Linguistics and Literature Studies 2(4): 108-114, 2014 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/lls.2014.020401 Writing the Past: Personal Narrative Voice and Creative Process in Writing a Historical Fiction Leni Marlina State University of Padang, Indonesia *Corresponding Author: lenimarlina.11@gmail.com Copyright © 2014 Horizon Research Publishing All rights reserved. Abstract Humans always need to learn their past and history in order to face the present and to create the future. Learning about the past through creative works can be done through writing historical fictions. Bennett[2] affirms that the general purpose of the historical fiction is ‘to bring history to life by fictionalizing the past and reflecting a specific time period; sometimes done by reconstructing characters, events, movements, ways and spirit of life.’ In addition, historical fiction can take various forms and depictions. One of the interesting forms is the historical fiction which potrays the fictional characters in fictional situations, but in the context of a real historical period. Furthermore, the creative writing about the the past can be found in some literary genres such as gothic. The gothic work which has most influenced the author’s creative process in writing historical fiction is a classic novel, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto[13]. This gothic novel has many unhistorical elements such as ghosts and other supernatural things. However, Walpole’s novel is helpful in understanding an example of historical fiction. Moreover, the novel inspires the author as an emerging writer in constructing the past and to present it to modern readers. This paper contains the author’s personal narrative voice and it discusses how Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto gives the author inspiration in the creative process of writing a short story entitled “The Grandfather’s Story” which brings individual’s history by fictionalizing the past in the context of Australian history. Keywords Historical Fictions, Creative Process, Writing The Past, Creative Writing 1. Introduction I do not write a Gothic genre that commonly focuses on terrors. However, the early idea to describe the past in my fiction, “The Grandfather’s Story”, is inspired after reading some gothic novels. This paper aims to report my reading about one of the Gothics novels, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto[13]; and to demonstrate my insights about the concept of historical fiction as well as its impact to my creative work in telling the past. In addition, this papers aims to shortly report my short creative process in writing a short story, which is intended to be an alternative of historical fiction. I argue that in the case of Walpole’s novel and my work, historical fiction is a story about the current humans’ ideas and values, which take places in the past. 2. Writing the Past through Historical Fiction According to Dalton[5], historical fiction can take a number of forms that includes but not limited to some depictions. The first depiction is the real historical figures in the context of the challenges they faced. The second one is the real historical figures in imagined situations. The third one is the fictional characters in documented historical situations. The fourth one is the fictional characters in fictional situations, but in the context of a real historical period. In my work, I apply the last option that is mentioned by Dalton. To illustrate, I create a historical fiction particularly a short story by depicting fictional characters in fictional situations, but in the context of a real historical period in Australia, “Australian Sorry Day”. It is the day when the Australian government apologized for the past policy of “Australian Stolen Generation” which refers to Indigenous Australians who were forcibly removed from their families and communities during 1910 to 1970[8]. Furthermore, my short story employs a half-omniscient narrator to frame the story of of two characters - Paul and Paul’s grandfather which takes place in 1998. Then, I use Paul’s grandfather as the narrator to frame the story of Paul’s (adopted) great grandfather, Samuel, which mostly occurred in 1937 in Moorabbin, Victoria. However, I am not going to explore the detail of real historical periods in my work. Instead, I am interested to apply the mysterious sense of the past of the main character as commonly applied in Gothic literature. The first time studying historical in my academic journey,