The Perils, Pitfalls, and Remarkable Inspiration of Writing Women’s Historical Fiction

It’s been pretty well established that history and biography, as well as historical fiction, have long been dominated by male writers. Subcategories of historical romance, historical fantasy, gothic suspense written by women are popular, but recently women’s historical fiction has been having “its moment.” I, for one, sincerely hope it continues.

(Shelley Noble: On Writing in a New Genre)

I was writing contemporary women’s fiction and historical mysteries when this “moment” exploded onto the scene. The allure of writing women’s historical fiction beckoned.

What a gift it is to read and write about the lives of famous women, as well as the more obscure women of history. Those women who weren’t Marie Antoinette or Madame Curie, but who nonetheless played important and intriguing parts during their own time.

I was always methodical about my research, though I invented imaginary characters as my protagonists, and only occasionally added a few real people for bit parts. There was so much to choose from. Should I write bio fic, where the protagonist is a real person of the past? Dual timelines, where parallel stories from different times periods carry the narrative? Or should I create a fictional protagonist who stands for the “everywoman” of her time?

The latter appealed to me. Having been a professional dancer, I’d seen firsthand how talented performers, the darlings of the audience and reviewers alike, were quickly forgotten once they retired.

I knew I wanted to write about those people.

They might be mentioned in a biography of a famous person (My Dear Hamilton). You might catch glimpses of them as figures in a museum painting (The Girl with the Pearl Earring). They may even have been a friend of your grandmother (The Gown).

I found The Tiffany Girls while looking for something else. I was researching early 20th century psychoanalysis for a historical mystery when in the middle of an internet search, a site about The Tiffany Girls appeared. Intrigued, I followed it to a fascinating story. One that I knew I wanted to write.

Characters are members of a cast, a community. They come with a function and a relationship to the others, have their own attitudes, emotions, and preconceptions. Whether they are real or fictional, it’s important to develop them so that when they meet, they mesh into a seamless interaction that makes their world function. As this interaction develops with the other characters, with society and the events that shape their lives, a story takes root, and when those things clash, the plot takes off.

Who do you want to tell the story? Is one character more important than the others? Is there a star of your show? Or is it an ensemble cast? In The Tiffany Girls I knew from the beginning that I would do three POVs. I like to have varying takes on the story, sometimes male-female, sometimes generational, or based on social position.

For The Tiffany Girls, I chose two fictional characters, Grace and Emilie, the everywoman of the story, and Clara Driscoll, who was the real manager and designer of Louis Tiffany’s iconic glass art. And though she has a personal story of her own, I concentrated on her life as manager, liaison, and creator. The two girls carry the personal drama of their life among the Tiffany girls.

Everybody lives in the Modern Age … to them. Things that we take for granted are often new, frightening, or unheard of by them; opportunities that might be out of reach for them. Especially women, whose choices were often limited in the extreme. This seems obvious but when we’re wrapped up in the story, the pacing, and the drama, it’s easy to forget the importance of ordinary things; and the awe that those things can inspire; how small things can change the course of a person’s life.

For example, Emilie disembarks from the ship from Paris and is disappointed that Fourteenth Street near the docks is not beautiful like the Champs Elysée. She’d created a picture in her mind of a rich America. Concerned with pacing, I was tempted to cut that scene, then realized that because of her expectations, I could do more with less; her response to the warehouses and the heat took the place of many words of description. And set up a big dilemma in her own story.

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For me, setting should not be a static backdrop to the action. It’s important that the reader sees the characters’ world through their eyes, not a camera view. People and characters are formed by the things around them. What one character finds intriguing might be repulsive to another. A character’s reaction can better describe a place than a paragraph or string of adjectives. Allow the reader to discover it with the character. Seen through their eyes, a scene can be not only descriptive but can move the storyline as well.

Research is the key to authenticity. It’s expedient and informative to use histories, biographies, a Google search, or even children’s books to acquaint ourselves with our subject. But primary sources are where I get my most insightful look into the period. I write about the early 1900s, so newspapers and magazines abound. It gets more difficult the further back you go in time, though much is now available through internet research sites. The beauty of primary sources, letters, memoirs, newspapers, is that they come to us made of full cloth. Even when they have something to hide.

For example, fashion. You can study museum exhibits, photos, read costume books. But an article in Harper’s Bazaar tells you not only what the lady of fashion (and gentleman) will be wearing that season, but also will describe the garment in detail, how and where it should be worn, and even the reaction it will cause, all in a paragraph or two, often accompanied by a picture.

Newspapers of that time were more conversational than today, with society news, books, theatre, sports, political cartoons, and the latest scandals. Advertisements showed the cost of a man’s jacket or the train fare to Boston. From cleaning tips to racing schedules, it’s all just a column or a page away.

Which brings me to the intrusive narrator. Remember it’s their party, not ours. If you’re trying to make a point, give them a soap box, but make sure the words coming out of their mouths are words of their time. And about their future? I try to only research as far as the story goes, not what comes next. We may know that a stock market crash or an influenza pandemic is on the horizon, but they don’t.

And finally, perhaps most importantly, The Author’s Note. Sometimes we have to fudge a timeline to fit our storyline, put a character somewhere they weren’t, or combine characters to streamline the cast. Acknowledge this. Your readers deserve to know, and it will spare you dismissive or angry reviews.

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