Hi everyone, I'm attempting to pull together my ideas for my first novel, that is a bit based on a tall tale/exaggeration my grandmother used to tell me. One big aspect of the story, however, deals with a (now basically obsolete) royal family. What is the general opinion about inserting a fictional prince/princess into a real royal family? Especially when the main members of the family are well known to most people, and I'm sure there are some people/experts who know the extended family tree well. My story would not deal with the king/queen and his children, but with the king's brother or first cousin, etc...more along the lines of the peripheral royal family members. Also, this would just be for the background setting of the story. Any advice would be great! Thanks, Casey
Hi Casey, welcome to the forums! My opinion: I like to see strong characters who create their own circumstances and act for themselves. I like to see them go through struggles and fight for what they believe in because they have their own personal motivation to do so. I really dislike characters who go on the quest simply because they are "the chosen one" from an ancient prophecy or who find themselves conviently lucky. I'm not saying that royal family characters are bad or shouldn't be used, but give them their own unique struggles, motivations and passions. Don't use royalty as a too-convenient plot prop or give them overly-noble personalities with superhuman abilities due to special bloodline. Probably just stating the obvious there, but my input nontheless. Hope I helped and good luck with your story!
if it's a historical novel, that wouldn't be a great prob, but it will be hard to do in re a sitting monarch's family... not impossible for a brilliant writer, however, since william buckley did a fine job with his blackford oakes' adventure in which the dashing hero dallies with the fictional young queen caroline of england...
