301. How to Conduct Research for Your Historical Fiction

Author and self-described historian Leah Lindeman discusses what to research, what resources to use, and what not to do when writing historical fiction.

In honor of Leah's book, Redeemed From the Ashes, this episode has been uploaded on the 107th anniversary on the Halifax Explosion that took place on December 6, 1917. You can learn more about the event here, and check out Redeemed From the Ashes, which follows a young woman's journey in the aftermath of the explosion.

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Check out Leah's website:
https://leahlindeman.com/

Grab a copy of her books:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B01DK7C1YC

Follow Leah on her socials:
https://www.instagram.com/leahtlind/
https://www.facebook.com/leahtlind
https://www.youtube.com/@PentoPaper/videos

Transcript

Jennia: Hello, I'm Jennia D'Lima. Welcome to Writing, and Editing, the author-focused podcast that takes a whole person approach to everything related to both writing and editing. Before beginning a historical fiction manuscript, authors may spend some time conducting research on the place the people, or maybe the societal norms. But how much research is just enough? And how can this information be shared in a way that balances the historical accuracy with the story that's being told? Leah Lindeman is well known for her novels that dive into Canada's past, and she'll be sharing her valuable insights into these questions.

Jennia: Thanks so much for being here today, Leah!

Leah Lindeman: Aw, thanks for having me, Jennia! I'm really excited to talk with you about this.

Jennia: Same! Can you tell us a bit about what you write and maybe even what drew you to historical fiction?

Leah Lindeman: Sure. So I've always been a huge history lover. In school, I did two years of American history and two years of world history, but I didn't really know anything about Canadian history because in school I was using an American curriculum. So that's why I kind of had all that information, but nothing about Canada. And I learned about the Halifax Explosion of 1917, particularly, on this camping trip that my parents and I took. And we were sitting around the campfire and my dad just started talking about it and I thought, "Well this is crazy because it's such a huge event. How come I've never heard about this? Why don't they have like a movie or book or something?" Right? And from there the story just kind of grew in my head and I realized I'm the one to write this book.

Jennia: Ahh.

Leah Lindeman: And then from that kind of jumping point, I thought, "Well, why not do this for every Canadian province?" where I'm going to write and focus on a historical event for each province. And that's how the Canadian Reminiscence series is born. So I write Canadian historical fiction and each book is set in a different province of Canada during a different historical time period. So, for example, my first book, Redeemed From the Ashes, is the Halifax Explosion of 1917, and it does come with a little sequel novella after that. My third book, Unborn Melody, is World War II, Northwest territories, and that's a completely different era as well. So I've covered three different eras so far in the provinces. But I'm led by historical events that I find are very interesting. That maybe people don't know too much about. And I just like to unearth them from the ground and, yeah, just showcase them to the world.

Jennia: That almost sounds like you have to start your research over from scratch every time. It's not, like—

Leah Lindeman: Yes! (laughs)

Jennia: Yeah! It's not like I write a series of books that all take place during the Regency period. No, you really—

Leah Lindeman: That's right.

Jennia: —are jumping around not just from time period, but like you said, place.

Leah Lindeman: Yes.

Jennia: And yeah, place itself is going to be so different.

Leah Lindeman: Yeah. And well, Canada is known to be very regionally vast, resource fast. Like, it's all very different, the different regions. So east is very different from west, and then, you know, central and then north and then you have the prairie. So they all have slightly different cultures, way of seeing things and different people. So, yeah, it's definitely jumping into research every time. And a lot of research. And not even just from this time period, right? But you have to dig in different ways to find that particular time period.

Jennia: Yeah. I would think even the geographical differences and how people speak or the wording they use. And then addition to that, you still have to go back to historically accurate words and phrases and—

Leah Lindeman: Yes, for sure.

Jennia: —even which idioms and things are used.

Leah Lindeman: That's right (laughs).

Jennia: So do you think it's more difficult researching a topic where it might not be as well known, which is what you do cover versus something that people already have a general idea about?

Leah Lindeman: Yeah, actually, I find it really exciting. It may be—It is a little bit more difficult in the sense that I have to dig up a little bit more when it comes to resources because obviously there's going to be more primary resources and secondary resources on events that everyone knows about. So for instance, the Halifax Explosion in 1917, that one is pretty well researched. That one was a little bit more obvious in terms of a historical event that people knew about. But I decided to focus more on the reconstruction period—

Jennia: Ohh.

Leah Lindeman: —after the city was devastated. Well, what happens next? How does someone rebuild their life and what happens to the medical facilities? And how does the city kind of rebuild the area that was devastated by the explosion? Right? So I just chose a slightly different angle to come at it, even though I do feature that explosion itself. So, yeah, I guess in sources it's more difficult, but at the same time it may be—It's more exciting because you know that you're one of the few people that are taking the time and the energy to unearth that for other people to find out. So I find, vision-wise, it helps propel me in the writing more. And that was especially true also for Unborn Melody, which was the construction of the oil pipeline, World War II, Northwest territories. Most people don't even know that happened. So that was a huge vision propulsion of, okay, I'm going to get this through because, you know, I'm sharing something that no one else knows about (laughs).

Jennia: That is exciting because someone might think, "Oh, I've read everything there is to read about World War II or—


Leah Lindeman: Yeah.

Jennia: —this thing or that thing. But yeah, if you're showcasing something that they've never seen presented, maybe ever, let alone in a fictional work—

Leah Lindeman: Mhm.

Jennia: —that does make it very new, also. And I think that would also make it easier for marketing. Because you can easily say, "You might have thought you knew it all, but did you know about this?" (laughs)

Leah Lindeman: That's right. And it's not like the regular World War II stories in Europe. It's in Canada, in the middle of nowhere in the Arctic (laughs).

Jennia: Exactly.

Leah Lindeman: Yes.

Jennia: Do you have a typical starting place for when you're looking for resources or doing your research?

Leah Lindeman: I love to read books that other historians have written. And I obviously cross reference them with each other. So I would say other books and archives. Archives are incredibly helpful. I was able to do that with Unborn Melody. I actually found out from the archives the bush-pilot planes that were used up north. Also the priest that had his little chapel, and his name, what he looked like. There were photos, there were descriptions. So I find that's a gold mine when you're doing research. I guess a great starting off place would be Wikipedia. But obviously you can't take from Wikipedia (Jennia laughs). If you would just like to kind of familiarize yourself with the general idea of what is happening during that time period. But definitely don't just go off of Wikipedia (laughs). It's not supposed to be very reliable, right? But as I said, even with books that I read, whether fiction or nonfiction, actually. I enjoy both because I did read a fiction book for the Northwest territories one—

Jennia: Mhm.

Leah Lindeman: —but it was based on her life experiences there as a typist in the north. So it was called the Mackenzie Breakup. And Jean Kadmon is the author, and she was the typist up north, but she wrote this kind of fictionalized version of her life up there. And through that book that's how I found out about the Dene First Nations. And they were very instrumental in being surveyors and working on the pipeline. So I found things from that book that I actually didn't even find from my other research just because the Dene First Nations is kind of underplayed as a key role in the construction of the pipeline. But because of her fiction book, I was able to find out and then really focus my research on that because I realized that that was a huge feature that maybe wasn't featured as much as it should be.

Jennia: Yeah.

Leah Lindeman: So it's amazing what you get even just from fiction books, but based on historical events or lives that have been lived in history. Also, you could use movies too. Movies are also just a great general help to kind of visually see what the time period was like, right? So this is 1943. Obviously there's a lot of World War II movies out there that you can watch to get an idea of the hair, and the style, and the music. But also for the pipeline, the American army themselves made a documentary on the construction of the Canol oil pipeline. And you can see it on YouTube today. It's 45 minutes long. And I believe it was produced in 1949. That's when it was fully finished, and I watched it and that had some great distinct details. So yeah, online is a great jumping point and then from there you can find other resources.

Jennia: I love that we've just given other authors an excuse to watch YouTube videos and to read fictional work. "Excuse me, I'm doing research."

Leah Lindeman: That's right! (both laugh). It's great. It really—There's so many different avenues. I mean, even for research if, you know, you want to be even more creative. You know, if you want to know, like, how they danced back then go take dancing classes, learn the jive, learn the twist, like, right? Then you can really—If you have a lot of dance scenes in your book, then you can incorporate that.

Jennia: Yeah, I love that! So you also mentioned cross referencing material. So can you explain why that's important?

Leah Lindeman: Sure. Because historical fiction based in history, there's different types of history. Right? There's oral history, there's written history, and we're heavily reliant on written history. But it's also important that if you can, to also go to oral history because that can also bridge gaps in understanding that we may not get completely with written history. Or a written history will focus on dates, and people, and times, and places, but it may not focus so much on the perspective of your characters back in that time, right? So to just go with one source, obviously the author who has written that source, they're going to have their perspective—

Jennia: Uh huh.

Leah Lindeman: —and what they've gathered from their history research. So when you read a variety of sources and you're getting all these different perspectives, then it helps you to be a little bit more objective with, okay, what are these authors all in agreement with?

Jennia: Yeah.

Leah Lindeman: You know, facts obviously have to be there. But then the nuances of what they believe, how characters impacted the history of that time. That's really big. Right? Because you're writing characters, and your characters need to reflect the perspective of that time period. And if these other authors have different perspectives, then you kind of need to merge that with, "Okay, well, what is my character's journey and their arc, right?" And then, are they gonna really have the perspective that I think they may have, or are they going to have perspectives that these other authors have touched on because of culture and relationships back then and just kind of all those nuances? So it's a nuanced journey and I think that's why you really need to cross reference, to get the full effect.

Jennia: That reminds me a little bit of something we were talking to, prior to recording, about how we bring our own biases into our perspectives and our interpretations.

Leah Lindeman: Yes.

Jennia: And yeah, you might encounter that even in one source where the author is, let's say, coming to their own conclusions about why someone did something they did. But it's not really based on fact so much as their own informed opinion. But that opinion is still biased, again, like you said, on their own experiences and their own worldviews and what they're taking from it. But it doesn't mean that it's true.

Leah Lindeman: Yeah, exactly. And we all come at it from different ways, right? And then there's some history that is not fully written out or not fully fleshed out, right? So there's those gaps that you kind of have to wade through. That's why I'm saying oral history could be a great way to help fill in the gaps.

Jennia: Mhm.

Leah Lindeman: So going to those different types of histories. But yeah, sometimes you just need to guess or use those perspectives and then the perspective of your character to bridge those gaps.

Jennia: Yes. So speaking of that, writing fiction does allow you to have some creative freedom as far as how historically accurate you're going to be. Or maybe thinking, "I can't find the exact word for this type of shoe or whatever it is, I'm just going to throw in whatever I can to make sense of it." So is that something that you've ever had to do in your own work?

Leah Lindeman: I think so. Probably. I really do try to be as on point as I can, historically accurate. I'll give you a couple of examples. So for Redeemed From the Ashes, which is on the Halifax Explosion of 1917, there's this place . . . I wanted it to be the Halifax Public Gardens. And, it's just a gated garden compound where they have different sections. So they have an arid garden and a different other type of garden. And I wanted the two characters—that to be their meeting place during the book. Like, that's where they would have their moments together. But then I realized, "Oh was it even open back in 1917 during the winter after the explosion? Hmm. I should probably check that out, right?" (laughs) And, sure enough, I did reach out to, I guess, a history faculty there, and they said, "No, it probably wasn't open." They couldn't confirm—

Jennia: Mhm.

Leah Lindeman: —so I thought, "Okay, it's probably better if I just move it a a very open public walking area, right?" So that's what I did. And I could have left it in the Halifax Public Gardens. It is a very key fixture of the city People would have recognized it. But then you might have had that person saying, "Well, does that make any sense?" (both laugh) Probably not, right? So, yeah, I guess to that person it could ruin their experience. And you don't want to do that as a writer, right? You want to tend to as many readers as you can. Obviously, you're not going to be perfect and make everyone happy. But I almost view myself as a historian in the sense that I want to be as accurate as I can. Even though I'm writing fiction, right? Because even though it's entertaining, you still want to educate through the entertainment, but it doesn't feel like education because it's entertaining and you're bringing in—

Jennia: Oh exactly.

Leah Lindeman: —that your readers want to read. For the bush-pilot planes for my last one, Unborn Melody . . . So the bush-pilot plane that I used, I know for sure was used, I believe, the year prior to what I'm writing, 1943, but I'm not too sure about 1943 itself, which is the year. But there's a good possibility that it is being used that year. So I let that one go. That one I thought was, okay. You know, it's close enough. You know, it's highly probable that it still would have been used. So things like that, I'll let go. But most of the time I'm pretty—I'm very—I'm, like, going down rabbit holes a little bit—

Jennia: Yeah.

Leah Lindeman: —But those rabbit holes only happen once you have the base of your first draft. Like, first draft, what I'll do usually is I will do a bunch of research to make sure I'm completely familiar with the culture and the time and the place. But then there's those little nitty gritty details that you don't know, right? And you kind of only experience them as you're writing the story. And then you realize, "Oh, I actually don't know what this is. Let me go find that or make a note and I'll go find it." And then that's where those come in.

Jennia: I'm glad you brought that up because I actually was going to ask that. You know, when do you start researching these parts versus these parts?

Leah Lindeman: Yeah.

Jennia: —Yeah, it seems like you'd almost have to have an outline or a strong sense of where the story is going first. Otherwise you're just going to be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of material there is to go through. And where do you even start? You know, are you going to be looking into the types of vehicles if the person doesn't even drive? You know, probably not. But if you don't have a good sense of character or plot, how would you even know?

Leah Lindeman: Yeah. Yeah, so during the research phase, which is the first phase I go through, right? And I proably give about four to five months of just heavy research—

Jennia: Oh wow.

Leah Lindeman: —reading those primary sources, right? So that's when you're doing a lot of book reading (laughs) on those. And then, you know, the fun type too. But while that's going on, that's when kind of my major plot is being formed in my head. So that will happen while I'm doing the research. But then at some point you do have to let the research go or else it's never going to get written, right?

Jennia: Exactly.

Leah Lindeman: So I think as long as you're—as you feel comfortable, you may not know it perfectly inside out. But if you're comfortable with the time and the place too, like, getting familiar with the terrain is really important, too, if you're covering a large expanse of terrain. But even, let's say, a city like Halifax for Redeemed From the Ashes. Taking a look at those old maps from 1917 and looking at what the city was like and being comfortable with the different neighborhoods of the city. And then realizing, "Oh, I'm not sure if they use this word back in the 40s (laughs). I should take a look!" So you just—you can, you know, comment, highlight it, or star it, or something to bring your attention to that fact after the first draft is written, right? Because first draft is all about not editing as you go. Just, you could say word vomiting the words onto the page (both laugh), and then you can clean it up after.

Jennia: So when you are going through maps and that sort of thing and let's say you're trying to envision what it's like for someone to live there, are there any details that you might pay attention to more than others? Or is that going to be character dependent?

Leah Lindeman: Probably more character dependent. So, as I said, the overall map, you want to be familiar with. Like, probably neighborhoods, because your character will be probably going into different neighborhoods—

Jennia: Right, they don't just stay in their house all day long (laughs).

Leah Lindeman: That's right! I mean, that would be maybe an interesting horror story (laughs). But . . . Yeah, like, for example, Halifax explosion, I was very particular on, "Okay, like, where the docks?" Because she uses the ferry a lot to go between Halifax and Dartmouth, which is the other side of the Narrows. I also wanted to know where, like, particular buildings were, like, restaurants and shopping. Like, where she could go shopping for a dress. So in that sense, it would be character dependent. And then also taking note—So character dependent and event dependent too. Because the Halifax explosion, you need to know where they set up all these makeshift hospitals—

Jennia: Ah, right.

Leah Lindeman: —and, you know, like, where the main Citadel buildings are. Yeah. So I would say mostly buildings, but also streets too. Like, she lives on Gottingen Street. So knowing that and then how far it would take to walk to another area of the city, yeah.

Jennia: Yeah! Or even that she could walk there, I would think that would come up, too, because I know I've seen that with things I've edited where it might say person went from this location to that location. But if you mapped it out, it would take them, like, three days to walk there, not an afternoon (both laugh).

Leah Lindeman: Yes, exactly.

Jennia: How do you share this information without having the dreaded info dump?

Leah Lindeman: Ohh, so good (laughs). Yeah, I think it's very easy to just info dump it all the beginning. Right?

Jennia: Yup! (laughs)

Leah Lindeman: Yeah, it's a fine line, right? Because you do need information. You need to know where you are and, like, where the character is and how they're interacting. So I think what's really helpful to not info dump is using those senses. They're so basic. Like, we know, yes, you need the sense of touch and feel and smell, but if you focus on those and you realize, "Okay, they don't really need to know this right now because they're not coming across it. Even though I feel like I need to tell the reader that" —I don't know (laughs)—"The neighborhood is like this during the certain time period," they will get a sense for it as the character moves along. So when she's moving down the street, I talk about how she's seeing soldiers at every corner, basically, because the city was overrun by soldiers and mechanics, and people were there for training, right? So I'm focusing on what she's seeing and the sounds that she's—The different types of dialogue that she's listening to on the street. So you kind of bring that up with the five senses. I think that helps to kind of keep you on point.

Jennia: Yeah, so well said. So one thing that I've seen people talk about is the measure of accuracy versus inaccuracy. And someone said that when you just throw most accuracy out the window, then you're really writing fantasy, not historical fiction. So I'd love to hear that your thoughts on that.

Leah Lindeman: Yeah. Okay. I would say be as accurate as you can, but when it comes to historical events that require a lot of guesswork or historical characters that require guesswork, then it's okay to have that historical inaccuracy, right? Because at some point you're not all knowing—

Jennia: Right! (laughs)

Leah Lindeman: —And you can't find everything sometimes. And then you can get into the line of alternate history too. Right? So that could be an option, if that's something you're leaning into, to play around with that. But even fantasy—Fantasy and historical fiction, it seems like they're very different, but I find there's actually a lot more in common than we think. Because fantasy, a lot of the times, especially if you're building up a great big world, has its own history, right? You have cultures that have their own history, their own languages, their own geographies and cities. So I find they're pretty similar in terms of world building. You're doing the same thing for each. Just that with history, we have something to compare to. Right? Which is the real history. But again, it's a judgment call! (both laugh). Then you have to be, "Okay, am I okay with, you know, a few people saying, 'Well, that wasn't quite accurate'?"

Jennia: Right, exactly. I think so much of writing advice out there really is a judgment call, like you just said, where it's, "Okay, well, I can do this. But then this might be the result. This might be the type of feedback that I receive from readers. And am I okay with that?" And then, yeah, again, just asking yourself those yes or no questions, almost like a little flowchart before you arrive at your final answer, "Yes, I am okay doing this."

Leah Lindeman: Yes, exactly. Oh, actually, I just wanted to say one more thing, that if it devalues the history because you're being inaccurate, then you should strive for accuracy. Right? If you're saying you are historical fiction.

Jennia: Mhm.

Leah Lindeman: But if it's not really devaluing the history or the characters that you're showing, then I would say, yeah, there's definitely room for inaccuracy in that sense.

Jennia: Oh yeah. I'm really glad you brought that up because I completely agree. So if you had to leave listeners with one takeaway, who are now inspired to write their first historical fiction piece, what would that bit of advice be?

Leah Lindeman: Mhm. Well, start with Wikipedia (both laugh). It's fun, it's short. And then usually at the end of Wikipedia they list sources that they've received their information from. Go to your local library, have fun just looking up on your library system different keywords for what you're looking for, the time period that you're looking for, and then from there, the more you hunt it down, the more you fine tune your sources. And then as I said, look at fiction books that have been written on that subject, and watch the movies from that time period. There's so many, so many sources that you can go to, but you will learn to fine tune your sources as they come along.

Jennia: Which is great advice too. So that's showing them already, "Hey, there's hope. It might feel overwhelming now, but it won't always"

Leah Lindeman: Yes. And also just have fun with the story itself. Don't make it too serious. Like, writing books is supposed to be fun. You don't have to know the ins and outs right away. So enjoy the research Maybe if you're having a hard time starting, give yourself some sort of reward that you're going to give yourself after that research. Enjoy also fleshing out your characters and your plot at the same time. So it's not just all details, but also story and heart of what you want to write.

Jennia: Aww, wonderful, advice. Thank you!

Leah Lindeman: Thank you! (laughs)

Jennia: And thank you again for being here!

Leah Lindeman: Yeah, it was really great. I love talking history and just bringing history and literature together. That's the main reason why I started my series, why I started writing, and I still love it to this day. It's been eight years since I've been published and 10 plus years since I've been writing and it's fresh and new every time. When you love history and when you love literature and you put them together, it's, like, the perfect blend (laughs).

Jennia: I love that so much. I hope that really inspires other people to go ahead and start writing those stories that they've been thinking about too.

Leah Lindeman: Yes!

Jennia: Thank you for listening and be sure to check out the show notes for additional information, where we'll also have all of Leah's links and you can find her books. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please share the link with a friend. And then please join me next week when author Jennifer Yang will join us, and that she's going to share how to use experimental prose in your memoir. Thanks again!