Realism Without a Hammer

This week is a hectic one–two holiday parties, shopping, a dinner party, not to mention actual work. Oh, wait, we don’t use the four-letter W word here at Texty Ladies. Wash my mouth out with soap! Anyway, I didn’t get the article finished that I’d planned to do, but an extension of the article I wrote for Unusual Historicals is close enough to the topic.

Realism: just how do you incorporate the appropriate amount of facts and detail about a historical period, or a specific contemporary setting, or for that matter a paranormal world? We want to make our worlds plausible, and the characters’ actions plausible, so we research. But we might not always like with we learn.

My article is called Let’s Ride, and it’s about the history of rodeo. Did you know that the first famous saddle bronc rider was a Nez Perce? Or that a black man from Texas invented bulldogging? Or that several women in the 1910s through the 1930s were rough stock champions, competing directly with men? How would you incorporate those things into a story without going into social commentary?

Aye, there’s the rub. We’re writing fiction–stories to entertain our readers. If we want to proselytize, there are other venues in which to do it. Readers see through preaching right away and whether they agree with your cause or not, are likely to put the book down out of sheer boredom. They picked up your book for amusement, that’s what they want, and we want to give it to them.

Nevertheless, stories are about people, and their weaknesses (hate or intolerance of any sort, greed, viciousness) are fodder for conflict, and conflict is what makes a story. So now we have a Catch 22: we can’t write social commentary, but we have to write exactly that, only not. This applies to the smallest part of daily life, e.g. bathing habits, as well as the most blatant of societal woes, such as slavery and genocide.

So back to rodeo. In 1877, most European-Americans were perfectly happy with the policy of genocide of Native Americans because they were considered to be a sub-human species. This attitude is repulsive to us today, but history is history, warts and all. When Chief Joseph led the Nez Perce on a 1,500-mile trek to save their families and their homes, little did he know that his 14-year-old nephew, Waaya-Tonah-Toesits-Kahn, would one day be the saddle bronc champion that all the other cowboys used as a benchmark for their own achievements. Those of us familiar with rodeo know him as Jackson Sundown.

Chief Joseph said, “We shall fight no more forever.”

Jackson Sundown did live to fight another day, but with skill, intuition, balance, and determination on the back of a bucking horse. He competed and won against the very people who tried to exterminate his own people. Mr. Sundown wasn’t just a champion, he defined the form and style of modern bronc riding. Yet, how was he treated? Did he bring his wife to the rodeos? Did his children play with the children of other cowboys? These are the types of things that make fiction engaging, yet any sort of telling could be offputting in the extreme.

We show.

The deeper the point of view, the more vivid the showing. But once the author drifts out to omnicient point of view, well, that’s flat-out telling. Just don’t do it.

Show with strong verbs and descriptive nouns. First show us why we should root for the character, then show us the injustice imparted to him, and finally, show us how a hero deals with this injustice to make the world just a little bit better.

Jackson Sundown, Bill Pickett, and Bertha Blancett (Let’s Ride tells a little about them) are all heroes. They overcame the odds and the world is a better place for it. Hopefully, this is the stuff of our own characters.

So that’s it for this Magical Monday. Happy writing!

Jacquie
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Filed under: Magical Monday, Writing Craft | Ed

Tags: Bertha Blancett, Chief Joseph, Jackson Sundown, research, social commentary, worldbuilding