Writing historical fiction is usually research intensive. Sometimes every sentence needs to be researched. Comments that in contemporary fiction would be commonplace need to be meticulously fact-checked. Something like, “He considered her opinion as he bit into the juicy peach,” means you have to make sure there were peaches in that time, in that season, in that place. Maybe peach needs to be replaced with pomegranate or fig. Then there are issues like the weather, how long the day is, what time the sun comes up, what kind of animals are around, what clothes they wore … and on and on and on.
In my second book, By the Waters of Kadesh, my characters spent most of their time in tents. That alone eliminates 90% of what are called “action beats.” These are the sentences sprinkled in dialog that let you know what the characters are doing as they talk to each other. My people can’t slam doors, lean against a desk, open a window, go to the kitchen and get a drink, turn off the tv, or even go into a another room. Basically they can crawl in and out of tents and sit on sand. And then there’s food. They ate manna. Manna, manna, manna. Some dates, quail once or twice.
Sometimes I stop to look something up and I’ll end up on a rabbit’s trail. Pomegranates lead to juice leads to storage jars leads to feasts in Canaan leads to … who knows what, and an hour later I go back to the manuscript and I still don’t whether my character should be eating a pomegranate or not.
Last summer a publisher was looking for contemporary short stories set in a small town for a Christmas collection. I had written about 10,000 words the summer before, after I finished Kadesh, just because I wanted to write something that I didn’t have to constantly research. So I used that as a starting point and set the story in the tiny beach town we visit each summer, so I knew where everything was. I didn’t have to look up anything, and I have to say, it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately the publisher dropped the project, but it was an enjoyable interlude nonetheless.
Even though the work is hard, really hard, crafting a well-reasearched historical novel is extremely satisfying. When it all comes together and you can type The End, the feeling is unbeatable. And even though almost no one will ever realize the amount of work that is behind nearly every word, the author does. And that’s all that matters.