Change the World with Your Writing-Using History to Change the Future Part 2

By p m terrell, Columnist for Southern Writers Magazine 

@pmterrell

If you missed Part 1 of this blog series, it appeared on January 14, 2020 and you can access it via the archives on the right hand side of the blog page. 

Any genre can incorporate historical events; even science fiction and fantasy can begin with true history and alter them, so they fit into the fictional worlds of the characters. Here are some guidelines to take your work to the next level by incorporating history:

Change the World with Your Writing-Using History to Change the Future Part 1

By p m terrell, Columnist for Southern Writers Magazine

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” -- novelist George Santayana (1863-1952)

Those words have been repeated innumerable times in countless variations. Authors are in a unique position of bringing history to the masses, not in the form of unimaginative lists of dates and titles but in stirring emotionally charged scenes. Consider the statement that some people were abducted, taken halfway around the world, and placed into slavery. Now imagine the scene in Alex Haley’s bestselling book, Roots, in which Kunta Kinte arrives in America and is sold to a Virginia plantation owner. They both tell the same story, but one is so emotionally charged as to make it unforgettable.