So this was a discussion question I saw at an AO3 fic writers group on Facebook, and thought it might be an interesting question to put to you guys as well
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I don't think there's a single answer to your question, 'bad' being a subjective term. But my take would be that I can't see how it's any worse than RPF with contemporary, living people.
There are certain religious figures to steer away from if you don't want to *really* tick people off. And even then, I'd say 'write away.'
Check out the synopsis for "Lamb" by Christopher Moore and go to town.
I don't think it's an issue. It seems like more and more authors are mingling history and fiction in their writings and having people in them that were actually alive during the time period interact with OCs.
There are always people who are going to be stick in the muds about this, so write the story that excites you and have fun!
Personally, I do see historical figure as more fiction. The factual information on the princes is, to my mind, interpretive. Granted the plot line you give is very much fiction, it's not really that different in my head from writing something that says they were smuggled out or walled up.
Is it really all that different from a Phillipa Gregory book? Of course, I'm completly cool with RPF from the get go. But yeah, they are much more fiction than factual to me. Of course my interpretation of bands or actors or politicians I acknowledge to not be factual.
When I initially read this post last night, my first thought was history is essentially nothing but fanfic to begin with - it's all tailored to our particular country's POV anyway.
Never mind the fact that there's a huge genre of 'historical fiction' soo... I agree with Kaige. :)
I'm with the others on this as I have no issues with RPF in general - I tend to think of it as giving the people another role to play because I don't really know them anyway. So historic figures are definitely fine.
I personally think as long as the "characters" are handled respectfully, any RPF is fine, but especially when you considered the historical characters. There are plenty of PUBLISHED books out there that star historical figures, and not all of them handle them with respect and dignity. There was a book that I'd wanted to read for years, and then got totally furious about because of the way they handled Benjamin Franklin
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I don't think there's a single answer to your question, 'bad' being a subjective term. But my take would be that I can't see how it's any worse than RPF with contemporary, living people.
There are certain religious figures to steer away from if you don't want to *really* tick people off. And even then, I'd say 'write away.'
But that's me. ;)
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I don't think it's an issue. It seems like more and more authors are mingling history and fiction in their writings and having people in them that were actually alive during the time period interact with OCs.
There are always people who are going to be stick in the muds about this, so write the story that excites you and have fun!
Reply
Is it really all that different from a Phillipa Gregory book? Of course, I'm completly cool with RPF from the get go. But yeah, they are much more fiction than factual to me. Of course my interpretation of bands or actors or politicians I acknowledge to not be factual.
WRITE THIS! WRITE THIS NOW!
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Never mind the fact that there's a huge genre of 'historical fiction' soo... I agree with Kaige. :)
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I'm with the others on this as I have no issues with RPF in general - I tend to think of it as giving the people another role to play because I don't really know them anyway. So historic figures are definitely fine.
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