What is “mastering the material?
It’s the first job for a writer of historical fiction (or non-fiction) or any period piece. He has to get a handle on the era he’s going to tackle, the characters, the events, the chronology, the technology, everything that goes into “what it was like back then.” Sometimes this can take years. I’ve been doing research for the book I’m working on now, about Alexander, for a year and a half solid and I’m just now starting to get a sense of it. I’ve read the same material over and over, treated by various writers, ancient and modern, trying to get my feet to touch bottom. There’s no way to avoid it. A writer can’t do anything until he knows the material. If you’re writing contemporary fiction, you’re cool. You already know what a Chevy is and what a cheeseburger is. You know your characters because you’re making them up. But in historical fiction, you have to find out how a certain cannon fired, or what a love letter looked like in the court of Louis XIV. And you have to get a sense of th
