Writers Tricks of the Trade SPRING 2017 ISSUE 2, VOLUME 7 | Page 20

T HE F IVE S ENSES OF H ISTORICAL F ICTION
J ERI W ESTERSON
J ERI W ESTERSON
A UTHOR
J ERI HAS GIVEN TALKS
AROUND THE COUNTRY
ABOUT THE M IDDLE A GES ,
DEMONSTRATING HER
CACHE OF MEDIEVAL
WEAPONRY . S HE HAS BEEN
A FEATURED GUEST ON THE
RADIO TALK SHOW
W RITERS ON W RITING WITH
HOST B ARBARA
D E M ARCO -B ARRETT , ON
“M Y A WESOME E MPIRE ”
ON HER LOCAL NPR
STATION , “KVCR-A RTS ”
ON THE SAME LOCAL NPR
STATION , A GUEST
LECTURER AT THE B OWERS
M USEUM IN S ANTA A NA , AT
M T . S AN A NTONIO
C OLLEGE IN W ALNUT , CA,
AND AT S ANTA M ONICA
C ITY C OLLEGE .
We all do a little research when we write. If you’re delving into that cozy
mystery, then you’ve got to research small towns, whatever profession your
protagonist is involved in, poisons, and other creative ways to die.
But when you write historicals—straight fiction or mystery—there’s admittedly
a lot more research involved. After all, it’s why you’re writing this genre. You have
to enjoy research, chasing down the odd fact in an archive or university library
stack. That’s the fun of it. And you know that readers enjoy it, too, knowing they’re
getting real history with their mystery.
I write the Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mysteries, and one of the things I enjoy
the most is finding that obscure little tid bit that I can use in my plots. But one of
the more important aspects of my research is knowing just what fourteenth
century London was like, how it informs the life of your character; what was
normal for him, what was everyday life like for him.
It doesn’t matter that your readers may have a passing understanding of the
medieval world—or nineteenth century New York, or ancient Rome, or twelfth
century China. I know we think of “world-building” more for fantasy novels, but
even for the more familiar, true historical settings, you have to set the stage. And
not just window dressing, but with the sights, sounds, smells of another era so that
your fiction will mesh evenly with it. Let’s take it one at a time.
1) S MELL . If you stepped out of a time machine onto the streets of late
fourteenth century London, what were some of the sights and sounds you would
encounter? The first thing that might hit you was the smell. If you are used to rural
living or farms, you would certainly be more familiar with the smells of animals.
Horses, for the most part, but dogs, sheep and goats as well. Streets are still dirt
with some cobblestone pavers. It’s a slurry of horse droppings, dog droppings, and
sheep droppings.
The Thames would have its own pungent aroma, especially down by the
wharves where the fishermen brought in their wares.
You’d smell a lot of smoke from all the hearthfires in the city and the many
cooking smells from the close quarters.
And then, of course, the people. It’s unfair to ascribe our own hygienic
expectations on people from another place and time, but medieval people also
associated bad smells with sin and corruption, so though many could not afford
the full immersion bath of their wealthier counterparts (that is, the servants to
constant source
S PRING 2017
P AGE 12
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE TRADE