Historical fiction idea

[betweensunandmoon]

Some things:

• I enjoy historical fiction and period films.
• I despise many of the tropes plaguing today's popular romance literature (unlikable characters, no real plots, abusive relationships being portrayed as desirable, and so on).
• I have a weakness for swashbuckling heroes.
• I read Outlander and did not like it one bit.
• I'd like to write a novel, but I don't think I can.

All of the above inspired the following original-fiction plot idea.

16th-century Florence, Italy. Giovanna del Sera is betrothed to a man she doesn't like very much, but has resolved to grit her teeth and go through with the marriage without complaining. When a childhood friend unexpectedly reenters her life, he turns out to be the kind of man she could love, if he doesn't get himself killed first.   

Something else happens, because I like adventure first and romance second, but that's the main part. And I'm not sure what the "something else" would be yet.

Just to clarify: Giovanna is NOT going to put her love interest before her duty to her family, even if it means never seeing her true love again. Nor will her fiance be the antagonist.

Worth the effort, or too cliche? Should I give it a try or get rid of it?

Comments

[igenlode]

I posted a long reply to this, and then someone pulled the plug on the computer and wiped it all out :-(

It will be a couple of days before I have any time to have another go -- sorry.

[betweensunandmoon]

I am SO sorry! That's the worst! D:

[igenlode]

This reminds me rather of the sort of children's historical fiction I used to read when I was little (before the 'Young Adult' marketing genre was invented); there might be a romantic subplot hinted at or used for narrative purposes, e.g. to explain why the protagonist is running away from home and getting involved in dramatic historical events, but 'will they/won't they' was never the central aspect of the story, not least because the target readership was of an age to think such subject matter embarrassing and boring ;-p
Yours seems to be more explicitly centred on romance, though.

My immediate reaction was that you would need to research a *lot* about the day-to-day life and history of the period, both in order to locate a suitable 'something else' to serve as the main action-adventure theme of the plot (why 16th-century Florence? Is there a specific set of historical events you had in mind to get your characters mixed up in?), and in order to submerse your readers convincingly into the characters' surroundings and mindset. You need the background detail of what it was like to *be* in Early Modern Florence -- the social customs, the expectations of behaviour, the clothing, the entertainments, the sort of people you saw on the streets, the interiors of people's houses, the cooking, the smells, how limited (or not) the horizons of different people and different classes were... and you need to be able to recreate this in your readers' imaginations while doing so through the eyes of someone who takes it all for granted, because it's all she has ever known.

Standard historical novel stuff, or it should be... but for this period you don't have the easy short cut of reading novels and newspapers of the era (invaluable for Victorian/Edwardian fiction) to get an idea of the attitudes and settings that people took for granted. You can do a good deal by reading other people's historical fiction, assuming that it's of decent quality; to be frank, I don't do any original research for what I write, but rely on the mental images I have from what I've read. But this isn't a period I'd be comfortable about writing for -- the nearest thing I've come across is the "House of Niccolò" novels, which were set in the 15th century, way before this.

What will happen to Giovanna's family if she *doesn't* make this marriage? Why was it arranged in the first place -- what is her fiancé offering her, and them? I imagine you're right in that her duty to her family would be seen as far more important that any romantic nonsense about true love (but on the other hand, people throughout history have done stupid and reckless things for love, even those with great responsibilities: just look at Edward IV and Henry VIII, both of whom caused havoc in order to marry ineligible and otherwise unattainable women!)

How did Giovanna meet this childhood friend in the first place? How much mixing went on between children of different sexes and/or classes, and under what circumstances? And how do they meet again?

I like the idea that the fiancé is not the antagonist; so far as clichés go, romantic novels offer two. Either the heroine abandons her stodgy fiancé and ends up running off with the sexy hero who is a True Soulmate, or else she gets let down by the dark and mysterious stranger who initially sweeps her off her feet, only to end up realising that she really loves her fiancé after all :-p
How you steer clear of both I don't know...

I had to look up the "Outlander" fandom in order to do a fandom-blind review for a contest. I didn't care for the premise at all (forced to marry a sexy stranger really is a cliché that allows the heroine the thrill of the forbidden while excusing her from any responsibility in the matter), and the character I really identified with was the abandoned husband, who gets arbitrarily bashed by having the villain be his identical ancestor -- so it's just as well that the particular piece in question just happened to focus on the viewpoint of the one left behind!

If you don't think you can write a novel, I'd question whether it's a good idea to try :-(
It's a vast quantity of work, and sustained slogging work over a long period; if you've yet to finish a short story, jumping straight into a massive project is probably just going to lead to depression and giving up. Were you planning to make this novel-length?