One of the challenges of writing historical fiction is that you have to do a literary juggling act of sorts – you have to tell a good story while still maintaining a semblance of historical accuracy. The difficulty is further compounded if you’re writing historical fiction for kids, because now you have to make it simple and interesting enough for kids. If you find yourself in this precarious situation, rest in the knowledge that you are not alone and countless other writers have faced the same dilemma. Thankfully, there are a few things that can help make the process a little bit less difficult, such as:
Do Your Homework First: Research
You’ll have a hard time crafting text on any topic if you lack knowledge. It goes double for historical fiction for kids. Before you can distill most thoughts to their essence (which is usually what you need to do to make them kid-friendly,) you need to understand them fully. So do a ton of research and don’t fall short of turning yourself into an expert on the topic before you even start writing the first draft.
Show, Don’t Tell
Don’t just dump all the facts and historical information on the reader. Kids are rarely interested in “boring” historical facts. What you need to do is have your characters interact with the environment, the people, and other elements of the story and then let the historical information come to light using the interaction as exposition. This will make it easier for kids to absorb everything. In fact, the approach works regardless of age – people are generally more receptive to information when it is presented in the form of a story.
Be Mindful of Context
One of the pitfalls of writing about history is that many writers forget about context. Social mores and technology are in a state of constant flux. You may be tempted to judge certain figures and events using modern moral compasses, even though it might not be applicable at the time. Remember that you’re writing for impressionable young minds, and it can be easy to color their judgment with your own. Lean more towards presenting information and minimize the personal bent.
Be Cautious When Using the Internet for Research
This is not so much of a problem when it comes to general knowledge (like this guide you are reading right now), but when it comes to historical information, the Internet should be used carefully. The Internet is full of flawed, inaccurate, or completely falsified historical information. Intentional or not, the misinformation happens because there’s very little in the way of fact checking. False information appears even on the crowd-maintained Wikipedia, so be vigilant when researching. As much as possible, use the websites as a starting point but base your research more on books.
Lastly, Don’t Fret About the Smallest of Details
Don’t try to go for 100% accuracy. You can afford to make some informed guesses, and chances are even if you still rely on fact checking everything, readers will still find errors. Just have fun with the writing process and make sure that you’re striving to give the same sort of fun to the readers. That’s basically the point of the genre: take one supposedly “boring” subject like history, and make it fun and interesting enough for kids.
Image credit: Franklin Park Library on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hv1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of eBooks India. He is also a prolific eBook writer with over 25 titles to his name.[/author_info] [/author]