analect: (mickey2)
analect ([personal profile] analect) wrote in [community profile] writerslounge2011-09-13 05:46 pm

Artistic license: thoughts?

All righty... in the interests of leaving some discussion open for those who want it, I have a question. How far do you take artistic license when dealing with something in a fictional context, and how much knowledge - either of the thing itself, or in terms of acknowledgement of the license you're taking - do you expect your audience to have?

I'm sure we all have different approaches here, so I'm curious.

As a kick-off point, I recently posted a story of mine that's been kicking around for a while to my journal. The Red Man is a horror short that involves references to Celtic druidism [click to read]. Though I researched a bit for the story, I don't know a lot about either historical or modern practice - however, I do have a few druid friends.

Their religious/philosophical slant is very different to the angle the story explores (notions of Awen and bardic tradition, while awesome, are not terribly horrific). So I guess you could say, here, I've taken the same kind of artistic license that The Wicker Man (the proper film; let's pretend the 2006 remake never happened) took with ideas of preserved pagan practice; i.e., it could have happened that way.

Is this something you do with different ideas? Or are you a stickler for realism and research? Does artistic license always (or ever) mean pandering to stereotypes, or is it a useful tool for playing 'what-if' with?
fannyfae: (cleopatra)

[personal profile] fannyfae 2011-09-15 10:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for the very warm welcome. :)
Leyden Papyrus! Sounds fascinating! That is my area of personal interest and study - AE medicine with an emphasis on the herbalism, etc. I would love to read some of what you have written. :)

Have you ever read anything by Pauline Gedge? To me she is the is the Gold Standard in the fictional realm of Ancient Egypt and her research is impeccable.

A co-writer of mine and I are actually putting together a writer's guide for ancient Egypt. There seems to be plenty of interest, but I think that sometimes bad research materials and previously published and poorly researched works cloud things up a bit.

I read this horribly written paranormal romance that dealt with Ninja trained vampires teaming up with buff Fallen Angels inhip hugging Levis. I didn't know whether to fling the book across the room or fall out of my chair laughing! ;)