Quote

Historical fiction of course is particularly research-heavy. The details of everyday life are there to trip you up. Things that we take for granted, indeed, hardly think about, can lead to tremendous mistakes.

Sara Sheridan

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Sara Sheridan
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: June 7
Novelist
Writer
Edinburgh
Scotland
Take
Indeed
Tremendous
Things
Everyday
Hardly
Think
Research
Granted
Thinking
Lead
Details
Life
Fiction
Particularly
Mistake
Historical
Courses
Mistakes
Course
Heavy
Trip

More quotes by Sara Sheridan

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Research material can turn up anywhere - in a dusty old letter in an archive, a journal or some old photographs you find in a charity shop.
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Something I notice speaking to writers from south of Hadrians Wall is that the culture is different. At base, I think Scotland values its creative industries differently from England.
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I had never really understood what an adventure life could be, if you followed your heart and did what you really wanted to do, which is what we must all do in the end.
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Books have a vital place in our culture. They are the source of ideas, of stories that engage and stretch the imagination and most importantly, inspire.
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I find it inspiring to actively choose which traditions to celebrate and also come up with new ideas for traditions of my own.
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I've always had a keen sense of history. My father was an antiques dealer and he used to bring home boxes full of treasures, and each item always had a tale attached.
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People make interesting assumptions about the profession. The writer is a mysterious figure, wandering lonely as a cloud, fired by inspiration, or perhaps a cocktail or two.
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History is full of blank spaces, but good stories, invariably, are not.
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History at its best is a gritty, dirty business.
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For a novelist, the gaps in a story are as intriguing as material that still exists.
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It is one of the benchmarks of a culture I always think – the page at which it operates. A good way to measure it is to order a taxi and see how irate local people get if it is late.
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I jealously guard my research time and I love fully immersing myself in those dusty old books and papers. It's one of the most enjoyable parts of my job.
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We can learn so much looking outside our core field of expertise.
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Books exist for me not as physical entities with pages and binding, but in the province of my mind.
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I always thought that bagels and lox was my soul food, but it turns out it's sushi.
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Grabbing readers by the imagination is a writer's job.
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As an historical novelist - there are few jobs more retrospective.
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While I'm frustrated at the amount I'm expected to take on in the present, the 1950s woman was frustrated by being excluded - not being allowed to take things on at all.
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A word out of place or an interesting choice of vocabulary can spawn a whole character.
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Writers are a product of where we come from but by looking at alternatives to the culture in which we live, we can find ways to change and hopefully improve it.
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