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Extrapolating When You Can't Research

Ophiucha

Auror
This is particularly relevant to historical fantasy, but could apply to other genres under the right circumstances. Ever write a story where there are facts, things happened... but nobody ever thought to write them down? If you've ever tried writing a story set in an ancient civilization other than Greece or Rome, you probably understand this one. So here's my situation:

I'm writing a story about the mercenary, John Hawkwood, as a werewolf following his excommunication from the Catholic Church. I can find a lot of oddly specific details. There was a wedding he attended with Geoffrey Chaucer and Petrarch, and the bride later remarried the brother of Hawkwood's wife. I can find a lot about his burial. I've found a few names from his band of mercenaries, and I've even found some people who will make excellent arc villains who get their comeuppance. One dude who opposes John Hawkwood even gets excommunicated himself. Easily can make their argument about werewolfism, and have him ironically become a werewolf himself. But... there are things - important things - that the records are rather hazy on. Like... his family. He had two wives, the first one is completely unknown. Her name, her fate. Unknown. He had children before he married his second wife, but whether they were from his first or from mistresses is unknown. And my god, good luck figuring out how many children he had. Numbers from four to about ten.

So the discussion point: when you just can't know, when the information simply doesn't exist, is it better to make it up or... just sort of sidestep the issue? In my case, for instance, should I decide from what I do know which of his children existed and whom they were born from, or should I just include an ambiguous "a letter from his son", with no name or age on the kid and no mention of his mother? Have you ever faced this issue in any of your stories, and if so, how did you get around it?
 

JCFarnham

Auror
I have a friend who's writing a historical ... romance I think it is, set locally where we live. She's doing an awful lot of research about the area from what I gather and I'm sure has come across problems like you have with Hawkwood.

First of all I would take what's most certain about his family as fact and 1) discard the rest, 2) let the story dictate what stays. If your plot needs him to have four children from two wives then that'll do, if you need to portray him as a man who gets about (for the period of course) then ten plus children from all sorts of mistresses would be the way to go. It all depends on how you want to portray him and what he gets up to over the course of the story.

It sounds like you need him to have broad contact with his family. I'm infering from the letter you mentioned that he would be excommunicated and get letter from his family periodically. Well... the paragraph above still stands here, but if it must be a letter from his son (and you and no one else knows anything about said son) then you can safely fictionalise it.

If there are gaps don't be afraid to extrapolate from what you DO know, like the kind of person he was, what you know of his life, and logically come to conclusions about the things you don't. (e.g. a son was born in xxxx, in xxxx Hawkwood was in [insert place here] and so was "a woman he knew", therefore...)

Does that help? I think I've made less and less sense as this posts gone on haha
 

Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
I think that educated guesses are what most people must rely on in the lack of documented evidence. I however, research for art competitions, where it is easier to explain why I had to guess and how I came about the guesses I made.

In my experience as a reader..... I am pretty forgiving of some fudged details, because I have paid to be entertained, not necessarily educated, you know? If I were in your position, I would ask how many people would even know these details you might have to guess on, and then follow JC's advice.

I don't know anything about your story, of course, but maybe this would be helpful... I remember reading an article many years ago about how people were contesting the identity of Shakespeare, saying all sorts of things about how he was really two different people, or never existed at all..... forgive me, I don't recall all the details. Anyways, maybe you could work something like that in to make details easier. Like, Man in the Iron Mask's ending where they imply Louis was actually two different people, but the world never knew. I don't mean that exact thing, but like something mysterious that could aid you in the details.

Anyways, just the fact that you are so devoted to accuracy and research is commendable and it bodes well for your work.
 

emma

Acolyte
I think it would depend on what you need for your story. If the son is gonna play a big enough part in the story to deserve a name then do so. Even if you can't find a specific account of his children's real names you can probably find reports of what names were common during the time and area enough to give him a realistic enough name to not bother your readers, most of whom won't be running out to double check your facts :).

In fact, for most issues, with the research you've done it sounds like you have a solid idea of the world during that time...that should help you fill in some of the gray areas that might be out there as far as "known" historical facts :)
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
So the discussion point: when you just can't know, when the information simply doesn't exist, is it better to make it up or... just sort of sidestep the issue?

In your case, this is your main character, and you don't really have a choice.
 
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