From James Scott Bell, writer and teacher I have learned many things. This suggestion of his (paraphrased) I am currently working on: keep learning the craft of writing and while composing or editing, concentrate on implementing a newly learned technique.

Currently I am editing my historical/biblical novel, The Thirteenth Moon, which takes place 3000 years ago in the Levant.  Taking Bell's advice this week I am focusing on Susan Vreeland's craft article "Dip Into the Riches of Historical Fiction" (The Writer, December 2011). Author of many books of historical fiction, she says, "To make the past come alive, a good work of historical fiction puts all of these elements to use:
-Sensory detail...,
-Material detail...,
-Process detail...,
-Cultural detail."

I find the last, cultural detail, the most difficult to incorporate into the mindset of my protagonist who lived 3000 years ago in the culturally turbulant Levant (Canaan, Lebanon, etc.).  People thought, worshiped and felt so different than I, who grew up in a conservative Christian background.

Thank goodness for scholars like Thorkild Jacobsen, Frank Moore Cross, etc. from whom I have learned that the "people" had a folk religion different from the religious elite we read about in the redacted Old Testament. It has taken me a few years of research and reading to understand this and to be comfortable incorporating the religious myths and cultic practices into the life, thought patterns and reactions of my character. 

My Heart Laid Bare by Joyce Carrol Oates, is a historical novel that takes place late 1800's early 1900's in the US.  Forgive me Joyce, (I greatly admire your work), but in this novel you so overload long passages with cultural details, they sound like catalogs...of songs, horse races...etc.  After the first three or four listings (and there were more) I found myself quickly skimming over them. 

Because I have done so much research for my novel, I find myself tempted to do the same thing.
SOOOO, this week I will concentrate on implementing Susan Vreeland's advice about cultural detail: "Keep in mind, however, that in order to avoid research dumps, every detail that enters the story should have an influence on the characters."