Interview - Advice from a Creative Writing Teacher

In order to give you, the readers some good advice about creating historical characters, I have an interview with LeeAnn Derdeyn a creative writing professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. I thought I would ask her about some of the basic of writing historical characters:

KR:	Do you see a lot of historical stories (and by extension, historical characters) in your class?
LD:	I don’t see a lot of historical stories in my intro classes, but I do see some. Also, people occasionally take recognizable characters from the past & try to bring them au courant into the present or even project them into the future.
KR:	Of the ones you see, are there any eras or periods that tend to come up more often?
LD:	The 19th century tends to get the most coverage. It’s easy to exemplify the “can-do” American spirit through tales of the West, and pre-technology narratives offer their own sets of tensions. After this era, when I let students veer from the “real” world setting, I’ll often get some version with magic that is perceived as a ‘medieval world’ tale but usually is only some version of “Dungeons & Dragons” or something else they’ve seen or played.
KR:	What are some common mistakes that you see in historical characters (both inside the class and elsewhere)?
LD:	Writers often make anachronisms with historical characters or eras through ignorance. I don’t mean stupidity, but literally ignorance—not knowing. They’ll put what they think is archaic language in their characters’ mouths that either never was spoken as such or is from the wrong period. Or the reverse, they’ll use words with connotations that haven’t become in use or word sequences or slang or phrases that haven’t yet occurred. Writers might also include objects or concepts that haven’t yet been invented, or things that were already long out of vogue or usage. However, there’s also the problem of ‘shibboleths.’ What word does a particular timeframe or culture predominantly use for an object? If you’re writing a British story, you can’t use the words “stroller” or “cookie” or “fries.”
KR:	What are some of the ways to avoid these mistakes?
LD:	The best way to avoid these mistakes is to follow the age-old adage: “Write what you know!” If you write characters who live in a world like yours, who have jobs, school, friends, interests, likes & dislikes, speech patterns, habits, etc. like yours – you’re not going to screw it up. But if you want to go out on a limb and write something you don’t know intimately, then do what I call “rhizome research.” Google everything: culture, architecture, art, music, pop culture, food, housing, jobs & economies, dress, trends, what major events happened in the 5-10 years preceding your setting—try to get a handle on anything & everything in cultural conversation for your characters. Last semester, a student wrote a story set in Tokyo, but it could have been Dallas: there were no geographical place holders. Ditto this semester except it was a vacation in Trinidad (to which place the author had never been). I just happened to be reading A House for Mr. Biswas so the difference between the descriptions of a Literature Nobel Prize winning, native Trinidadian (or Tobagan depending on which isle they grew up on… see what Google can do for you?) and that of my student who didn’t include any lush details—well, use your imagination. My point being—not writing what you know takes a huge learning curve, a major time and interest investment, but you’ve got to be willing to make that to get a good story or game narrative. Because someone will know when you screw it up (and possibly, sometimes probably, multiple someones).
KR:	Is there any other advice you have for someone looking to do research for creating a historical character or story?
LD:	If you can, find someone who will read what you write (or with whom you can exchange work for critiques) who will tell you like it is. Kindness & comfort in a reader guarantees you a readership of one. But you also don’t want a reader who is never generous enough to notice your successes. Then, just like when you read great literature from different eras, you must be willing to be susceptible to that world—to understand how the concept of what a ‘human person’ is for that world might be different. Their cultural myths and motivations might be totally foreign to yours. Do not make your characters time-travel into your world, nor make them seers and prophets for things they can’t possibly know. Make their worlds authentic habitats, and make them organic to that habitat. Mostly, always keep reading the good stuff & learning across the spectrum. The broader your interests as a human being, the better worlds and characters you’re going to create.

I would like to thank Professor Derdeyn for taking the time to speak with me for this blog.  

  
Derdeyn, L. (2012, April 27). Interview by K. Robinson [Web Based Recording]