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What do you fudge?


Kit the Human
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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?

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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!

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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.

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Guest LOVE ME AND DESPAIR

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

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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.

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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- 

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Bekah

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 😅

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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😆

 

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Guest Bekah
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 🤣

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  • 2 weeks later...

Children's ages. We will age up our character's children like you see in a soap opera. 

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  • 1 month later...

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.

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