Writing a Historical Novel

Yesterday, I pushed the personal and dispensed with the historical in my novel.

I looked at my first draft and saw more history lesson than novel. I had a scene where I described the funeral of Stonewall Jackson in Richmond. I also had paragraphs describing the actions of the Twentieth Massachussetts regiment on Day 2 of the Battle of Gettysburg. I eliminated them. It seemed clear to me that I was showing off my research. That can happen to history writers. You spend so much time researching a subject that you cannot resist the temptation to treat the reader to an info dump. I am always reminding myself that I am telling the story of my characters, not the history of the Civil War.

I think Louis Menand put it perfectly in The New Yorker. He said,"Conventionally, a historical novel is a personal story with a world historical rear-view projection."

I could not have put it better.