Approaches to Historical Fiction

There are two ways of writing historical novels, or even short stories; you follow the historical incidents with accuracy, or, you do as Wilbur Smith has done and set the story at the time of the incident and let it grow. In Shout at the Devil, Smith uses the incident of the WW1 German battleship hiding in the East African river as a setting and general plot idea and weaves a tale around it. That compares with Bernard Cornwell, who takes Sharpe through the Peninsular war step by step, making the actual events influence Sharpe's decisions throughout the story. The trouble with the Cornwell system is that it is easy to begin to write a history book rather than a story about fictional people. For example, in the Charge of the Light Brigade, one must remember the lieutenant has a sweetheart and the tale is about their relationship and not where the Russian guns are sited or who gave the order to charge. All the lieutenant knows is that the charge has sounded and he hasn't had a letter from his girl for a week.
One short story I want to write is with Brutus and Caesar standing on the coast of France, looking across at the white cliffs and Brutus is telling him, 'It's cold enough here, why would you want to go across there?'
'So that I can say, vini, vidi, vici,' Caesar answers.
'He's a nut case,' Cassius says. 'That's what he is, and he'll get us all killed by that mad woman Boadicea.'

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