of your characters?

LD: I use real names throughout, apart from the young protagonist who is given a popular contemporary name.

DP: What do you do when you have writer’s block?

LD: Sleep on it.

DP: What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

LD: The chapter which dealt with the actual Thanksgiving celebration, because I found a historical document in a University library which tells of how before the Pilgrims arrived, the East Coast Indians all started dreaming about music and they all heard the same tune.

DP: If you were stuck on an island and had to have one person from each category with you, who would they be and why?

– One character from your book:

LD: Squanto

– One fictional character:

LD:  Mary Poppins

– One famous person (living or dead):

LD: William Shakespeare

DP: Besides writing, what are your other interests?

LD: Family, Friends, Food, Music and Travel

DP: Do you keep a journal?

LD: Fitfully.

DP: How did you celebrate the publishing of your book?

LD: Breathing and smiling.

DP: If your book was made into a movie, who would play the main characters?

LD: Sir Ian McKellen, Jason Mamoa, Sacheen Little Feather and Scott Eastwood – a real Mayflower descendant.

DP: What did you enjoy most about working with Dorrance Publishing?

LD: The freedom to create the book I wanted.

DP: Five favorite books of all time?

LD: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou

A Wrinkle In Time – Madeleine L’engle

The Golden Notebook – Doris Lessing

Woman On The Edge Of Time – Marge Piercy

Framed – Frank Cottrell-Boyce

DP: One sentence of advice for other writers:

LD: JUST DO IT!

Are you ready to publish your book? Contact us today!

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Historical Fiction

Historical fiction involves a heavy amount of research into the time period where you’ve chosen to set your novel. What sort of clothes were people wearing during this time period? What were the rich people wearing vs. the poor? What sort of language was being used? What sort of customs were expected? Where would they get a cup of coffee in the morning? What would they do with their free time? Readers of historical fiction are reading in large part for the historical details, so you need to put the work into research and accuracy. It’s one thing to embellish a historical event for the sake of fiction, but the novel should overall be grounded by fact-checked historically accurate details.

Science Fiction

The science fiction genre often involves researching complex scientific concepts. Unlike the fantasy genre, the science fiction genre involves a world with a set of rules that can be explained. This means that the concepts that the world deals with should be able to be explained, oftentimes scientifically. So when you’re writing about high-tech gadgets and the discovery of aliens, make sure that the concepts that exist within your world could be supported scientifically. The last thing you want is to write a virtually impossible event or object into existence into your world, only to have the sci-fi community find out by doing their research (and they will trust us).

Horror/Crime

Horror is a genre most people would be surprised requires research. When we think of horror, we think of a killer walking slowly down the darkened road with a single knife held aloft. Or we think of a serial killer and a detective who is getting a little too close to finding him. That involves a lot of suspense and action… but research?

First, the horror genre may be heavy in suspense, but it should also be heavily researched. One of the most frustrating things for a horror reader is reading a character’s death that is absolutely preposterous in its absurdity. The kind of death that, even without any research, you’re absolutely sure can’t exist in nature. This type of character death can leave the reader both heartbroken and angry, even when it happens to the antagonist if you’ve written them well.

Even though it may leave you with a very questionable search history, you should be making sure that a character being stabbed in a certain area of the body isn’t fatal. You should be researching the states of decomposition of a body over time or how the body would react to being shot in the leg. There are no stakes, and therefore no suspense, in your book if the characters don’t feel real, and part of that involves accuracy.

Additionally, the horror genre often involves creating new and grotesque ways of murder. Doing so involves research in order to both brainstorm ideas (again, sorry about your search history) and make sure that they’d be humanely (or sometimes inhumanely) possible to carry out.

Fantasy

This one probably shocks you, but fantasy novels too require research. The level of research required depends on how removed your fantasy novel is from our world. For example, take the Harry Potter world which involves a magical world that is adjacent to or hidden from our world. This means the story still involves humans in a certain time period, the 90s. Therefore, although the world involves magic, JK Rowling still had to research how the character’s human bodies would react to certain injuries and time-specific details like the technology (or lack thereof) that would be available to the students at the time.

You might instead be writing a high fantasy book, or one that involves another world and oftentimes species other than humans. Research can still be helpful in this case as it can help give the fantasy details a bit more solid ground. For example, let’s say you’re writing about a character who is an elf, researching elf lore from other series and reading up on myths can help you find the details you want to include in your world’s version of elf lore.

The post Researching Your Fiction Book appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Do Sweat the Small Stuff

Possibly the most important and complicated aspect of writing historical fiction is accuracy. You’re writing is set in a time that is tangible to us through history books and research. This means, unlike other forms of fiction where you have the freedom to improvise, you have to really stick to the facts. While there is still some room to be creative, when it comes to things like setting, clothing, items in use, etc.- you need to be incredibly accurate. In this genre, nothing will make a reader lose confidence in you quicker than if they spot historical inaccuracies.

Obviously, avoiding these mistakes involves conducting an immense amount of research- arguably more so than any other form of fiction. You want your readers to be able to see, smell, taste, hear and touch a time that has actually existed for us. You want to convey not only what that time looked like, but what the people were like, what they did for fun, and what their opinions were. We recommend not only conducting thorough research on your own but also working with experts on the topic you’re writing about. They may be able to pick up on some inaccuracies you may have missed so you can avoid potential reader backlash post-publication.

Don’t Go Overboard

While it’s important that you avoid inaccuracies and do the necessary research…don’t go overboard. Historical fiction writers tend to make the mistake of going too far in the opposite direction, including minute details on household items and wallpaper. Though you should always do your research, the last thing you want to do is bore your readers with a bunch of specific details just for the sake of showing your research skills. Include details- yes. But make sure you don’t focus too much on details that don’t pertain to your story. It’s a balancing act.

Stay True to Historical Figures

Often historical fiction or western novels will include characters based on real-life historical figures. If that is the case for you, make sure you’re staying true to the historical figures they’re based on. Historical fiction writers tend to make the mistake of pushing their own political or moral thoughts onto these people. You must remember that the figure you’re writing about is a person from that time- not ours. Allow them to be bigoted or politically backward or wrong. Don’t attempt to change them or have them make amends or make them forward thinking if they weren’t. Even great figures are allowed to be flawed and your readers will thank you for writing them with accuracy.

Pace Yourself Properly

This goes along with what we said earlier about not including too much detail. Historical fiction writers often make the mistake of getting too bogged down with exposition at the beginning of the novel. Your reader doesn’t need to understand everything about the era and your character’s place in the world right away. Pepper your relevant exposition throughout your novel as the information becomes relevant to your character and how they’re operating in the world.

Are you ready to publish your book? Contact us today!

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