How to Weave Historical Characters Into a Story

Using historical characters in your story can transport your reader to the past in historic fiction, or it can give a contemporary story a fantastic or metaphoric appeal by weaving together the past and the present. However you use historical characters, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Determine the role of the historical characters. Historical characters can create a greater sense of time and place in historical fiction, or they can be used creatively in other story types.
2. Research the characters you want to write about. Regardless of the role of historical characters in your story, you need to know them well: their appearance, habits, speech and activities. Nothing can take a reader out of a story more quickly than factual errors, so don't place Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., when he was delivering a speech in the Midwest!
3. Stay in character. If you want the historical character to read as such, she should behave in the way that the real person would have behaved. When you have a reason for portraying the character differently than she would have behaved, make the reason clear in the story or readers will think you've made a mistake.
4. Be imaginative. Sometimes, an historical character works best as inspiration for a fictional character. If you don't want to be confined to an historical character's behavior, base your own character upon him. With your research, you will still bring a sense of authenticity to your historical fiction.

Tips & Warnings

• Historical characters are easiest to treat as secondary characters. For example, a main character might meet JFK, exchange letters with Freud or have a secret meeting with Howard Hughes. You can be less bound by what actually happened when your historical characters aren't center stage.
• If you do use an historical character as your main character, read all recent biographies of this person to fact check your story.