Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

Straight from the Source: Writing Historical Fiction with Kirstie Myvett

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Kirstie Myvett is a children’s author whose books feature diverse characters. She was fortunate to live in Taiwan and Brazil where she developed a deep respect and admiration for different cultures. She resides with her family in the rich cultural city of New Orleans, which is the location debut picture book, Praline Lady.​ To learn more about her visit kirstiemyvett.com.

What typically comes first for you: a character? An era? A story idea? How do you proceed from there?

The story idea comes first. Once that seed is planted I think about it for a while — picturing it unfold in my head. I then start researching and taking notes.

Do you have a specific system for collecting data?

Each story has its own notebook or binder. My binder has an index and tabs. For example, Tab #1 may include information I’ve discovered about the main characters with historical news articles and pictures. I even have a tab for special events (i.e. deaths, anniversaries etc.) 

What kinds of sources do you use?

I use various sources including newspapers, library archives, blogs, books, etc. I have used the New York Times archives, NYPL digital collections, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Library of Congress. Google book search is a great resource where you can filter by date and books as journals over 100 years old are free to read. I also reach out to people that have knowledge of my topic or may have written about my topic before.

How long do you typically research before beginning to draft?

It depends on the topic. For Praline Lady I was familiar with the subject matter so I wrote the story before I conducted in-depth research. With a subject matter I’m not familiar with I may research weeks or months before I start drafting the story. 

At what point do you feel comfortable beginning to draft? How does your research continue once you begin writing?

I feel comfortable when I have a basic understanding of the timeline of events that affect my story. Once I’ve started writing I will fact check and do research at certain points throughout the story to make sure I’m writing as close to factual as possible. Even though it’s historical fiction it’s important to have realistic and truthful elements. 

What is your favorite thing about research?

My favorite thing about research is discovering some little gem that helps move the story forward or gives me a better understanding of the time period and characters. Through research I’ve stumbled upon the actual obituary for a lady that’s featured in one of my stories. Discovering that obituary helped me learn so much more about her including what her age would have been at the time my story takes place. 

What’s your least favorite thing about research?

My least favorite thing is reliving painful experiences of people from the past. I’ve discovered things that literally take my breath away and give me moments for pause.

What’s your favorite thing about writing historical fiction?

My favorite thing is putting a spotlight on some obscure unknown person, place or event and telling those stories.

Because life isn’t always clear cut, the motives behind our actions don’t always make sense. But stories need to follow a logical path. What sorts of decisions have you had to make about “muddy” historical figures or events in order for your book to work?

One of the decisions I had to make for Praline Lady was re-writing it to where she wasn’t an enslaved woman selling pralines with the hopes of purchasing her freedom. Because slaves were considered property, there isn’t documentation on how many were able to self-purchase. Yet, when I visited a local museum, one of the first things the docent said while pointing to the framed free papers of a woman of color was “she probably self-purchased by selling pralines.”

We know there were praline ladies and vendors selling goods throughout the French Quarters during slavery, but finding actual hard proof was difficult. Their names and professions were seldom, if ever documented. Because of this murkiness I moved the story to a later time period. I did however include this important fact in the Author’s Note.

Why is historical fiction important?

Historical fiction bridges the past, present and future. These stories often lead to the reader delving into non-fiction sources and discovering more about the topic. It opens the door for people who may not be fans of history discovering that history, when told in this way, can be quite entertaining. 

Classroom Connections: The Lonely Heart of Maybelle Lane by Kate O’Shaughnessy

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age range: 8-12 years
genre / topics : contemporary fiction; road trip, family
Kate O’Shaughnessy’s website

Maybelle Lane finds courage she didn’t know she had—and it’s contagious. A rich and rewarding debut.
— Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Lyrical and full of heart, this road trip story gets to the core of what it means to create family, to be brave, and to accept the flaws of being human.
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

There is healing in this book, and laughter, and grace, and surprising love. Don’t read it with a box of tissues—just cry, then smile and grow.
—Gary D. Schmidt, author of The Wednesday Wars, a Newbery Honor Winner

Please tell us about your book.

When 11-year-old Maybelle Lane finds out that her radio DJ father—who she’s never met—is going to be judging a singing competition in Nashville, TN, she impulsively signs up as a contestant. Despite having a beautiful singing voice, there are two big problems: first, Maybelle has terrible stage fright. And second, she has no way of getting to Nashville without her mom finding out. But with the help of her neighbor and a stowaway classmate, Maybelle makes the journey to Tennessee—where she hopes she’ll not only be able to win the competition, but also her father’s heart.

What inspired you to write this story?

I’d say the biggest inspiration was emotional. I had just moved across the country from the east coast to California, away from my entire family. It had been a couple of months, and I didn’t feel like I’d found my footing or my community in my new city. Basically, I was really lonely. And I’m also a big morning journaler. I write about anything that I want. Sometimes I write about my dreams, sometimes I doodle, something it’s just a boring to-do list of tasks I have to get done that day, like “go to the post office and do a load of laundry.” But one morning, Maybelle’s voice just sort of… appeared. And I knew I wanted to know more about her. In the story, she moves away from her grandparents to a new place, and she has that same feeling of “I don’t fit in here” loneliness that I had. 

Could you share with readers how you conducted your research or share a few interesting tidbits you learned while researching?

Research was one of the best parts of writing this book because I got to do something so fun: go on a road trip! I’m not from the South, and I felt that it was important that I got the details of the setting to feel as real as possible. So I decided to go on Maybelle’s road trip! My sister was a senior in college at that time, and she joined me as co-pilot over her spring break. We took almost the exact same route that Maybelle takes in the story, except we started in New Orleans because the town of Davenport, Louisiana (where Maybelle lives) is fictional. It was so interesting because I spent so much time looking out the window—but not casually; I was really looking deeply. I took notes on sounds, smells, the way the roads curved, the plants, the kinds of signs I saw flashing by on the highway. While lots of things are fictional—like the hot dog restaurant and the hotel they stop at–lots of the details I noticed on my own road trip made it into the book. In my school visit presentation I like to make the point that research can be SO FUN if you are writing or studying something you really love. I love road trips, so I wrote a book about one—and got to go on a road trip as my form of research.

What topics does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

Oh, I think there are lots of things! There’s a lot of discussion about mental health and wellbeing in the book—Maybelle suffers from panic attacks and anxiety, Tommy has some serious issues with his home life, and Mrs. Boggs, the teacher, is also dealing with grief after losing someone she loves. I based Maybelle’s panic attacks on my own experience with them, so I hope it will be an interesting window for students who don’t suffer from anxiety and a mirror for those who do. There’s also a big focus on sounds in this story, so I hope it can help students think about using their five senses in a new way. For example, Maybelle doesn’t collect coins or sneakers or stickers—she collects sounds on a little recorder. She likes the quieter, more every day sounds, like doors swinging shut and crickets singing. I hope this story makes readers think about what sounds they would collect. What sounds are important to you in your life? What sounds make you feel happy, sad, or excited? I have my own list of meaningful sounds, but I always love hearing from readers about their sounds, too.

Books to Give the Writer in Your Life

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I love to read about writing. These books teach me, encourage me, and help me remember I’m not alone on this journey. My creative struggles and triumphs have all been experienced before. If you’re looking for gift ideas for the writer in your life, this list of my favorites, broken down into books on craft and books on the writing life, is a great place to start. Instead of my own description, I’m letting a quote speak for each book. Note: these books are decidedly fiction focused. That said, writers of all stripes can make a home in these pages.

The Writing Life

Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Oreland

“Making art…means working in the face of uncertainty; it means living with doubt and contradiction, doing something no one much cares whether you do, and for which there may be neither audience nor reward…Making the work you want to make means finding nourishment within the work itself.”

A Sense of Wonder: On Reading and Writing Books for Children by Katherine Paterson

“I will not take a young reader through a story and in the end abandon him. That is, I will not write a book that closes in despair. I cannot, will not, withhold from my young readers the harsh realities of human hunger and suffering and loss, but neither will I neglect to plant that stubborn seed of hope that has enabled our race to outlast wars and famines and destruction and death.”

Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L’Engle

“Over the years I have come to recognize that the work often knows more than I do. And with each book I start, I have hopes that I may be helped to serve it a little more fully. The great artists, the rivers and tributaries, collaborate with the work, but for most of us, it is our greatest privilege to be its servant.”

If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland

“No writing is a waste of time – no creative work where the feelings, the imagination, the intelligence must work. With every sentence you write, you have learned something. It has done you good.”

Views from a Window Seat: Thoughts on Writing and Life by Jeannine Atkins

“Writing reminds me that life isn’t all beginnings and endings, but circles. Just as spring winds back to winter, finished goes back to not. My writing means lots of looping and splitting, moving back as much as forward, revising as I research, and researching as I revise. After staring down commas, I’m glad to be reckless again with punctuation, and even straightening my back and walking smack into mistakes. I put wrong words down on paper so I can find ones that might be right.”

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair — the sense that you can never completely put on the page what is in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed…You can come to it…because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”

Craft

Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere) by Lisa Cron

“Whose life will you utterly upend?…Rather than asking who will run through your novel’s preordained gauntlet of challenge, the goal is figure out who you’ll build that gauntlet to test.”

The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl Klein

“I believe that the number one thing that hooks readers is authority — a sense that the writer is in complete control of the story and how it’s being told. An author with authority isn’t in a rush to give away the central plot line of the book in the first page, because she knows she has a good plot, and she takes the time to set it up right. Nor is he sucking up to or desperate to attract the reader…Rather, she can offer little details, hints, shafts of light that illuminate the characters and world that’s about to open up to us, and help us get anchored within that world, so when the inciting incident happens, we readers already have an emotional relationship with the setting and the characters. The action then leads us to become even more deeply involved with them.”

The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler

“A myth… is a metaphor for a mystery beyond human comprehension. It is a comparison that helps us understand, by analogy, some aspect of our mysterious selves. A myth, in this way of thinking, is not an untruth but a way of reaching a profound truth.”

The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction by James Alexander Thom

“…You, the writer of the historical novel, will have to put your readers down in the middle of that unfamiliar place called the past, in such a way that they won’t feel alien or bewildered by strangeness…make them feel at home in that time.”

Writing Irresistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers by Mary Kole

“Choices are especially fertile moments of tension for your character. Don’t make decisions easy for your fictional people. Nothing should ever be so black and white as to make a choice or action easy. Give your characters two shades of the same issue that are complicated by their existing identity and values.”

Novel Metamorphosis: Uncommon Ways to Revise by Darcy Pattison

“The connection between the inner and outer arcs, the emotional arc and the plot arc isn’t always easy to see! When you set up an initial plot conflict, you need to immediately ask yourself what obligatory action scene is set up. When the inner conflict is set up, you need to ask what epiphany is set up.”

Writing the Breakout Novel: Insider Advice for Taking Your Fiction to the Next Level by Donald Maass

“Breakout novels are written from an author’s passionate need to make you understand, to expose you to someone special or to drag you somewhere that it is important for you to see. No breakout novel leaves us feeling neutral.”

Here are a few more I look forward to reading soon:

A Writer’s Diary by Virginia Woolf

Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process by Joe Fassler

A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle

Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot by Pete Dunne

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

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