I am beginning to write my third novel. It is going to be a fact based fiction story about a US Marine who served in Lebanon in 1983. However, I worry about the conflict of historical fact with the story. I have just started to put pen to paper in writing my third book, which I intend to call "Disposable Heroes," which will be about a US Marine who served in Lebanon 1983. If you can remember back thirty years, in October 1983, a suicide bomber drove a van full of explosives into the building that housed many of the marines killing 241 of them. However, my story will not be about that event. Instead, it will take place about 7-10 months before that and it will not be the battalion that met with so much tragedy.
The problem I am having is that while I can easily get information about the tragic bombing, I can't get any about events in Beirut before that. (The marines were over there a year before the bombing.) I have tried internet searches and made calls on social media for anyone who served in Lebanon to get in touch, but so far absolutely nothing.
So what do I do? Do I continue to write and not worry about historical accuracy? After all, that's what Hollywood would do. To add further incentive to doing this, I think back to my first novel "Rock And Roll Children." I admit now that when I wrote it, I was so obsessed with getting my historical facts right, that it got in the way of writing the rest of the story. Therefore, it can be argued that I could write the story from how I see it and not be constrained by the fear of getting my facts wrong.
The flip side, however, is my desire to actually tell the story of those men who served over there. I think that their plight has been ignored too long and I think it now needs to be told. Allowing any inaccuracy to stand, even if I am ignorant of it at the time, would do those who served a disservice. Furthermore, I would risk being just another American who doesn't care about historical fact as long as it makes a good story.
So what shall I do? Should I just go ahead and write the story as I see fit and risk being slated over any historical inaccuracies? I could argue the lack of information made me fill in the blanks. Should I try to dig for more information even though it's proving fruitless thus far? Or should I just abandon the idea and write one of the other ideas that are now floating around my brain? I would appreciate any answers to this dilemma.
