Wattpad brings you a guest post from D.L. Mackenzie, author of The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum:
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Let’s say you’re watching a film, another Robin Hood remake, perhaps. That rascal, the Sheriff of Nottingham, is pursuing the Merry Men through Sherwood Forest as night falls. Undeterred, he pulls out his trusty night vision goggles, paints Robin with a laser range finder, and takes him out with guided munitions.
Eh? What’s that? Night vision goggles and laser range finders don’t belong in that story, right? Of course they don’t, because they don’t belong in that time. This kind of anachronism, or chronological inconsistency, can spoil fiction writing as surely as it would spoil a movie.
The best part of fiction is becoming immersed in another reality, but when an author carelessly drops an anachronism into the story, the spell is broken. You snap back to the present, to reality, cursing softly at the oafish author who let you down. There are some circumstances when purposeful anachronisms can work, but unintentional anachronisms will nearly always break the spell.
For the writer, getting the historical aspects of a story accurate can be a daunting task. Say you’re writing a story set in the ancient Mayan civilization. One of your characters is a high priest with a predilection for wearing silk robes. But not so fast! As matter of historical fact, silk was unknown in Mesoamerica until centuries after the collapse of the Mayans. So, why is your character prancing around in clothes that can’t exist?
Here comes the big question: Who cares? Really, how many of your readers will know that your priest couldn’t possibly wear silk robes? Maybe a handful. Maybe none at all. It’s tempting to fall into this trap, gambling on your readers not knowing or caring about all those arguably insignificant bits of obscure history. But really, if the silk is truly just an insignificant bit of obscure history, why mention it at all? Why not set your story in Terre Haute, Indiana and dispense with all those irrelevant trappings of a lost civilization?
The reason is that the setting presumably adds texture to the story, and the perspectives of an unfamiliar culture can permit the writer to tell a story that would be impossible to tell otherwise. The bottom line is that if a historical setting is important to the story, it’s important to get it right. Do your research, but use a light touch. It’s a fine line between adding authenticity to your stories and bogging them down in trivia. Trust that all of those seemingly unimportant details will eventually help you construct a convincing, true-to-life setting for your characters to inhabit.
Often as not, your research will open your eyes to new possibilities, new storylines, and new motivations for your characters. You will understand your characters better because you will understand their world better. Your stories will take on an intangible quality that cannot fail to draw your readers into your spellbinding new world: the ring of truth.
Read “The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum” on Wattpad!
The Magnetron Chronicles, Volume 1
Phineas Magnetron is an eccentric Nineteenth Century inventor blessed with a strange gift he doesn’t completely understand. As a former soldier and current member of the Hogalum Society, an inscrutable secret organization of crime fighting adventurers, Phineas is no stranger to peril and derring-do. But when the Society founder dies, Phineas embarks on a daring and improbable caper to bring the good doctor’s greatest dream to fruition posthumously. In the process, he not only horrifies his Society brothers, but unearths a haunting and compelling mystery.
About The Magnetron Chronicles:
The Magnetron Chronicles is a serialized steampunk tale told in the grandiose style of Jules Verne, but with satirical Twainian wit. Chapter by chapter, the story builds as quirky new characters join the fray and perplexing new mysteries and situations arise. Traveling the globe, Phineas Magnetron and his Hogalum Society encounter suspicious policemen, mentally ill criminals, wood-craving aliens, a witch doctor, a mad oracle, and a cross-dressing female matador, among many others. However, this “steam dream team” always manages to triumph over impossible odds and improbable obstacles as they preserve order in a disorderly world.
More information: http://themagnetronchronicles.blogspot.com