Yeah, but with fiction it doesn't need it as much. You can make up 90% of a fiction book and have 10% pure fact. But historical fiction is based entirely on fact.
I was referring to the gaul tribes in general. Though you're right that the different tribes in Scotland and Ireland did do a good fighting off major powers.
I'm sorry, but that is completely untrue. Just because it's set at the same time you wrote it doesn't mean you don't need your facts straight. When a story is set does not free you from the need for accuracy. You can't just make up everything. It just doesn't feel the same when you're setting something in this time period in the same part of the world you live because it's part of your reality and you know everything about how the world you're setting it in works. If your character has a certain career, or has a medical condition, that that is relevant to the story, you can't just make everything up. You have to know what they do and how it really works.
*hugs* don't feel snubbed. I agree that with any kind of fiction, there is research involved and you need to have your facts straight, but I've always found it much easier to write general fiction than I have to write historical fiction. Seems like there are a lot more facts to keep straight with historical fiction.
It only seems that way because they aren't part of your daily life, Hidden. Depending on the setting of a historical novel, our world is just as complex, or even more complex. But we know it, so we don't need ro worry about keeping daily life/culture stuff straight in our minds.
Which is exactly why it's easier. I would rather write a novel about the world I live in, where the facts are all fresh in my mind and fairly easy to keep straight than to try to write one that takes place a hundred years ago.
There's a distinction between the two Celtic groups, Brythonic and Gaelic. The former were largely conquered by the Romans (with the exception of the Picts, of course, who occupied what is now Scotland at the time). The latter weren't conquered (I don't think the Romans even attempted it). With historical fiction, I think the most important thing is understanding the people. Not events, architecture, clothing, or culture, but what the people were like. You can base a lot of the story on that, and fill in the details of such things where necessary.
