Which time period to explore in fiction writing?

susanstohelit

Tue, Aug 27 2024, 9:36 pm

I have a Jewish history background and I would STRONGLY recommend doing research FIRST and deciding to write about it later. You absolutely cannot guarantee that a given time period will have enough information about day to day life for Jews in that era that you'll be able to give an accurate depiction. In many you will, in many you probably won't unless you have a command of the primary and secondary sources. (Also- your level of reading fluency in Modern Hebrew will make a difference, as there's a decent bit of Israeli scholarship in Hebrew that you can't necessarily access in English.)

For ease of research I very much recommend, from that perspective, picking a time period in US, Canadian, or British history. You'll find not only accessible mass-market books about the period to give you a grounding and help you decide if you're interested, but you'll have a whole constellation of mass-market, academic, genealogical, and web-based material that people have been putting together for a really long time, as well as, if you really want to go into it, potentially a local Jewish historical society or museum with staff who may be able to help you research specifics. If you pick something that happened in a place in which you live, then you'll also have the benefit of basic familiarity with the general historical era from your local/national history course in school before you dive into the Jewish side.

I also recommend, and this is more of a writing thing, coming up with a unique plot around unique characters before picking the EXACT historical backdrop you want. I often find with historical fiction that the plot will either be thin or labored in an attempt to squeeze in as much local color as possible, and sometimes that can really hurt the plot and character development. I'd say, pick a general historical era you find interesting, try to come up with a story framework that makes sense in that era, and then examine the local color and see how much of it fits in.

So, for example, based on my own interests, I'd probably do something like "oh, London in the Georgian period is interesting. I think that a story about an immigrant family from Germany that struggles to acclimate to this new and bustling city would be good. Maybe there's an argument between a father and son about hashkafa related to mysticism and rationalism as rural Judaism encounters the urban Enlightenment. Oh, interesting, in the late 1700s you had the Baal Shem of London and Lord George Gordon around- maybe one of them might be interesting to incorporate, whether as a character or as background." I don't do that much historical fiction writing, but when I have it's generally been more in that order, because I've read too much stuff where it feels like the plot was constructed around the author's Wiki walk.

I'd also mention- if you're writing for frum publication, you WILL face the fact that Jewish lifestyles in a lot of places weren't always up to frum magazine standards frumkeit wise. This can be camouflaged but never quite hidden away, IMO. From that perspective, you might want to ignore most of the above and pick a relatively cloistered time period in Jewish history, but that might take a different kind of research that may be less accessible or less specific. Like, if you want niche, I can give you Jews in Germany in the 15th century, when they weren't even technically allowed to live in most of it- and I can also give you an article about it, maybe two. But that's probably not going to give you the whole picture that you might want for a story like this. (Though sometimes you can cross-reference with other works- you might want one book for background about a particular time and place, and another book on, say, what women's experiences were like in the century or two of which that particular time/place are a part.)

I know there's a lot here, but I think the main takeaway I'd recommend from it is- don't pick a topic unless you know you're interested and you know there's material, because by the end of the research you will be MARRIED to it.

I will say- you mentioned the Jews of the Lower East Side, and that is SUCH a rich time period for this kind of thing, though it may be a bit disheartening if your perspective is frumkeit lol. I'd recommend a book like Jewish New York by Deborah Dash Moore et al, which is very readable from a mass market perspective and will go a lot into the LES as well as other eras you may not be familiar with at all that may spark something in you! If you want to learn more about frumkeit in the US historically, try Orthodox Jews in America by Jeffrey Gurock, which lays out what was going on at various points in time for context. You also mentioned Little House on the Prairie, and there is a LOT out there about Jews out west in the US and Canada. I don't have specific books offhand, but you may want to check out this link for some great information about Jewish farming in the US.

Best of luck with whatever you decide to do!