Author: Trina Allen
Date:   05-31-07 11:19

I'm writing this during my lunch break at work, so I'll check later for responses.

I finished the first draft my historical fantasy novel for young adults two years ago. This was the first novel that I’ve ever written; in retrospect, a historical novel was not the easiest genre for a first novel. The novel takes place in the present and in 1775. I made the mistake of writing the first draft without doing enough research into Colonial Boston, or into Paul Revere’s life, who is a central character. (I am a science researcher who was a former science teacher, far removed from the history of the American Revolution).

Patrick Leehy of the Paul Revere house was kind enough to edit my text and, no surprise, he found some mistakes. For example Sara Revere, Paul’s first wife, was alive and well in my first draft. She was deceased in 1775 -- oops. So I revised the entire novel, correcting such history mistakes.

In order to correct the history, I had to remove a chapter because it took place in March of 1775 and my novel is set in April. This wouldn’t be that important, but the battle of Lexington/Concord and Paul Revere’s famous ride happen in mid April, both significant events in the novel. After meeting with my critique group, I want to put the chapter back in. But this will involve the central character taking a trip back in time to March, and then making another second trip in April, which will involve some rewriting work. The novel is 50,000 words without the chapter. My choices seem to be: leave the chapter out, insert the chapter in the wrong time (April) or rewrite the chapter where it belongs.

Meanwhile, my husband is asking me when I’ll ever finish the novel (I have, after all, been working on it for three years). I keep saying soon, but sometimes I feel like the answer is really -- never. Since this is my first time around the block with a novel, I decided to post these two questions as a sanity check:

1 How important is it to have every fact correct in a historical fiction or fantasy novel? I have tried very hard to make the novel match real history as much as my humble science background allows.

2 When is enough enough? I do not feel that my novel is ready to query agents yet, but will it ever be perfect? I keep incorporating feedback from my writing group, but I wonder if I am rewriting too much.