Where History and Fiction Meet...

Does history and fiction meet? Very often! In books, in theatre, in films, puts a hole in every pocket which is why its wonderful.

There is history, and there is a story. It shouldn't be his story. And the past should not be used as thousand island salad dressing where the salad is your plot. It won't hide the fact that the cucumber (read the human condition) has not been worked on and is left plain bitter. You can always take facts and make a fantasy. Or you can use fantasy to state facts.

Why do thrive in duality. Its the virtue of a write. The quote in the prior post really seems to have inspired me.

Times have changed enough and the world has turn too many times to have any accuracy free of bias and prejudice. No matter how many books by n number of intellectuals would end up shaping your perspective in a narrow parallel than having a free mind or endow a semblance of an imagination.

Stories of the past can be put to modern times, just as well as modern times can be put to the past. Think of those nuances which still lie common to the society of today and that of an era past. No, I would suggest you much on that. Work on it. Use your imagination. Chances are you might just peep into the souls of legends like Alexander Dumas, Charles Dickers, Jane Austen, Maria Corelli and ever Poe. My personal favorites. More? Alright, Oscar Wilde and Rudyard Kipling. Hunting tigers in exotic India turned them to poets and story tellers. Location, Location, Location? Or soul?

What is the brightest fact about the characters mentioned above? Instead of writing about characters idolized by them as I do now, they wrote on characters that were original, with a rich back story and nuances, and set in a highly richly researched atmosphere with a vivid background. Those dates and years that you hates most during History 101 would only play to tell the story and give room to conflict. Either which allowing freedom to the writer, and exploration as well as rhetoric knowledge to the reader. Works!

I'm not saying don't write about Mata Hari if you want to, because she exists and you might stumble for facts. I'm saying be wise and care and know when to juxtapose facts with fiction.

If you are a stranger to those fat books as me, a simple google search works, a light read of wiki and not to mention those ever so good children's books that make the most boring detail of history fun and learning. I did that with sci fi too. I don't know how nuclear power works, nor did I wanted to pose as an authority. A simple children's book titles "Tell Me Why?" sorted me out. If you get interested and desire to take a bigger challenge, move for journals, bios, letters, paintings, portraits, pictures, antiques or worse, choose a word peculiar to that era and cherche and recherché all you like. On Various concepts even. Read books by other writers on the similar timelines of your choosing and there is the prize.

Congratulations.

You have just time travelled with your mind.