Writing Fiction in a Specific Time Period, a Post by Jackie Anton

How long did it take you to write this book? That’s a question frequently asked of authors by interviewers. For me that timeline from inspiration to a published work varies greatly.

It didn’t take me long, about a year, to accomplish that with my first book Backyard Horse Tales: Sox. However, I was not happy with the results or the lack of cooperation with my first publisher. I felt like something was missing.  I worked with an excellent free lance editor for a little over six months. I revised, clarified, and added a new ending. The results of our work was “Sox 2nd Edition ” winner of the Mom’s Choice Silver Seal of Excellence.

The second Backyard Horse Tale took me twice as long, due to historical content and required research.

Likewise, my first adult novel , though fiction, was more of a modern tale with the use of GPS, smart phones, and computers that included laptops. “Fateful Waters” came to life during the NaNoWriMo writing challenge in November of 2011. It finally went to print, after a stint as an e-book, in the spring of 2012.

As of the composing of this blog, my second adult novel penned as J.M. Anton is being formatted as an e-book. This novels journey from concept to reality is a lot closer to a decade in the making. “Wind River Refuge” takes place during our involvement in Vietnam. Though I lived through those times, it took some extensive research to develop my characters. Crime solving methods of the time, as well as child advocacy, more accurately, the lack of advocacy also took a lot of digging. Then there were the archived calendars for date references.

After all that preparation, my awesome editor found a discrepancy in one of my references to dialing 911. “There wasn’t any 911 back then. It didn’t exist until the eighties.” OOPS! Rewrite! Modern technology snuck its way past me.

I guess if you don’t want be subject to some credibility regarding the time frame of a work of fiction, an author either has to predate history or create a world of their own.

Lately, I have read and reviewed several authors who have taken that approach. Some of them have created amazing settings and characters that still ring true. Other author’s works are not so believable.

So the question: Does fiction, even science fiction, have to be believable”

I think it needs to be believable enough  that a reader can relate and get involved with the characters who in habit the writer’s pages.

What do you think?

Leave a comment on this blog post and let us know what you look for in the books you choose.

#ABlogPost #JackieAnton