I don’t write historical romance. I have no interest in writing historical romance. I don’t even read historical romance any longer, not after I realized I read all the contemporary set books (whether they were paranormal or not) and the historicals sat on the TBR month after month. The pile became hugely unwieldy and I had to stop buying them because I wasn’t reading them. Ever. I didn’t even have a vague desire to pick one up–with the exception of Julie Garwood. I’ll still reread her historical romances.
I honestly have no idea why I’m so averse to reading historical romance, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I’m writing a proposal for a contemporary set paranormal romance. Only in discussing it with a friend, she recommended a prologue to set up the basics of the world. I decided it was worth a shot and the event would not only set up the world, it would give the heroine depth from the start.
The problem? I needed to research Medieval nunneries in order to write this scene.
It didn’t take long before I was cursing as I googled.
I like history. Honest, I do. It was one of my favorite classes in high school; I even was in Advanced Placement American History and scored the highest mark possible on the test.
I like research. Mostly. When I was researching particle accelerators and M Theory, I couldn’t read enough. Now granted, I didn’t understand everything–M Theory is mind boggling, especially for someone who didn’t take math in college–but it was fascinating to me.
But I hate researching history for my book. Hate it. I feel frustrated and bored and just want the damn information so I can write my scene and be done with it. I didn’t expect to feel this way. I figured it would be just like researching any other topic and I’ve gone off on some obscure and esoteric subjects to get one piece of information for a throwaway line in a book. I’m pretty anal about accuracy and I’m not opposed to digging deeply to find what I need. I even find the Medieval period to be one of the more interesting in European history…and it doesn’t matter, I’m resenting every second I’m spending on this.
The thing that’s so puzzling is why I’m feeling this way. Why is researching history–something I can understand–an aggravation while reading M Theory–something that’s difficult for me to grasp fully–something I was excited about reading?
Part of it might be that finding the specific kind of information I’m looking for has proven to be difficult. There’s a lot more information on monks and friars than on nuns. At least that I’ve been able to find online. I did order a book that looks like it might have good information. I sure hope so because I want to finish this opening scene.
My next blog might be complaining about trying to find a historical voice for the opening. Honestly, how do historical writers convey the tone/formality of the period without bogging down? I will be blundering my way through this little problem. Sigh.
Tags: writing
I feel your pain. I used to be a major historical reader, but these days, it's all paranormal and some contemporary. No historical at all (except for the odd freebie thrown my way).
Re: Medieval nunneries. I was very active in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA – medieval re-creation group) for over 20 years. I know a lot of people who know a lot about the Middle Ages, so if you get stuck on some particular point, let me know and I'll see if I can't find some help for you.
I have a suggestion…have you considered contacting a historian specializing in that field…or perhaps approaching the History department at your local university…they should be able to point you in the right direction.
Hope you're able to find all the pertinent info soon.
Best of Luck!
Keep us posted..
I don't read historicals yet as a comfort read I will re-read Julie Garwood's medieval stories.
I can't help with historical research. Numbers were my strong suit. They're concrete. I did great until I hit n-dimensional space. How do you picture or work with n-dimensional space? It was extremely frustrating.
In addition, congrats on the fantastic PW review. Impressive!
Hi Valerie,
Thank you so much for the offer! If I run into a point or two that I need help with, I'll get in touch.
I'm not sure why I just gave up on historical romance, but boy, did I ever. Right now, I'm kind of on an urban fantasy kick, although the lack of romance leaves me frustrated.
Thanks again!
Patti
S7anna,
You know, that's a good idea; thank you! It didn't occur to me to do that and the University of Minnesota is an enormous school.
Patti
Thank you, Joyce! The PW review still makes me smile.
Julie Garwood's historicals are the only ones I still reread. I love "Ransom" especially, and if I didn't have a proposal I was working on, I think I'd be digging it out right now to reread since I'm talking about it.
Math wasn't my strong suit. I'm impressed that you made it to n-dimensional space. I really enjoyed reading up on M Theory and string theory and all that, but I thought my head was going to explode.
Patti