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Thursday, October 30, 2014

Did you know that in 1902 First Daughter Alice Roosevelt received an allowance of $2,000 per month, the equivalent of $14,000 today? Did you also know that Roosevelt slid on tin trays down the White House main stairway on her father Teddy Roosevelt’s inauguration day? History buff, debut novelist, and Library member Rebecca Behrens shared these fascinating historical facts at her recent writing workshop for young members. Behrens is the author of When Audrey Met Alice, the tale of what happens when frustrated First Daughter Audrey discovers Alice Roosevelt’s secret diary hidden beneath the White House floorboards. Behrens shared her history fascination with our young writers and talked about the process of creating her novel, from research and writing to editing and publication. Below are the tips Behrens shared for researching and writing historical fiction:

• Read a lot of books, explore online resources (like www.whitehouse.gov), and contact historical societies to learn more about the history of your subject.

• Brainstorm a word list of ideas you can associate with your research topic. This will help you to begin to craft your narrative.

• Identify sensory details to help your setting come alive. You can use your research to help you describe a famous setting: What do you see in photographs of the place? What might a person in that place feel? How does it smell? What would the food in that place taste like? 

• Be careful with language choices and anachronisms. The language characters use depends on the time period and place of the story. Avoid mentioning objects that do not belong in a time period because they did not exist then. Also, avoid modern phrases and slang.

• Write about what you have learned from your research. Then, use your imagination and personal experiences to bring your historical fiction alive with the feelings behind the facts.

During the workshop, the young writers also enjoyed brainstorming and writing pieces of  their own historical narratives. We look forward to reading and sharing the fascinating stories of the Library's next generation of writers.

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