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At the Historical Novel Society’s conference in London a couple weeks ago historian and historical fiction author, Dr Ian Mortimer gave a very interesting talk entitled “The Problems of Visiting the Past in Fact and Fiction”. He looked at various aspects of the past - including religious and moral attitudes, the individual’s perception of the world around him and the living conditions each social class experienced - and discussed the difficulties involved in presenting them to a modern reader.
I will seize on one issue he discussed: how to describe people and places accurately and authentically without alienating modern readers. Although I’m referring to fiction set in historical times this point also has relevance to fiction set in the modern day.
Without going into too much detail, I will paraphrase a point Dr Mortimer made. Until very recent times, in most societies, living and sanitary conditions and personal hygiene were nowhere near the standard that is expected in modern society. For example, the sight and smell of human and animal excrement was difficult to avoid, especially in working class areas, people did not wash themselves or their clothes very frequently or use deodorant and dental care was non-existent so poor oral hygiene and rotting teeth were the norm. Portraying details like these vividly and accurately to a modern reader is likely to make him uncomfortable or even queasy.
If the reader is uncomfortable or finds such details distasteful, it will detract from his enjoyment of the story. It may even disturb him enough that he does not continue reading. Many modern readers want a sense of the place, time and people of an era, without having to imagine the complete, and possibly grim, reality.
A writer needs to create empathy or sympathy in the reader for her character and the world her protagonist inhabits. She won’t do this if the reader is repulsed by the character’s physical characteristics or the world in which he lives.
So for historical fiction writers it’s important to choose details of place, time and people carefully in order to give a flavour of past times without unsettling the reader.
The same is true for novels set in the modern day. Except for genres such as crime fiction where readers expect some gore, writers need to create a character and place that does not repel the reader. Lead characters can have flaws but they still need to be appealing to the reader and if they are living in an unsavoury location when the story opens they usually strive to improve their situation before the end of the book.
So details about characters and places are important to bring a story alive but choose them carefully so you don’t lose your reader along the way.
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