Try Before You Trust: To All Gentlewomen and Other Maids in Love - Historical Fiction by Constance Briones

Try Before You Trust: To All Gentlewomen and Other Maids in Love (Historium Press, 2023), by Constance Briones, is an insightful work of historical fiction that captures the best of the genre. Here is an interview with the author on her writing journey with this novel.

What made you choose this particular topic?
I discovered the protagonist of my novel, Isabella Whitney, while researching my Master’s thesis on literacy and women in England during the sixteenth century. Whitney is credited as the first English woman believed to have written original secular poetry for publication in the mid-sixteenth century. I admired her gusty character. She dared to write poems exploring love relations between men and women at a time when religious translations were the only acceptable writing endeavor for women.

Whitney was in her late teens when her first volume of poetry concerning men-women relations was published. The Copy of a Letter (1567), with its adjoining poem, The Admonition of the Author to all young Gentlewomen and all other maids being in Love, were love poems written in the personae of a jilted lover. Whitney presented an unconventional woman’s perspective of how unfairly men treat women in love, which played a role in the debates on women’s nature in the sixteenth century. Her choice to defy the conventions of her day, both in her thinking and actions, impressed me. And I couldn’t help but think she would make a most engaging literary heroine. Another primary consideration for going the fiction route rather than writing a biography is the scant information about Whitney’s life, leading me to tell the story of her journey from maidservant to unemployed domestic to her early success as a poet through historical fiction.

What were your greatest writing challenges and why?
Getting as close as I could to historically authentic language and striking a balance between including too much history or too little history in the story.

How did you address these?
My story takes place in Elizabethan England, so I realized early on that I couldn’t write dialogue as if I were Shakespeare, fearing it would turn people off. So, to promote a better understanding of dialogue, I opted for authenticity, rather than absolute accuracy, to give the reader a taste of the historical language of the period. If I wasn’t sure about a word or a phrase, I used the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which has a word history section. I also read historical fiction by well-known authors such as Allison Weir and Philippa Gregory, who frequently write stories set in 16th-century England.

Since I taught history and am more comfortable with nonfiction writing, my biggest fear has been that my novel would begin to read more like a history book than a story. I followed the advice given to me: to use a combination of narrative exposition, dialogue, and internal thought to convey historical background. And to include it only when it felt pertinent to the story.

What did you enjoy most about writing the novel and why?
I enjoyed building scenes where the reader sees and hears what’s happening, like watching a movie. It was an engaging endeavor to consider the actions and dialogue of my characters in pivotal scenes, contemplating what I would have them do and say that would reveal their true character.

What other projects do you have planned?
I’m researching a possible second historical fiction novel based on the early life of Sarah and Angelina Grimke, the only Southern white women ever to become leading abolitionists. It has long fascinated me that these two sisters from a wealthy family in South Carolina united to oppose the institution of slavery, which was the economic backbone of the South.

What else would you like to add for readers and writers to know?
As a writer edging toward the goal of publication, I found a beta reader service very helpful. The History Quill in London offers a beta readers service, which gave me feedback on my manuscript from a team of real historical fiction readers I didn’t know. The History Quill handpicked the readers based on a questionnaire I completed. The feedback I received was detailed, honest, and very insightful. I appreciate that The History Quill carefully vets their beta readers and ensures that they are a good fit for the story, which means the feedback is of good quality.

Additionally, I had to develop patience in querying agents. Many didn’t respond and said upfront not to expect a response if they were not interested, while others responded quickly with a standard rejection letter. Then, after weeks and even months of waiting, when I least expected it, a few took the time to craft a personal response. I appreciated those who gave praise and encouragement to continue writing. Seeing a small wave of humanity within the money-driven objective of the publishing world made me feel encouraged.

Constance Briones has a Master's in Woman's History and seeks to highlight little-known stories of women in history. She is a contributing writer to Historical Times magazine, and when not writing lends her time as an educational docent for her town's historical society. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and sibling Maine coon cats, Thor and Percy. For more, visit Try Before You Trust: To All Gentlewomen and Other Maids in Love.

The Best Stories Are Yours: Experience and Autofiction

Writers are often asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” Answers to the question vary, but one common response is—experience.

Memoirists and fiction writers have a lot in common. Besides the fact that most writers now work in both genres, we share a foundation best described by memoirist Vivian Gornick in The Situation and the Story. “Every work of literature has both a situation and a story. The situation is the context or circumstance … the story is the emotional experience that preoccupies the writer: the insight, the wisdom, the thing one has come to say [about the circumstance].”

No fiction genre captures this better than autofiction.

Short for autobiographical fiction, autofiction draws a lot from the writer’s life, especially critical events, turning points, discoveries and lessons. But since autofiction writers aren’t replicating our entire life to create the story, we have more in common with memoirists than autobiographers. We have situations to explore, and we usually have a lot to say about them.

Here are three key features of autofiction:

• Names: The names in our stories may be real, including the name of the protagonist.
• Parallels: There are key similarities between the writer’s life and that of the protagonist. The protagonist may even be a writer, and the story may explore the role of writing in the character’s (writer’s) life.
• Uncertainty: In a genre that already blurs reality, there’s an organic tension over what’s real and what isn’t. This engages the reader in thinking deeply about the work and the protagonist’s (writer’s) life.

Here are three examples of autofiction and why the authors chose this genre:

• On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (2019): This work by Ocean Vuong is a letter from a son to a mother that discloses a family history rooted in Vietnam; the story serves as a window into aspects of the son’s life his mother never knew. Normally, our parents (mothers especially, in some cultures) tell us our family history and secrets. This work reverses that tradition.
• Every Day Is for the Thief (2015): This bestselling first novel, in diaristic form, by acclaimed Nigerian-American Teju Cole, depicts a young man’s journey to Nigeria to discover his roots. Discovering one’s heritage often generates epiphany, as we suddenly recognize ourselves, for better or worse.
• A Death in the Family (2013): One of The Guardian's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, this novel series by Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard examines childhood, family and grief. Even without knowing the details of the stories, the order of the trilogy is telling.

If you’re interested in mining your life to develop a work of fiction, try the dreamstorming technique described in From Where You Dream, by Robert Olen Butler. Here is Butler's general principle:

• Go to your writing space, and give yourself time to remember, to watch yourself move through your life. The journey doesn’t have to be linear or chronological.
• As you recall your life, note critical events, turning points, discoveries and lessons, and why they might figure into your story.

In each case, there is a situation and a corresponding emotional experience that makes the situation memorable, even worth writing about. These are the insights, the wisdom, the thing the writer has come to say about that event. Only you can tell that story.

Resources:

• Elements of Fiction, by Walter Mosley: How to master essential fiction elements.
• From Where You Dream, by Robert Olen Butler: How to use dreamstorming to reveal story and develop scenes.
• Steering the Craft, by Ursula Le Guin: A craft guide to sailing the sea of story.
• The Elements of Story, by Francis Flaherty: Nonfiction techniques that work for fiction.
• The Situation and the Story, by Vivian Gornick: How to compose and explore the events of life.