Kit the Human 759 Share Posted December 11, 2018 A lot of writers playing in history will outright admit that they fudged, altered, made up, or outright ignored some aspects of the time they were writing in. I rather enjoyed Kate Atkinson's description of her method in her Author's Note in Transcription: "Roughly speaking, for everything that could be considered a historical fact in this book, I made something up [...] After many conversations with myself, I went ahead and invented whatever I felt like [...] If I had to describe the process, I would say that it felt like a wrenching apart of history followed by an imaginative reconstruction." Someone else, I can't remember who, also said something along the lines of: 'don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.' Of course, we should be wary of what we assume are facts. Assumed facts are either wrong, or broad enough that they're useless/misleading. That aside: in your rp, what do you fudge, invent or ignore? Why? PSI: an Occult Investigations RP Roleplay Architects: Grab a friend (or many friends!) and just write. You can also find me at: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara 34 Share Posted December 24, 2018 I think literacy levels and speed of travel are the two biggest things. I don't think I've seen a historical RP out there set in this period that accurately reflects literacy levels, even amongst the nobility and I've found it's easier to drive the story if your character can conveniently write as well as read or vice versa. Also - horse travel! It sort of ruins the fun when a journey between estates or court should take 2 weeks and you find yourself having to delay the action on the other end! 4 Join us in the 12th Century, on Saints Sleep: I also write on the brilliant AeRo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elena 546 Share Posted December 26, 2018 (edited) On 12/24/2018 at 1:25 PM, Sara said: I think literacy levels and speed of travel are the two biggest things. I don't think I've seen a historical RP out there set in this period that accurately reflects literacy levels, even amongst the nobility and I've found it's easier to drive the story if your character can conveniently write as well as read or vice versa. Also - horse travel! It sort of ruins the fun when a journey between estates or court should take 2 weeks and you find yourself having to delay the action on the other end! These yes. And the cleanliness level - I mention sometimes that certain people are reluctant to take baths or that it is a stench in the ship's hold, but more people are cleaner than they would have been, I guess. Also in my Viking novel, a siege & conquest of Thessaloniki by the Franks which should have lasted a month or two until the city changed hands again, lasted about five years 😉 so that when my character returned, the city was still with the Franks. The permanent conquest happened, in truth, ab0ut 70 years later or more. But if the city was free 5 years later, then my character wouldn't have had any reason not to remain there, and the story would have ended too soon. Edited December 26, 2018 by Elena 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LOVE ME AND DESPAIR Share Posted December 28, 2018 Travel is probably one of the biggest things I fudge. Though sometimes I might still use it, but write it in prior to the arrival of my character(ie so-and-so has been at sea for x length of time, traveling by carriage for x days, etc.) so that it's still used just not like delaying threads. But I've also worked travel length into posts before for various journeys and so forth. There are times where stuff happening too soon can be less entertaining or where there can be plenty of action/development beforehand that's important. I'm trying to think what else besides perhaps literacy and/or cleanliness, but I'm sleepy so my brain is sluggish right now lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kit the Human 759 Author Share Posted December 28, 2018 11 minutes ago, LOVE ME AND DESPAIR said: There are times where stuff happening too soon can be less entertaining or where there can be plenty of action/development beforehand that's important. And if everyone isn't on the same page about how much we fudge travel, it can ruin plots or reveals. I think that's the tricky thing about fudging, one person's fudge can be another person's plot point, and that fudge can unintentionally undermine the story another is trying to tell. That level of detail is hard to monitor I think, because it's a bit micro managey. 2 PSI: an Occult Investigations RP Roleplay Architects: Grab a friend (or many friends!) and just write. You can also find me at: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gothic 307 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Literacy amounts. Travel is another one, or how hard traveling would be. I used to horse ride fairly regularly and imagine how tiring it would be for hours on end? Life expectancy of children. I don't mind so much if it is in the past and I'm writing it. It isn't something I particularly want to RP out though. Or parasites. -cringes- 1 Active, fun, established 2008! Come join us. Aeterna Roma Sites I am on; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bekah Share Posted January 18, 2019 (edited) We also fudge travel, though the rule of thumb is generally that it's 50 miles a day by horse and carriage unless said character is travelling by coach. Then they could travel a far greater distance. Another thing we generally overlook is dancing. We try to guide our members as much as possible, but I haven't got time to check that characters aren't waltzing their way around Almack's 😅 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kit the Human 759 Author Share Posted January 19, 2019 3 hours ago, Bekah said: Another thing we generally overlook is dancing. We try to guide our members as much as possible, but I haven't got time to check that characters aren't waltzing their way around Almack's But can my character dab like they did in The Favourite? 😆 PSI: an Occult Investigations RP Roleplay Architects: Grab a friend (or many friends!) and just write. You can also find me at: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bekah Share Posted January 19, 2019 12 hours ago, Kit the Human said: But can my character dab like they did in The Favourite? 😆 I have yet to watch that, it's on my list though! To answer your question, only if I don't catch you 🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bishop 172 Share Posted February 2, 2019 Children's ages. We will age up our character's children like you see in a soap opera. "Everyone has been doing so much soul searching during all of this, and I'm just over here drawing pics of my character's dicks." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spangles 35 Share Posted March 21, 2019 We fudge quite a few things, actually. Ones already mentioned include literacy levels and travel times. But the site I help admin is set in Victorian England, and we fudge the strict rules of society that govern who different characters interact with. Things like that. 1 HOME PLOT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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