{"id":30143,"date":"2016-10-20T08:13:59","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T12:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=30143"},"modified":"2016-10-20T08:17:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T12:17:56","slug":"katie-fetting-five-reasons-writers-choose-to-break-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2016\/10\/20\/katie-fetting-five-reasons-writers-choose-to-break-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Katie Fetting: Five Reasons Writers Choose To Break History"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"history\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hanna is a 1st gen American of German immigrant parents. When WWII breaks out, she seeks to prove her allegiance to the U.S. After rigorous training at Camp X (Google it!), she becomes a spy. Our graphic novel opens in early 1945. Hanna’s assignment? Take a German officer from Munich to Genoa — avoiding the Nazis, the Russians, the Americans. Why? Well, maybe this assignment isn’t exactly ‘authorized’…<\/em><\/p>\n

Ever see a movie with a know-it-all?<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t, you probably are that know-it-all. If so, you relish pointing out every inconsistency possible. \u201cThere were no such things as chastity belts.\u201d \u201cEva Peron was a terrible person who didn\u2019t sing with a suitcase.\u201d \u201cNo way Braveheart banged the Princess of Wales. He would have smelled like a farting Shetland pony.\u201d<\/p>\n

So\u2026 I\u2019m one of those know-it-alls. And it can be delightful to point out discrepancies, misinterpretations and general fuck-ups in historical adaptations.<\/p>\n

But what if you\u2019re on the other side of it? Do writers really not know their history? Did they not spend months and years researching? Are they inept morons?<\/p>\n

OK, probably some of them are. But as someone who\u2019s written five projects based on real events \u2013 each with its own historic inaccuracies \u2013 I can tell you, most of us make deliberate decisions to benefit the overall story.<\/p>\n

Why do we do this? Well, there\u2019s a lot of boring shit that\u2019s happened in 3,000 years. A helluva lot of waiting in doctor\u2019s offices. Blow-drying hair. Scooping kitty litter. Watching CSPAN\u2026<\/p>\n

So here are five criteria I use to determine whether to break with documented history. Use and abuse at your own peril.<\/p>\n

1. Pace<\/h2>\n

From moment-to-moment are you keeping the reader engaged?<\/em><\/p>\n

A reader must want to know what happens next. If you lose this, pages stop turning. The overwhelming majority of stories already truncate time to some degree, so ask yourself if a minute, inessential historical detail pushes the reader forward or stops him in his tracks.<\/p>\n

2. Space<\/h2>\n

Can your overall narrative survive going off on Dostoyevskian tangents?<\/em><\/p>\n

You may be keeping readers reasonably engaged from moment-to-moment, but most of them have overarching expectations for a narrative and how it should move. It\u2019s possible, if you\u2019re Steinbeck, you can get away with an entire chapter on a turtle early in your narrative. However my guess is that, you, Sir, are no John Steinbeck.<\/p>\n

Mostly, tangents work more like the begets and begots of Genesis. You see how crazy long the Bible is\u2026 and how you\u2019re only on Chapter 5 of the first book<\/em>\u2026 and, yeah, I think I\u2019ll watch Orphan Black.<\/p>\n

3. Interest<\/h2>\n

Does adding accuracy add interest?<\/em><\/p>\n

In my screenplay for about the 1924 teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb, I tried to scrupulously follow the recorded history. But at times, in order to do so, I\u2019d be adding scenes unnecessary to the plot \u2013 which would have slowed the tempo, added money to the budget and been, well, tedious.<\/p>\n

For example, in real life, when the ransom call for their victim came in, only the mother was at home. This seems odd as if my child were kidnapped, certainly my partner and I would BOTH be there waiting for the call. Therefore, to be accurate to history, I would either need to 1.) leave the audience wondering where Dad is or 2.) show where Dad is \u2013 which was at his hoity-toity gentleman\u2019s club seeking more information (which he didn\u2019t find).<\/p>\n

Did that last graph put you to sleep? Exactly.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So in the script, Dad and Mom are together to get the call \u2013 there\u2019s no unnecessary scene and no weird questions in viewers heads. But it\u2019s not accurate.<\/p>\n

4. Room for interpretation<\/h2>\n

Do we even know the established history is accurate?<\/em><\/p>\n

This question came up when I was working on a project about the Borgias. So anything before recorded times \u2013 and I mean film, vinyl, photograph, sex tape \u2013 is potentially suspect. Especially<\/em> when it comes to European history during the Renaissance.<\/p>\n

Basically, the people writing shit down were either paid by the subjects themselves or by people who loathed the subjects with the passion of a thousand suns.<\/p>\n

So which is accurate? Probably neither.<\/p>\n

5. Intent<\/h2>\n

Have you stayed true to the event \/ character it\/herself?<\/em><\/p>\n

In my latest project, a graphic novel called RATLINE, an OSS agent is tasked with transporting a Nazi out of the shit-show that was central Europe in the waning days of World War II. She\u2019s instructed to avoid all of the armies, including our own, in order to sneak this dude out.<\/p>\n

IRL, the U.S. DID have an official, top secret operation called BLOODSTONE in which we enlisted known Nazi war criminals to help us in our post-war struggle with the Russians.<\/p>\n

There were also things called \u201cratlines\u201d that operated like an Underground Railroad for escaping war criminals.<\/p>\n

Now there is no evidence that they were as operational as I made them in April\/May of 1945. And there is no evidence a U.S. agent ever escorted a Nazi through them. But possible? Hell yes. And true to historical intent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Bottom line: With every choice, ask yourself does the \u201creality\u201d of this contribute to the overall understanding of the narrative \/ story \/ philosophy? Does the absence of it invalidate the history?<\/p>\n

Bottom bottom line: Writers usually know the history they\u2019re messing with.<\/p>\n

Bottom bottom bottom line: Did you make it this far?<\/p>\n

Katie Fetting is a screenwriter and aspiring graphic novelist whose first graphic novel RATLINE with illustrator Mark Rehill is currently in the midst of an <\/em>IndieGogo crowdfunding campaign<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/span>. Those who donate will get into heaven.*<\/em><\/p>\n

*No money back guarantee.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hanna is a 1st gen American of German immigrant parents. When WWII breaks out, she seeks to prove her allegiance to the U.S. After rigorous training at Camp X (Google it!), she becomes a spy. Our graphic novel opens in early 1945. Hanna’s assignment? Take a German officer from Munich to Genoa — avoiding the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-theramble","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pv7MR-7Qb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30143"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30148,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30143\/revisions\/30148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}