How to write compelling historical fiction characters
Characters are what keep readers invested in a story. History is filled with interesting people and readers are eager to see them come alive on the page. The challenge is to make sure your historical characters are compelling to modern readers while also reflective of their historical world. Main characters need to be unique, memorable, and have deep unfilled desires. History provides endless opportunities for inspiration. Despite this, it can still be challenging to create a character that keeps readers interested. The most engaging character in any time period will have a strong motivation and goal that comes into conflict with someone or something. When you are writing characters for historical fiction, their goals and motivations must fit the social norms of their time, or, at least acknowledge the context in which they deviate from the norms.
Putting characters in their own time
To keep the story feeling authentic you need to understand the context in which these characters live. One of the benefits of writing historical fiction is that the time period can influence or even create the goals of a particular character and the sorts of challenges they will face. How people react to their goals will most certainly be influenced by the norms of the time.
It is not just clothing and surroundings that are different in historical fiction but the way the characters interact with each other and their environment will be impacted by the time period. There might be limitations on when certain characters can interact, if at all, with each other. Differences in class, gender, and social standing may all change the way a person would have interacted with another. This may seem restrictive at first, but it can actually be a great way to build up tension and conflict in your story. A simple interaction with someone outside of a characters’ realm may very well be a high stakes endeavour.
Giving characters agency in restrictive times
One of the challenges writers can struggle with is how to give agency to people who typically held little or none in their time. Compelling characters nearly always have or gain agency in some way and it is often a key component of a complete character arc in a story. But giving characters agency in a way that feels authentic to the era can feel like a challenge. Characters who have lower standing in their time might need to wield power with more subtly than a modern character would but it is still possible. Agency might look different than it does now, but it can still feel like a satisfying arc even with only a small shift in power balance or even just understanding of circumstances.
Writing characters who don’t follow the norms
One way to write compelling characters is to focus on the ones that did not follow the norms of their times. These characters naturally come with high stakes conflict and deep motivation which makes for great reading. The key is to make sure their exceptional experiences are contrasted with the normal everyday lives typical of a person in their position. It can be fun to write characters that completely buck the norms of their time, but it is not necessarily the only way to write compelling characters. Many fascinating people took control on their own terms, managing to effect change without disrupting their entire world. These too can be fascinating characters as long as the reader understands their motivations and can root for them to meet their goals.
Using emotion to deepen your character’s experience of conflict
While external conflict must always reflect the outer world in which it takes place, inner conflict (and there should always be both) can push the boundaries on that a bit more. A common mistake writers make is focusing too much on getting their characters through a historical event forgetting that it’s how the characters respond to the event that makes the story, not the plot details. Building emotion into the story is what keeps makes a character unforgettable.
Sharing their lived experience is what brings the characters alive. One of the easiest ways to do that is to let the reader into their inner life. This is where your readers can connect to a character that is living in a completely different world. Remember, human emotions have not changed much over time. Throughout history humans have felt pain, fear, grief, joy, love, etc. What set’s your character’s mindset apart from a more modern one is not in the emotions displayed but in their expectations and motivations.
Don’t just name their emotions but show them. Take the emotion deeper than the physical reaction. Showing is first level but we need to go deeper and understand why a character reacts in a certain way. And the best way to do this is to let the reader into their thoughts as they process what they have experienced.
Get to know your characters by starting with their context
Building characters from scratch can feel daunting. Here are some of my favourite ways to get to get to know my own historical characters.
1. Consume the same media they had access to at the time. Read books and newspapers from their era. Look at the advertisements, pamphlets, or catalogs they would have seen. Listen to music and look at the art they might have consumed. Depending on their social standing they may have seen different things so pay attention to the cultural context.
2. Learn about the clothing they wore and imagine wearing it in their environment.
3. Understand how a person in their situation would have typically spent their days.
4. Find out what transportation they would have used and where they would have travelled (or not travelled)
5. Think about the restrictions they experienced or the freedoms they had and how it might shape their desires and goals.
Delve into your character’s motivations
Once you have a good understanding of the world they lived in you can start to shape their own personal motivations and goals. Here are some questions I consider for each main character.
1. What is their ultimate desire and/or fear? This is usually related to a basic human need like belonging, safety, desire to excel etc.
2. What are their immediate and long-term goals?
3. Why do they want those things (the why is the most important thing to understand!)
4. How will reaching their goals help them fulfill their desires?
When you build characters with these foundations in place it will be much easier to focus on their reactions to the historical plot events that occur in your story. Thus, deepening your story and keeping your readers curious enough to keep turning the page.
