Discovering the Magic Hidden in History
The idea of historical fantasy can feel like a paradox. Fantasy is all about wild, magical worlds full of imagination. History is founded on facts meticulously pieced together over years of study. One plays with and changes facts, while the other fixes them in place.
Yet, as opposite as they are, the two can intertwine more easily than you might expect. Even though it’s made up, good fantasy still uses many of the building blocks of reality. The truth is, no one wants to read a fantasy that’s too out there with its ideas. Like a strong ship, it needs an anchor to prevent it from floating off into unsafe waters—that’s where history can come in.
How History Reinforces Fantasy Writing
Think about your favorite fantasy novel. What do you like about it? More than likely, one of the things you enjoy is the depth that book has to offer. It’s probably full of complex places, characters, politics, magic systems, and other elements found in the real world.
Good fantasy doesn’t just toss in magic and dragons and call it good. Instead, it builds on knowledge we already have and then adds something new, bridging the gap between what is and what could be.
That’s what makes historical fantasy so enticing: it spins old stories into new ideas, turning the faithfully recorded reality of history into an inspiration gold mine.
Real stories, real people, real situations—these are where powerful fantasy writers start. They lay the groundwork, then pull the reader along in a thrilling ride of discovery as they enter a new world. Even the most fantastical adventures with unique worlds, creatures, people, and environments have to connect with readers at a place they understand.
Author and critic Michael Dirda said it well: “the best fantasies pull aside the velvet curtain of mere appearance. … In most instances, fantasy ultimately returns us to our own now re-enchanted world, reminding us that it is neither prosaic nor meaningless, and that how we live and what we do truly matters.” In other words, well-written fantasy can and should be tied firmly to reality.
How History Strengthens Authors
One of the amazing things about being a writer is that you never reach a point where you have to sit back and say you’ve reached your peak. Instead, it’s a constant process of learning, changing, and improving your craft. As an author myself, I feel that on a personal level. Even though I’ve written a couple of books now, I often experience a bit of imposture syndrome.
But, as far as I can tell, this isn’t unique to me. There’s just something about writing that reveals personal inadequacies. That’s why I wrote this blog: not only to help other people improve their writing, but to figure out how to increase my own skill. It’s also why I chose to write about history as a topic.
History is one of the richest fields full of lessons ready to harvest. That’s true for everything from politics to biology, and yes—even for writing.
Fantasy with Historical Influence
Let’s set the record straight. All fantasy—yes, even high/epic fantasy—still needs to be grounded in some amount of reality. I’ve touched on this point already, but I want to make that crystal clear. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at some examples.
- Tolkien—The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit:
The amount of things in Tolkien’s novels that are inspired by history could be an entire research topic in and of itself. His world is known for being well-planned, full, and vast—due in part to his stories’ deep-reaching roots in history. Languages, cultures, warfare, creatures, everything down to the world’s mythology has ties into our world’s past.
Tolkien said this himself in a 1955 letter to W. H. Auden, writing that the “Rohirrim are in many ways like the ancient English.” There we have it: historical influences make for strong fantasy worlds.
- C.S. Lewis—The Chronicles of Narnia:
You don’t have to look far in The Chronicles of Narnia to find the influence of history in Lewis’s work. From mythological creatures, to codes of chivalry, to religious symbolism, it’s clear where he found much of the inspiration for his writing.
- Patrick Rothfuss—The Name of the Wind:
Rothfuss’s novels in the King Killer Chronicle are vibrant, imaginative, complex, and every bit as well-thought-out as the above examples, but I wanted to illustrate how even modern fantasy connects to reality. The royalty, for example, resembles a structure well documented throughout history. Rothfuss didn’t just make up a new system, he took several old ones and meshed them together—and quite wonderfully at that.
Studying Tales of the Past
We’ve explored the idea of history as inspiration, but now let’s turn to the practical side of it. How do you go about finding inspiration in history? The answer is simple: you study it. But just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. History is written every single day, which means there’s a ton of it. So, how do you sort through it all and find good stories to tie into your own writing?
Here’s how I like to do it:
- Choose a topic by asking yourself where you’d like to improve your writing. For this example, I’ll choose secretive government organizations. I’ve written something to that effect in my book Subterrania, but I’m getting ready to write the sequel and want to add more depth to it.
- Start with a broad search. The good news is that we live in an age with powerful AI research assistants. I’m using chat GPT for mine, mixed with a bit of history I already know. Here’s the first prompt I’m using:
“I want to make my secret government agency more interesting in a novel I’m writing. My great-grandpa was in the OSS, so I’ve heard a bit about it. What sources can I read that can give me a closer look into what it was and how it operated?”
- Select a few of the sources provided, and start taking notes. The best part about this is that you can really hone in on what you’re trying to accomplish. In my case, I was pointed to several firsthand histories, declassified documents, and authoritative histories. With these, I’ve officially discovered some new source material to help inspire my future novel.
Become Your Own Historian
When I was in university, I had an incredible creative writing professor who would often remind us that it is the job of the writer to observe and take note. We do that daily by recording our surroundings, but we can also do that by exploring the vast stores of history available to us. In many ways, we are the historians. We observe, we create, and we record, and fantasy ties just as deeply to that as any official historical text book.
Writing isn’t just about imagination and creativity; it’s also about creating worlds that feel solid, tangible. As a reader, a touch of realism is a must for me to enjoy the story. As a writer, it’s another tool in my arsenal that helps me enhance my ideas into something others can not only enjoy, but learn from.
History for You!
Look, I’ll give it to you straight. I’m a teacher by day, right? So yes, I’m blatantly trying to convince you to study history. But hey, if you’re reading this, you must have been at least partially convinced. The good news is you don’t even need to work that hard. Life gets busy, so let me do it for you. Sign up for my email below and you’ll get blogs like this sent to you weekly.
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