How Do You Pick a Topic?

Taylor Harbin

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I snagged a first edition copy of "The Last Fully Measure" today, and I suddenly thought: If I ever write historical fiction, I'll have to pick a topic that hasn't been done to death.

For all intents and purposes, I think the American Civil War has been done to death in fiction. Many will disagree, but let's go on that assumption for the sake of argument.

How do you pick an era/topic to write about?

I'm all over the board in my love of history. Ancient. Modern. Doesn't matter. But some things have been written about so extensively that I ask "What's the point of writing another novel about [insert topic/event]?"

One of history's modern battles that has fascinated me is the Bay of Pigs invasion. I have a book in my collection called "Destiny," but it only uses the invasion as a plot point in a larger family saga (can't find it online, sorry for lack of link). The other novel is called "Blood of Cuba," but it's only 188 pages long.

I'm thinking to myself, "How can you possibly hope to tell the full story of the Bay of Pigs invasion in less than 200 pages?"

Do you have similar thoughts if you think an era/person/story hasn't received the attention it should?
 

ishtar'sgate

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How do you pick an era/topic to write about?

It's quite random for me. My first historical novel was set in the medieval period during the black plague. I chose that time in history because of a nonfiction book I read about the subject. As I read further works of nonfiction I began getting ideas for characters and scenes and just started writing.

My current WIP is set in ancient Babylon. My interest was piqued when armies occupied the archaeological site during the war in Iraq. It was just casual interest at the time but more and more I started to notice news reports and stuff online then began picking up nonfiction books on the ancient world, and.... I was off again!
 

mayqueen

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Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

I think it's more a matter of letting the topic pick you.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Exactly what I was going to say! I wrote Novel Attempt 0 (trunked and locked and buried in the ground) novel in the early middle ages because I read a wikipedia article about Anglo-Saxon culture and became fascinated, thanks to my long-time love of Beowulf. It was that random. My first novel was based on all the research I did for that and was again inspired by something I read on wikipedia.

(Now everyone will think I'm a horrible historical fiction writer. I happen to just enjoy clicking through wikipedia pages the same way I used to enjoy leafing through my parents' set of encyclopedias when I was a kid. I use that as a jumping off point for my serious research.)

I wrote my second MS, which was set in 10th century Ireland, after a trip to Ireland. My current WIP is based on further research about a pair of historical figures I've been fascinated about since my early flipping-through-the-encyclopedia years.

So, the topic just picks you. You read something and it sticks with you, and when you realize you've been imagining what that must have felt like in the back of your mind for days or weeks, you have to write about it.
 

Taylor Harbin

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Exactly what I was going to say! I wrote Novel Attempt 0 (trunked and locked and buried in the ground) novel in the early middle ages because I read a wikipedia article about Anglo-Saxon culture and became fascinated, thanks to my long-time love of Beowulf. It was that random. My first novel was based on all the research I did for that and was again inspired by something I read on wikipedia.

(Now everyone will think I'm a horrible historical fiction writer. I happen to just enjoy clicking through wikipedia pages the same way I used to enjoy leafing through my parents' set of encyclopedias when I was a kid. I use that as a jumping off point for my serious research.)

I wrote my second MS, which was set in 10th century Ireland, after a trip to Ireland. My current WIP is based on further research about a pair of historical figures I've been fascinated about since my early flipping-through-the-encyclopedia years.

So, the topic just picks you. You read something and it sticks with you, and when you realize you've been imagining what that must have felt like in the back of your mind for days or weeks, you have to write about it.

That makes a bit more sense. Thank you.
 

Siri Kirpal

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Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

What mayqueen said is basically it.

My personal experience: If the idea keeps bumping its head against me, asking to be scratched behind the ears, that topic has picked me to write it.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

SpinningWheel

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For me it's about recognising an intersection between story and setting - the possibility of writing the kind of story you want to write, about a period you want to write about.

I got fascinated by the Pilgrimage of Grace and then I discovered that there were quite a few younger rebels, and bingo! YA!

While I was researching my Pilgrimage of Grace book I came across the Duke of Norfolk and read a bunch of his letters - he was interesting, I thought 'I wonder if he had kids' and turns out he has a son and daughter with an amazing story of their own, hence my current WIP.

There are certain things mulling in my mind - eighteenth century landscape gardens is one, the last wolves to live in the Yorkshire Wolds are another - for which I haven't yet been hit by an obvious YA story. Either I'll come to a point where I haven't got any more projects lined up, in which case I'll actively research them in the hope that something will hit me, or I will be reading around them out of general interest and something will suggest itself.

Travelling, visiting historic sites and landscapes, is as crucial as reading to finding these areas I want to know more about - I wouldn't have written my Pilgrimage of Grace book without all those ruined abbeys and one very very atmospheric castle.
 

TellMeAStory

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Great question!

I don't think you have to worry about what's been done before or not. In the first case, the advantage is, there's what they call a "fan base" of readers, people eager for a glimpse at another aspect of their favorite period in history.

In the second case, the advantage is that you get to be a leader exploring brave new worlds and all that.

Either way, if you write well, you're a winner.
 

Flicka

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It was rather random for me too – I was aiming at writing about the end of the 17th century (which is an old favourite era for me), but doing background research for my characters, I became interested in Civil War-era England and then, researching that, I came across a fascinating real life (but completely obscure) person and realised he would be the most perfect MC for the stories I wanted to write.

So I went from 1685 to 1640 to 1628, pretty much by chance. But now that I'm into it, I'm intrigued by how little attention the 1620s and 30s has received. I mean, it's a very interesting period in European history, both politically and socially.
 

snafu1056

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I generally just stick to stuff im already interested in. And since my interests lean toward the obscure, I dont have to worry much about whether its been done too much. The subjects that have been overcovered dont interest me in the first place.
 

gothicangel

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I live near Hadrian's Wall, and therefore have always been fascinated by the character of Hadrian (who seems neglected by HF), and I was at university at Stirling which was close to the Antonine Wall which developed my fascination with those two emperors.

My current WIP was inspired by (yep, it was Wiki) looking for events in Hadrian's reign in the 130s, and found the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (something I was ignorant of.) I then tried finding novels on the subject, or set in Roman Judaea are rare (those that do are about Christ and the 1st century CE.) I quickly came to the realisation that the Jewish characters were just like the Romans with a different skin colour and accent. So, I commit myself to researching Jewish culture as in depth as I do with Roman culture. It's a challenge. :)

I do like looking for gaps in the historical record, and filling them with the fiction.
 
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gothicangel

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Travelling, visiting historic sites and landscapes, is as crucial as reading to finding these areas I want to know more about - I wouldn't have written my Pilgrimage of Grace book without all those ruined abbeys and one very very atmospheric castle.

I am so jealous that you live in Yorkshire. My favourite Abbey has to be Rievaulx. I'm holidaying in Yorkshire in September (staying near Castle Howard) and have this huge list of places to visit (luckily I'm an EH member. :))
 

donroc

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Writing Topics

Simply put, the stories choose me, a variation of the voice in the head that repeatedly screams, "Write me."

FYI: My WWII fighter ace novel CLOSE TO THE SUN written from both the American and German POV is out on Kindle, Nook, and other e-books withe the soft cover available in a few weeks. You can read about it at my web site: www.donaldmichaelplatt.com
 

angeliz2k

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Hm, it's a good question. I'd say that "the topics chose me" pretty much sums it up.

Right now, I'm very strongly drawn to Antebellum America (why that period is a question for another day). In fact, I'm especially interested in American history from the Revolution all the way up to and including the Civil War. But like the OP said, the Civil War has been done TO DEATH, especially with the current 150th. But I don't particularly care about battlefields and soldiers; I love the era. And anyway, I want to craft my own story. So I chose to write a story set a few years before the Civil War involving entirely fictional people. Just as important as the war are the reasons for the war. What a sticky, moral mess those people lived in! I love it.

I wrote a novella set during the Civil War, but it isn't about the war, per se, but about a wounded veteran and a formerly enslaved woman trying to find her husband.

As for my novel about the Affair of the Diamond Necklace: this one definitely found me. Pre-Revolutionary France has always been high on my list of favorite time periods, but when I read Frances Mossiker's book on the topic I was just astounded that it was a true story. I knew I had to write about it.
 

flapperphilosopher

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For me it really depends. So far I've never thought, "gee, I'd love to write a story written in X time because Y," then had a story come out of it. My current novel is set in the 1920s, which probably surprises no one who knows me because I love the 1920s. However, it wasn't a direct cause-and-effect. I've had my main characters for a really long time, from back before I even wrote historical/literary, but always struggled to find just the right story. I played around with stuff in my mind a bit, thinking, hmm, what if it was set... here? how would things play out then? The settings I played with came from random places, like early 19th C France thanks to Les Mis, or 1750s-ish Nova Scotia because I was living in Nova Scotia and thinking about the war between the French and the English. Basically time periods/places/events that I thought might be interesting contexts and seeing how it would affect my characters and the fundamental aspects of their story. One day I watched a silent movie (that was actually set during WWI) and thought, hmm, what about the 1920s? I don't know really what about that clicked, maybe it was just that I was in the right frame of mind at that moment, but it really did. And if someone who read it learned I'd once set an ancestral version in 1750 Nova Scotia they would probably be baffled as to how.

Planned Novel Two wasn't dissimiliar-- a character I had, and then the thought, ooo, what if he was involved in the historical thing I"m currently really interested in?

So that's been my weird way of doing it. I have a story I feel I want to tell and then one day I find a context that provides an interesting way of telling it. I often read something in history or see an object or photograph that I feel has a story, but I haven't yet taken the leap to write any of those stories. Honestly, as a historian it feels a bit weird to do that, like I'm commandeering someone's actual life, though as as writer it seems like a great way to begin. I'm still in early days writing historical stuff though, so we'll see!
 
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Eddy Rod-Kubry

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Nothing wrong with using Wikipedia to spark interest. I do it all the time. :)

Basically what everyone has said, you write about that which interests you, simple as that. My favorite topic is Napoleon and his era, as well as warfare during the period from the 18th to the 19th century (blackpowder weapons). I am fascinated by the colorful uniforms of those centuries, the formations, the marching music, the standards fluttering in the air, cuirassier charges...

I also like studying the evolution of warfare, how changes in technology affected tactics and strategy. It evolved amazingly fast during the long 19th century.

I haven't found much on the Second French Empire though, which has had my interest recently, as well as the era of New Imperialism.
 

cooeedownunder

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I'm also a random topic writer, but I'm not sure I have actually picked a topic. I hear dialogue or see a charachter and location first and go from there
 

sportourer1

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Victorian thriller, thrilling times

When I chose to set my new thriller in Victorian times I researched the period and found a particularly turbulent time and it all fell into place from there. The level of crime, violence and general unrest in the 1880s was quite astounding and provided plenty of scope for a fictional plot.
 

Xenith

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The first novel I wrote set in a real time and place used a setting that was limited, in that I could pretty much read everything that had been written about it at the time and since (isolated boys prison, colonial Australia). So I could feel confident in knowing everything there was to know about it ;)

Of course, halfway through the characters turn to me and tell me they're moving to the nearby town which opened it to a much wider need for research and obscure questions, but by then I'd already committed to it.

Admittedly, it wasn't a deliberate decision to use that setting. I was reading a newspaper from the time and a quote set off ideas and then the characters appeared and bugged me until I agreed to write about them, but the idea that the amount of research I'd need to do was finite was what made me commit to it.

(Of course, my upcoming Nanonovel came from me reading a book set in the 1820s and thinking "I could do this..." Every writing project starts in its own little way.)
 

Sonsofthepharaohs

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Well, I always quite liked history, but I never really found my passion until I started studying classical antiquity. I think I was probably an Athenian during the 4th century BC. I may also have spent a lifetime or two in late Republic/ early Imperial Rome. I'm sure I was friends with Cicero. I really hate Marcus Antonius...

Anyhoo, I thought I would write an ancient Greek novel, but then I saw the Mummy films and got excited about 19th/ early 20th century Egyptology, the age of discovery etc. Researching that got me interested in Egypt in general, and then I went and wrote an ancient Egyptian novel... I don't think I was ever an ancient Egyptian though. I can picture the place well enough now, but from painstaking research and a bit of educated guesswork to fill in the gaps. Whereas with ancient Greece I feel like I'm not so much guessing as...

:D
 

Cathryn

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Most of my historical stores come from my genealogy studies. Even Civil War stories which have nothing to do with which general whacked who. They are riveting and heroic and documented. Try tracing your family back as far as you can and then look at what was happening around them. Maybe something will catch your eye and you will be off and running.
 

Tom from UK

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I'm with 'the topic picked me'. If nothing really grabs you by the throat, you're probably best doing something else with your time.

Of course, once you get into sequels and suchlike, different considerations apply.
 

Flicka

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I'm sure I was friends with Cicero.

My experience of Latin studies implies that if I'd known Cicero, I'd have smacked him over the head repeatedly until he stopped with those bloody rhetorical figures and started using straight-forward, comprehensible Latin, thereby saving the sanity of many a future school-child. ;)
 
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