...is when the facts don't add up! Various features of the story are not matching up with information that I am reading. That doesn't actually mean that the story is wrong necessarily: the materials I am reading may not be correct, after all. Much data about the period some 1700 years ago is in conflict or simply missing. All I can do in the end is to take a view, right or wrong, and write the book on that basis. Obviously I will keep as close as I can to what I think is best, bearing in mind that what I write has also to be reasonably consistent with the line taken in the movie. But, given that so little is known for definite, the label 'fiction' has to apply in some sense. Or, and perhaps this is better, that it is a 'fictionalized account of a true story'. Actually, I quite like that!
Anyway, I come back to the point I made a few days ago that Katherine's message of tolerance and understanding is what counts. The story is a means of explaining it. It is not a means of teaching history and it cannot be, since that history is simply not known. It is more of a 'what if' or 'what might have been' or a 'something like this happened.' The details will be wrong in many places, but still the general idea is correct and the message is certainly worth promoting.
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