Telling the Truth about History Archives

Writing Historical Fiction Starts with Research #15 – Google Tools

October 12, 2015 By Captain Maiel 1 Comment

Do you write Historical Fiction? Writing historically accurate fiction starts with RESEARCH.

Well, duh! I know that!

What most writers forget is that they take for granted a great many aspects which can lend more credence to their works, as well as a better experience of the story they want to put forward to readers. Additionally, if you want to be considered historically accurate, you must behave as a historian–do you due diligence. Can it always be done? Some things might slip past you. No human is perfect. Try your best. This series is going to help by presenting articles of interest from around the internet and get you started on the research necessary to complete an amazing manuscript.

Google Tools: Google Scholar, Google Books

If you’ve gone to college in more recent years, then it is likely that you’ve been introduced to online research resources, especially if you are writing historical fiction, history, social sciences or hard science and math. Your professors will likely have reminded you that not all resources are created equal. Simply “googling” a topic doesn’t mean that the results are bringing you to a source that is trustworthy. How do you know? Know your source. Here’s a fun reminder:

A couple great resources that are at your disposal are the growing Google Scholar search engine, and the pretty extensive Google Books search. Both tools can be “googled” to get to the search engine, or you can click the links I’ve provided above and bookmark them for future use.

In my post Research: How Much Can I do Online?, I went briefly over the use of these two searches:

‘Google Books and Google Scholar are resources available to anyone, which bring books right into your lap. On Google Books, you can bring up a book and search it for your topic, before purchasing a copy and finding out that it has nothing of use to you inside. Additionally, that one page that does have something you need, you can view there, and save yourself some money. Google Scholar was created for research by students. It allows you to search for resources in the same Google format you’re familiar with, but limits the results to ‘scholarly’ articles. Now, before you start drooling, you have to put on your researcher hat and get to know what is a scholarly article, peer reviewed publication and all of that. Just because someone wrote for History Magazine doesn’t make them a scholar and doesn’t imply that they were reviewed by scholarly peers who can back up the findings or theory presented. Producing work that takes this for granted is fine in certain fiction, but you’ll never gain a reputation as a trustworthy author should you disregard the parameters of good research and present a work that is claimed to be factual.

These two websites can save you a lot of time slogging back and forth to libraries. For most, the nearest college is distant and often closed to them. Town libraries, except in major cities, don’t carry a lot of books that are scholarly level, and if they do, they’re likely out of date. A high school library will not suffice. So, make use of the sites! Then you can pick and choose the books you buy. You’re really going to want to own the ones that provide the most information, because you will need to refer to them throughout the process of your writing, which can take years, in some cases. Amazon (maybe Barnes and Noble, too) has a great book buy back program, which means you can steal a lot of these for a few dollars.’

Above, I mention libraries, and I will get to them in an upcoming installment. Another resource, which I’m sure you’re familiar with, is Wikipedia. Wiki isn’t a good resource on which to base your research for any texts. The problem is that the pages can be manicured by just about anyone. Usually that someone is someone with an agenda or someone with a form of bias. By bias, I mean that they have a certain level of knowledge that is based on the findings of certain research, which may or may not be vetted. How do you know where they’re getting the information from? Wikipedia provides a cite your sources section, and, if you click through, you’re likely to find some cites of which you can’t be all that certain. Some articles are fine. That said, like any encyclopaedia the information you find is limited and it’s merely a starting point. Wikipedia is good for giving you points to further research and a starting bibliography to peruse. Do not rely on it for anything else.

So, once you have some parameters to look into, you can wander on over to Google Scholar and Google Books to do a search. Your vetting isn’t done yet, though. First of all, Google Books contains a multitude of books and they’re aren’t regulated. Google Scholar is a little better, as the articles included in those searches are geared toward scholarly work. You’ll still need to check into your sources. You can do that by doing a standard google of the publisher and finding a little more about their history.

No one said that writing historical fiction was going to be easy, but it is rewarding. With experience, you’ll get to know more intuitively and by memory what is going to make your resources cut. If you care about your writing, then you’ll make the steps necessary to carry it to the next level.

Please refer to the following works regarding research materials and online research tools:

Appleby, Joyce, Lynn Hunt, and Jacob Margaret. Telling the Truth about History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994.
Benjamin, Jules R., A Student’s Guide To History, 11th ed. (New York: Bedford/St. Martin, 2010).
MacMillan, Margaret, Dangerous Games: Uses and Abuses of History. New York: Modern Library, 2009.
May, Lary. The Big Tomorrow: Hollywood and the Politics of the American Way. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Happy researching!

Have a topic you’d like discussed on writing historical fiction? Leave me a message and I will do my best to get to it.

Writing Historical Fiction Starts with Research #14 – Magazines

October 5, 2015 By Captain Maiel Leave a Comment

Do you write Historical Fiction? Writing historically accurate fiction starts with RESEARCH.

Well, duh! I know that!

Magazines

I know what you’re thinking! But, magazines are written by writers and they know what they’re talking about. They wouldn’t be published otherwise. That’s like saying that The National Enquirer, a known tabloid, is always right and has the most up to date information about people and things. Tabloids are pretty much just creative writing. The best ones use a smidge of truth, but you’ll never know what that smidge is. They’re notorious for doctoring photos and making things up. The same is virtually true of all the popular magazines out there. I know we’d like to think that they’ve got our best interest in mind with what they’re publishing, but they don’t. Magazines are in the business of selling copies. They need to be interesting. So, they often reach out for the sensational.

Of course, this doesn’t always mean that they’re writing things that are untrue. The most sinister of lies is one, as I mentioned above, that has a modicum of truth to it. Like Film and documentary, the reader has to be aware of the bias inherent in the article, magazine, publisher, source and author. That’s a lot of vetting to examine.

But, I know that many researchers use magazines to support their evidence. That’s true! They do use some periodicals, newspapers, journals and magazines to do research. The difference is, the experienced researcher will examine the article, weigh it against other findings, determine if the work is peer-reviewed and a number of other vetting steps. Doing research, sounds hard, but it really does become second nature once you’ve been around the block a time or two. Like with anything, you’ll soon realize what is trustworthy and what is suspect.

Don’t forget, a journal’s integrity changes over time. For instance, National Geographic was just purchased by Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. The magazine has been in financial decline and sold out to save itself. Speculation has rightly arisen that the magazine will no longer be a bastion of trustworthy work. Murdoch is known for providing material that disregards research and truth, and doesn’t value research. This is truly sad, but many periodicals go through this change. So, a researcher must be aware of the changes, because they affect the research one is doing.

Remember, you’re writing historical fiction to enrich the lives of others, perhaps provide a perspective not thought of and to respect historical fact. Research and accuracy really does matter.

Please refer to the following works regarding the use of such material as periodicals:

Appleby, Joyce, Lynn Hunt, and Jacob Margaret. Telling the Truth about History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994.
Benjamin, Jules R., A Student’s Guide To History, 11th ed. (New York: Bedford/St. Martin, 2010).
MacMillan, Margaret, Dangerous Games: Uses and Abuses of History. New York: Modern Library, 2009.
May, Lary. The Big Tomorrow: Hollywood and the Politics of the American Way. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Happy researching!

Have a topic you’d like discussed on writing historical fiction? Leave me a message and I will do my best to get to it.

Research: How Much Can I Do Online?

June 8, 2015 By Captain Maiel 1 Comment

How much research you can do online depends on your skill set. Do you know the parameters for research? Do you understand what a primary, secondary and tertiary resource is? Furthermore, do you know how they rank and what that says about the integrity of your writing? There are many reasons that you would disregard historical and scientific records: writing comedy, science fiction and historical romance. Fiction isn’t bound by facts, unless your intent is to be factual. So those writing fictions that require no facts should disregard this call to integrity in research.

Before embarking on research for your next book, if you haven’t gone through an intensive research and writing course (such as graduate school or undergraduate history or science), I recommend that you read a couple books:

Appleby, Joyce, Lynn Hunt and Margaret Jacob, Telling The Truth About History (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994).
Kuhn, Thomas, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3^rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
MacMillan, Margaret, Dangerous Games: Uses and Abuses of History. New York: Modern Library, 2009.

Kuhn’s book is especially good for those who wish to go on to debate political values/beliefs. May I then add, Chris Hedges, When Atheism Becomes Religion? That last book will explain the critical thinking process of viewing our entrenched beliefs and to what purpose we’re headed when we’re irrationally beating others over the head with our thoughts.

Once you’ve prepared for doing research, you can do almost all of the leg work online. By this I mean, you can find resources on line. However, if you’re writing about a specific place, nothing can replace the authenticity in your writing given from having been there. So go, if you can, budgets willing. Photographs, primary resources, can be the next best thing. That’s what makes them so valuable. They’re snippets of time. However, be mindful that photographs have a limited frame, and what you think you see, may be a purposely bias message. How do you know? See if you can find any further information about the photograph. If it’s a well known photo, there will be writing on it.

Google Books and Google Scholar are resources available to anyone, which bring books right into your lap. On Google Books, you can bring up a book and search it for your topic, before purchasing a copy and finding out that it has nothing of use to you inside. Additionally, that one page that does have something you need, you can view there, and save yourself some money. Google Scholar was created for research by students. It allows you to search for resources in the same Google format you’re familiar with, but limits the results to ‘scholarly’ articles. Now, before you start drooling, you have to put on your researcher hat and get to know what is a scholarly article, peer reviewed publication and all of that. Just because someone wrote for History Magazine doesn’t make them a scholar and doesn’t imply that they were reviewed by scholarly peers who can back up the findings or theory presented. Producing work that takes this for granted is fine in certain fiction, but you’ll never gain a reputation as a trustworthy author should you disregard the parameters of good research and present a work that is claimed to be factual.

These two websites can save you a lot of time slogging back and forth to libraries. For most, the nearest college is distant and often closed to them. Town libraries, except in major cities, don’t carry a lot of books that are scholarly level, and if they do, they’re likely out of date. A highschool library will not suffice. So, make use of the sites! Then you can pick and choose the books you buy. You’re really going to want to own the ones that provide the most information, because you will need to refer to them throughout the process of your writing, which can take years, in some cases. Amazon (maybe Barnes and Noble, too) has a great book buy back program, which means you can steal a lot of these for a few dollars.

So to answer the question, How much research can I do online? About half, I’d safely say, depending on your topic. In some cases, all research might be done online. Each project will determine that answer by the need it puts forward.