Candace Leigh Coulombe is the author of Second Grace: stories of fresh starts, second chances, and also running away and Mercy Seat: a novella of love, loss, redemption, and hagiography. Second Grace won the Compilations/Anthologies category of the 2010 Beach Book Festival and an Honorable Mention in the 2010 San Francisco Book Festival, and an included story entitled “ScentEasy” won the 2009 Environmental Futures Writing Prize.
Candace works in Northern California full-time as a marketing communications specialist and part-time as a writer of short fiction, essays, and poetry. Her work has been recognized by the Sacramento and Elk Grove Public Libraries, NYC Midnight, the American River Review, and PEN Women.
The Truth That Allows You to Lie: Using Historical Facts to Enrich Your Fiction by Candace Leigh Coulombe
Gentle readers and writers~
Like many literary women, I feel I was born in the wrong era. It’s through the escape of fiction that I enjoy other times. And, as a writer of flash fiction, I can afford to be capricious. I experience disparate eras, genres, and points of view that would be difficult to commit to, for a reader or writer, in longer forms.
Writing historical fiction isn’t just writing a period piece. You can take a known event or age and craft new characters, or take persons of note and craft new situations. Then, add elements of non-fiction, memoir, or fantasy.
We all need external influences for our work, or we’ll write about the same boy who broke our hearts over and over again. My stories have three elements vying for the same little space: practical matters (word count, genre, location, object); inspiration (poem, painting, etc.); and theme. I don’t hold fast to “write what you know,” only to “write what you want to know more about.” So, some of my favorite stories were inspired by news articles.
The glimpse of the true story -– the exoticism of a foreign land or time gone by -– makes me want to learn more. Inevitably, in the research, I encounter new ideas that enrich the story. The language should reflect a precise era, location, and social class.
I aim for accuracy, even when the narrative veers toward the fantastical. For example, I was given the task of writing a bus stop horror story. I’d read a news item about German convalescent homes that erected fake bus shelters as a bit of therapy.
Around the same time, I’d read accounts of the Lindbergh kidnapping. I pursued a historical fiction-fantasy approach to the perpetrator’s fate in “Buses and Planes.” The characters and details of the Lindbergh affair are true; I’ve just imagined a different fate. There are very small things, some the reader may never know like the smoke rings one of the characters blows that echo the rings on the real ransom envelope.
For “The Gulf of Aden,” I’d read an article about the precautions some cruise lines were taking when sailing through the eponymous passage, and I wondered what would happen if they didn’t take any. It’s a contemporary story about the division of wealth in which the social-climber gets what she thought she wanted and finds it’s not really wonderful at all. But, the story wouldn’t be the same as having read up on pirates or Cunard itineraries.
My two best resources are The Complete New Yorker and The New York Times archives. I love having access to a century of news, reviews, and advertising. I wrote “Phoning Arcadia” after reading a “Talk of the Town” column from 1927.
But, for any work, the truth in the details allows you to buy the lie that is the story.
Whether it’s romance, suspense, political satire -– anything, actually — stories aren’t derived from anything. It’s an interesting obituary, lip print on a shirt or aching piece of music. Then, instead of placing that object in the story, you weave in a thousand details. Lipstick on a collar is almost never from a wife –- a universal story there. But what about laundry marks, collar stays, the faint scent of sizing?
Try to capture a little piece of history in each story. There’s so much beauty in the world. Let your curiosity make your stories replete with truth and beauty and readers will gladly join your adventures.
So, tell me, if you could take any historical event and craft a new ending, what would it be?
I’m working on a story involving Sir Humphrey Gilbert, an explorer who is said to have gone down with his ship. My version of the tale has Gilbert surviving with help of the aboriginal people but takes a twist as he falls prey to the curse of a legendary creature.
This has been more research intensive than one might think. The beliefs and language of the time, the area Gilbert went down and the legends of the tribal people in that area all need to mesh in order to make the story believable.
History not only provides a great jump-off when facing writer’s block but also offers a vast array of character profiles–especially villains.
Titanic would be my choice. Just saw a major exhibit about Titanic. I have always wondered what would have happened if so many factors changed–possibly a collision with damage but not the full-scale sinking. Would the hubris of the captain and ship-owners have toned down enough to provide optimum lifeboats and to move slower in the icy North Atlantic? Surviving passengers would have so much to contribute!
Candace,
Great interview. Readers can read an excerpt from your recent winning story –The Changing Room — from “The Fifteenth Dame Lisbet Throckmorton Anthology, 2010” by going to http://www.coffeehousefiction.com or by purchasing the anthology from Amazon.
Sherri Cook Woosley
Editor
Thanks, everyone, for reading! I’m sure that Robyn and Patricia aren’t the only ones with sinking ships on their lists. Voyages – especially by sea – are such rich inspiration for fiction. The things I love writing about seem to come into focus on the water: division of class and wealth, escape and reinvention, exotic locales, and the manners and morals of times gone by. There are so many true stories of love, adventure, and tragedy… and how wonderful it is to have the chance in fiction to have things end in whatever different way we can imagine.
Hi Candace,
Yes, I’m sure there are other topics but, after seeing the museum exhibit, Titanic was on my mind! It has always been a puzzle to me as a lifelong History learner/teacher. The ship is also a great metaphor for that time and the stories of that time.
After writing essays and poetry, I am currently writing a historical fiction story that could morph into a novel. Also, writing a young readers story.
Both, ironically, have history-related dimensions!
Your interview interested me greatly!
If I could rewrite history I’d pick poor George Washington who was freezing his buns and had to keep going no matter what. Being a leader is not fun, having men freezing to death literally was a terrible chalange to anyone. When they reached the other shore, they found dry logs to burn & gathered berries & other fruit to sustain them til they could locate troops with actual vitals for all. They were then given blankets & hot tea or chocolate to drink to heat their poor souls. G-d bless America.
Congratulations, Peppe — Random.org picked you as the winner. Watch for an email!