IMAGINING REAL PLACES by Joy Margetts

 

All of my books are historical fiction, and they are fiction based on fact, as all good historical fiction is (in my view anyway!) Some historical fiction is based on real events, or on real people. Facts that, however loosely, can be woven into the fiction, to give the piece authenticity. For me those facts aren’t events or people, rather places. Actual places that existed in the 13th Century, and the remains of which still exist today.


Abbey ruins, castle ruins, holy sites and shrines. The legacy of the Normans and the Romans, the Celtic Christians and the Cistercians, these are what inspired me to write.

Both of my novels and my novella have been published since Covid disrupted life as we knew it. When I began to write I knew some of the places I was writing about well enough to describe them accurately. I had visited them often, taken photos, done my research. I soon discovered however, that I was having to write about places that I hadn’t visited, or not for a long time anyway. And with lockdown restrictions, it seemed unlikely that I was going to be able to visit them in person, before the book had to be finished.

So what do you do when you have to describe a place so that it is recognisable to a reader who might know it? When all you have is Mr Google, and his marvellous maps?


I found online research was great, there is so much out there – photos, histories of places, old maps and drawings. But I needed more – what about the landscapes around the site for instance? Then I had the bright idea of buying walker’s guides. My second book was based around the North Wales Pilgrim Route. Many of the sites towards the end of the route I knew as they were local.  But other sites nearer the beginning of the route I had never seen. I thought I would have time before publication to check my details. Covid scuppered that. So I used those guides – oh you have to walk up a steep hill to get to that site. Useful information! And the gate is on that side, and you can see that monument from that path.

Now I have the advantage of writing about places that probably looked considerably different 800 years ago! In fact more than one of the Abbeys were still under construction then – piles of wood and stone. So I could let my imagination run wild in describing them. And who is to say I am wrong?

Other places I described by comparing them to other similar places I did know. One little church I have since visited, to find to my delight that I described almost perfectly bar the addition of a window or two!



So if you are a fiction writer, how do you tackle it? How do you write descriptions of places that you have never actually visited? Or do you avoid it completely? Do you make up imaginary places that have similarities to places you know – so not recognisable if you were questioned? Do you add some detail and then add to it with your imagination? Or is authentic description of places not important to you as a reader? Is it OK to imagine real places?


Joy Margetts has loved writing for as long as she can remember. A retired nurse, mother of two, and a new grandparent, she also has a lifelong interest in history. She makes her home on the beautiful North Wales coast.

Her debut novel 'The Healing', a work of historic fiction, was published by Instant Apostle on 19 March 2021. Joy has also self published a short novella, 'The Beloved' as both a companion to 'The Healing', and as an easy to read standalone story, which is available on Amazon Kindle. Her second full - length novel, 'The Pilgrim', was published by Instant Apostle in July 2022

More information on Joy and her writing, and her personal blog, can be found here www.joymargetts.com

Comments

This post struck a chord with me as I had a historical series under way before the pandemic started, and I had already visited a couple of places in order to set one of the novels there. Actually my best information about one of the places came from a taxi driver who took me out to see the Royal Military Canal! I did manage to write a novel set mostly in Lyme Regis during lockdown, using vague memories from a visit some years before as well as the trusty Google maps, and then I had intended the next one to be set mostly in Bath but as I had never been there I decided to move the characters on to York quite quickly as it was more familiar to me. What I find with Google maps (or any others really) is that it's sometimes hard to picture exactly how much the landscape goes up and down and how steeply. I suppose OS maps would be best for that if you remember to look at the contour lines, which I sometimes don't.