The one disadvantage of writing historical fiction, is you have to do a lot of reading before you write. I did the research on John Dunn's life in South Africa during the nineteenth century, and then I wrote the story including many of the events that have been documented. I used John Dunn's own notes, and even Cetshwayo's, but most of the information came from Donald R. Morris and his book called The Washing of the Spears.
And now that I am nearing the conclusion of my manuscript, which is the Anglo-Zulu War, I really better go back to Morris and absorb what he wrote about the British invasion into Zululand. I certainly am not getting everything that really happened into my book. There are so many characters involved on all sides, and a lot more factors that led to the war than what I'm putting into my story.
Because if I put everything in there, and everyone, it would distract from the story of John Dunn, and it would probably make my book over 600 pages or more. Forget that. I am striving to focus on Dunn's story, which of course does involve the war in a big way. But I want to be close to the historical truth, so I'll be back to reading for the next couple weeks, and then I'll finish my book.
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