Novelist Seeking Assistance

Some highly recommended reading here Sean, paperback edition (right hand side as you look at photo below) may be easier to obtain these days.

Some real life stories are stranger than fiction.

Good luck with all your endeavours, stick with it!

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

It looks very interesting, Jim. Let me read the Look Inside.

 

For background information on Malaya in the late 1940s I recommend ‘Forgotten Wars - The End of Britain’s Asian Empire’ by Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper. ISBN 978-0-141-01738-9.

 

Thank you JDKR. I wish I had more time to read - there's so much knowledge out there!

 

Ahhhh! The fiction writer's oldest dilemma rears its head again.

How to write an exciting/extraordinary story to increase sales whilst staying true to the historical reality that for the overwhelming masses, life was pretty mundane and unexciting/unextraordinary.

Let's try the old trick of putting the character into a "special" unit. OK.

Points to think about.
Where does he serve with SOE and in what role?
What was special about him that got him entry into SOE?
He joins up at 25. Volunteer or drafted? Was he extra special and straight into SOE or years of mundane service before becoming special?
He rejoins the army after the war implies he left. Demobbed or leave by choice?
What was so special about him that meant the army decided to accept him back?
And if he was so special to have got through so many hoops that were denied the overwhelming majority, how come he only made it to sergeant? Was that sergeant during ww2 in the mundane army, the SOE or only later after his rejoin and posting to the FE?

Since it's a work of fiction, probably best not to bother with either (a) historical plausibility or (b) trying to work the 'special' or 'extraordinary' angle.

 

Yep. So much knowledge.

And taking the short-cut by asking anonymous internet posters to conjur up a history lesson the length of a fag packet is only going to end in tears.

Just to understand the recruitment and employment practices of the SOE would probably take you a year of full time study to be sure your backstory was historically plausible.

So why take the risk if you don't feel you have the time?

Just make it all up! It's fiction. Why bother with historical plausibility at all?

 

Or do all the background research, scrap the fiction, and write a fascinating account of SOE operations in Malaya! Might be easier in the long run!

 

I've obviously offended too many people. Thank you for those who helped. I'll leave you alone.

 

Absolutely no offence taken! I was just being a bit flippant. However, I think MarkN makes some good points. My own feeling is that novels of this type need foundations with some measure of historical reality in order for the story to hang together and to give the tale credibility. That's just my view! Anyway, best of luck with your endeavour and don't hold back from asking questions.

 

Who do you think has been offended? Certainly not me.

Writing historical fiction requires a huge amount of research if it is to be historically plausible. I don't write that because I'm offended but because it happens to be true. And from what you have already written, you know it too - hence your decision to base the story in a time/location that you have previously put alot of research into.

Asking for a history lesson here is just another short cut to free you up from having to do all the research yourself for the backstory to your character. Fair enough. Crack on. But beware of what you get and its value to your work.

Why? Well, from the outline scraps you wrote here, was it possible that a chap born in 1914 could have served both in ww2 and Malaya, in the army and the SOE? The simple answer is: yes, of course he could.

The trouble in historical plausibility will come from the details of the backstory which you then write. Why? Because the plausibility is derived from the meat not the bones. For example, whether it is plausible that he would be accepted into SOE (or any other literary fashionable non-mundane unit) depends on the backstory of what he did up to that point. A fluent Greek, Albanian or Serbo-croat speaker serving as a scaley may well have been an attractive recruit to SOE.

But then, how do those skills, or other skills or experiences make him attractive for reenlistment for Malaya?

Your dilemma can be resolved in one of 3 ways.

1) you post a draft of your novel here to be read by posters who can then make simple responses on whether it is, or is nor, plausible. In other words, they can examine the meat not just bone scrapings.

2) you only post up the briefest of brief outlines (as you have done) and hope somebody is going to respond with reams and reams and reams of information on what is and what is not plausible. A body of work based upon years of study.

3) you give up on taking this shortcut as being too risky and do all the research yourself.

Alternatively, just make it all up and promote it as a work of fiction rather than historical fiction.

 

Exactly.

There is fiction set in the past and there is historical fiction.

I remember Deighton's book SS-GB. A very entertaining novel set in the past. Fiction not historical fiction. WW2 existed, as did the SS, the Heer, the Met and the king. Beyond that the story was complete fiction. Was the backstory to how the various characters came to be in their jobs in the main plot-line historically plausible or even relevant? The principle plot-lines of the Germans (partially) invading Britain, the Heer setting up a nuclear weapons development facility in Britain (just miles from a frontline), the Americans launching a trans-ocean commando raid is all complete and utterly implausible historical nonsense. But jolly good entertainment.

Fiction set in the past has no less literary value than historical fiction.