I once pitched The Education of Delhomme, to an agent who asked, “What percentage of your book is fiction and how much is fact?”
How does one determine that? Is that even quantifiable? My main character was fictional as were some minor ones. But many were prominent historical figures—Chopin, Sand, Vidocq, Berlioz, Liszt, Delacroix, and more. I also researched everything I could: fashion, politics, culture, diseases, food, and so on, to make it feel authentic. To exercise due diligence, I traveled to Paris and Warsaw to see venues and museums with my own orbs. There is no substitute for a site visit.
Historical and political events provided the framework for my story. At times, those events, such as the 1848 Paris uprisings, drove the action. The biographies of Chopin, Sand, and Vidocq provided hints about their personalities, which told me how they would have (probably) reacted to those events. Armed with all that, I had enough structure to hang my story on.
My reply to the agent’s question: 60% is true, 40% fiction.
“Whoa,” she said, 60% is pretty high.”
What percentage of your book is true and how much is fiction?
If you’d like to read more about the etiology of the historical novel, please see this very interesting article: “Historical Fiction and Hilary Mantel."
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