Researching Great Historical Fiction

By Sharon Virts  

Ernest Hemingway said of writing fiction that “the dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A good writer does not need to reveal every detail of a character or action.” Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory applies equally to the research and writing of historical fiction.  Too much historical detail will burden a story and weigh down both the pacing and the reader. For me, one of the major challenges in writing historical fiction is walking down the treacherous path of including endless historical details in the story. I find that often this detail is irrelevant to both the development of the plot and the characters’ journeys. It’s not that details are bad. It’s just that including a large number of them creates a less immersive and engaging experience for the reader.

I believe that historical facts should not be incidental to a story—part of a blurry background that distracts—but instead embedded deeply in the fabric of the story—the characters, scenes, settings, costume, customs, etc.—to lift the story and carry it forward. So how does one research a historical fiction novel and use that knowledge without bogging down the story?

The most critical aspect of researching (and writing) historical fiction is determining the timebox for the piece. In my experience, the smaller the time window of a story, the better. Just as an artist paints a portrait of a person at a specific age, I find it more effective to write a character in a specific chapter of his/her life than to attempt to create a story that spans a lifetime.

Once the timebox is set, I narrow the focus of my research to events within that window. Franky, I have no idea how authors of historical fiction survived in the days before Google and the Internet. And while Google searches are a great start, I find that I spend a preponderance of my time using sources like Newspapers.com and Ancestry.com for my research. Establishing search terms is another aspect of research that can prove tricky. While there are obvious search terms—the names of historical characters, specific events, etc.—there are others that are less obvious. I have learned to allow the research itself to guide me in expanding my search for information. For example, if I learn that my protagonist worked for a certain individual or lived in a particular place, I add those to my list to research.

As most of my stories are set in the 19th century, information is more accessible online, although I still find myself at the library reeling through microfilm. Old chronicles and newspapers are extremely helpful, not only for gleaning information about events driving my story, but also for providing unique insight into the tone of the period. From advertisements to weather reports, I find content in those old journals invaluable for creating the ambiance of my settings.

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Equally important to researching newspapers is using genealogy databases, like Ancestry.com, to study the real lives of historical characters. Life events, such as birth order; number of siblings; ages when parents, siblings or spouses died; ages when married or when a child was born, etc., shape the personalities and determine motivation. Census data prior to and after the timebox of a story can not only provide added insight into the households where my characters lived, but serve as a compass pointing to newspapers to search for further information. For example, when I discovered that my protagonist had lived in another town the decade before my story began, I contacted the historical society of that area and found a trove of correspondence written by him in which he expressed his opinions on such controversial topics as the death penalty, slavery, and women’s suffrage. While none of those subjects were directly relevant to the story I was writing, his opinions were useful for understanding his attitudes toward women, people of color, etc., which I used in my portrayal of him. Researching female characters for historical fiction often proves tricky since women had little voice in society in the past. Researching the men in their lives (fathers, brothers, uncles, husbands) can provide valuable insight into their lives. I also consult non-fiction books related to the events, people, and time-period of my story. I use all of this to create the backdrop upon which I build my plot and my characters.

Once I have pulled my initial research together, I develop a timeline for my story. Using post-it notes,  I write out the major events and put them on a wall in my office that I use to assemble the timeline. I repeat the exercise for each of my characters, identifying the major events in their lives, writing them on different color post-its, adding them to the wall. The timeline helps to identify clusters of events and allows me to easily see where the inciting event (10%), major plot points (25%, 50% and 75%) and concluding event (90%) are, or should be. This is the point where I make adjustments, combining events, moving events, omitting events, and in some cases, adding events, in order to build my story structure and arcs for my characters.

The key to researching and writing great historical fiction is to stay true to the spirit of the story. Staying true to the spirit of the story does not mean that every aspect of the story is historically accurate. That’s the job of non-fiction. My job, as an author, is to write page-turning stories that bring the past alive. And while all my research may not end up in the manuscript, its depth will most certainly be reflected in the subtlety of my scenes and in the fabric of the  historical characters I portray. Because after all, it is fiction!

Sharon Virts is a successful entrepreneur and visionary who, after more than 25 years in business, followed her passion for storytelling into the world of historical fiction. She has received numerous awards for her work in historic preservation and has been recognized nationally for her business achievements and philanthropic contributions. She was recently included in Washington Life Magazine's Philanthropic 50 of 2020 for her work with education, health, and cultural preservation. Sharon’s passion truly lies in the creative. She is an accomplished visual artist and uses her gift for artistic expression along with her extraordinary storytelling to build complex characters and craft vivid images and sets that capture the heart and imagination. Sharon and her husband Scott live at Selma, a prominent historic residence in Virginia that they saved from destruction and restored to its original stature. It is out of the love and preservation of Selma that the story of the life, times, and controversies of its original owner, Armistead Mason, has given root to her first novel, Masque of Honor.

NYT Bestselling Author Patti Callahan On Writing Historical Fiction

Today’s guest is Patti Callahan, the New York Times bestselling author of fifteen novels, including the incredibly popular historical novel Becoming Mrs. Lewis (2018),  brings to life this little-known true story in her first hardcover published by Berkley. SURVIVING SAVANNAH explores the tragic explosion of the steamship Pulaski in 1838. The accident killed many passengers, including a number of Savannah’s most elite, who were journeying up north for the summer months.

Alternating between modern day and 1838 when the ship sank, Callahan weaves an intricate and evocative tale that follows Savannah residents past and present and how their lives were shaped by this shipwreck and ultimately, how survivors endure after facing such a tragedy.

As luck would have it, just a few weeks into Callahan’s research, the actual steamship Pulaski was found thirty miles off the coast of Wilmington, NC, a hundred feet deep. Callahan was given rare access to the recovery mission and the artifacts retrieved. The author used this special insight to shape details about the ship and its passengers in her novel. The characters are drawn from actual shipwreck victims and survivors, particularly the Lamar family of Savannah, who were used as the real-life inspiration for Callahan’s main characters. 

Tell us about Surviving Savannah.

Discovering untold stories is like having a great secret whispered in your ear.  And this was one of those secrets!

Surviving Savannah is inspired by the true and forgotten-to-time saga of a luxury steamship with the nickname, “The Titanic of the South”. But her real name was The Steamship Pulaski. One June night in 1838, she exploded off the coast of North Carolina while carrying the elite of Savannah and Charleston who were headed north for the summer. 

The story is told in a dual timeline with a modern-day woman named Everly Winthrop, who curates a museum exhibit for the ship’s artifacts. With her own survival of a great tragedy haunting her, she desperately wants to solve some of the mysteries, and unravel some of the myths surrounding the sinking.  

Eventually Everly’s research leads her to the family of eleven who boarded together, and the extraordinary stories of two women: a known survivor, Augusta Winthrop and her niece, Lilly Forsyth, who was never found along with her child.

I set out to not only tell you the story of the Pulaski, its passengers, and its tales of survival, but to also bestow honor on the courageous tales of women and what they did to endure in the face of tragedy. I explored the role of fate, family histories, and the myriad ways we survive the surviving.

What inspired you to write this story?

Originally I was inspired by the Pulaski tales of survival, how the city of Savannah was part of this story, and how the Lowcountry was affected by this tragedy. I was also inspired and curious about the transformation of each passenger and the ways that each survivor not only lived through the explosion, but also how they chose to live their lives after the sinking.

How, I wondered, do some come to live better lives and others turn toward bitterness and cruelty? Who do we become after such great loss?

AND then!, everything shifted because after a hundred and eighty years, along came a shipwreck hunting crew who found the remains of the Pulaski a hundred feet beneath the waves, thirty miles off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina. While the team went deep to bring up the artifacts and treasure of this beautiful ship, I dug deep to bring up the stories.   

My exhilarating hunt for the forgotten story began. 

Surviving Savannah is based on the sinking of the ship Pulaski, which departed Savannah in 1838. How did you learn about the shipwreck?

A local friend in Bluffton, South Carolina told me about this story years ago. But I wasn’t ready to write it. And then one day I read a newspaper article about two passengers who had become myths, and realized how many untold and hidden stories lived inside this single tragedy.

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The lesson here? Do not ignore the locals. And you never know where a story idea will originate so always keep the ears and eyes wide open.

What kind of research was required to write the novel? Did anything surprise you?

The research was as fascinating as it was extensive – from the archives at the Georgia Historical Center in Savannah and the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum to books, newspaper archives, personal accounts and letters, I read everything that I could get my hands on. I devoured books on steamships and Savannah in the 1800’s. I read about the rich history of the colonization of Savannah with General Oglethorpe. I walked the streets of Savannah and visited museums and artifact collections. I interviewed shipwreck experts and became enchanted with the world of wreck salvaging and treasure hunting.

During this journey, I was surprised over and over, but one surprise that opens the novel is the true narrative about a fifteen-year-old passenger named Charles who survived the sinking to become a slave trader with a horrific reputation. As he grew into a man, he earned the nickname “the Red Devil”. How had this young boy survived to become so cruel? I wanted to know.  

Finally, after years of research, I put together a complete story of that calamitous night, and one family in particular.

Your story follows three women – Lily and Augusta on the ship in 1838, and Everly in present day. What do these three women have in common?

They are each trying to find out who they really are in the face of great loss and hardship. What do they believe? Who will they become? Set in two different centuries they all still face the same bigger questions— questions that will change their lives.

Which of the three women did you relate to the most and why?

While I was writing each section I always felt the most connected to the woman I was writing about at the moment. I don’t think I felt more for one woman than another but of course our modern-day character, Everly felt more relatable only because I know today’s Savannah and I know today’s southern norms and ideas. The historical narratives were almost two hundred years old, and yet I still felt as close to Lilly and Augusta because their plight and their desires and their inner lives feel familiar. As far as women have come in their roles in society, there is still the struggle for independence and agency. There remains the need to burst through familial and collective norms to build a life of one’s own.

All three women had their own tragedies, hardships and losses to navigate. All three needed to discover how they would make meaning and purpose out of their situation. All three found out what they were truly made of and if they wanted to merely survive or if they wanted to thrive and build new lives.

What do you hope readers will take away from this story?

I want readers to take away what matters most to them in this story. I always hope that the transformational journeys of my characters give my reader’s their own aha moments. For each reader this is different, and I only hope it touches them where it most needs to touch them.

I believe that there’s a story in everything. I know that once we understand history as a story and a journey and not mere facts, we are then changed and our views of the past shift.

I want us to see ourselves as part of a larger story. I hope my stories bring my readers home to themselves.