Very few people have a true understanding of world events. Even when those events are taking place in their own country.
Take a war for instance. When a nation goes to war only a handful of people understand what the war is all about. Politicians, the military, perhaps a few reporters who are sent to cover it.
But the ordinary people never see the whole picture. They rely on the words of others, and those others do not always tell the truth. They tell lies and we call it propaganda. All nations do it. If the ordinary soldiers knew what an unjust war was really all about, they might refuse to fight.
So how do you personalize a major event? How do take something like a war or famine—an occurrence that may involve millions—and have your reader caught up in it?
Turn your heroine into a star
You invent a character who's a "minor player" in the tragedy and you turn her into the star. It's her story, her life, her family, her neighbourhood. The greater tragedy, the war or the famine, is pushed to the background. Certainly you can write about it but the trick is not to make it read like a history lesson.
You can have your characters speak to one another about events. That way, you can give your reader all the information she needs in nice, easy stages:
"Did you hear about His Majesty?" Jean asked.
"No," I said. "What about him?"
"They chopped his head off. In Paris, on the twenty-first of January."
"Mon Dieu!"
"They stripped him of his title first, turned him into plain old 'Citizen Louis'. Then they guillotined him. God knows where all of this is going to lead."
And here's an excerpt from Usher's Island, my novel set in Famine times. Note how I tell the reader what year it is by having somebody read out an eviction notice.
The land agent ignored them and continued to read the eviction notice. Keating hardly heard the English words. His head was spinning and his ankle ached painfully. Evicted!
"If his lordship can give me just a little while longer," he pleaded. "There's the market in Ennis in a fortnight's time—"
"—signed and witnessed on this day, the nineteenth of December, in the Year of Our Lord eighteen hundred and forty-six. God save the Queen!"
"Just two weeks! I beg you in the name of Jesus—"
Another kick to the ankle.
"Blaspheming, black Irish heathen! Think you'self lucky the sergeant 'ere is a godfearing man, otherwise 'e'd 'ave you whipped on account of that foul mouth of yours."
Make your story as personal as possible. When your reader can truly identify with your heroine—feel her pain, share her joy—you'll have done a good job.
