Historical fiction is...fiction. It has to have all of the basic story elements: plot, conflict, deep characters. But, readers of historical fiction expect that the historical elements will be accurate. Can literary license be used in the historical elements? Yes, to a point. If the story involves the First World War, such as Legends of the Fall or The War Horse, then the time period must be 1914 to 1918. Can the story extend into 1921? Yes. Legends of the Fall extends into the 1960s. Can the war end in 1921? No, that’s not historical fiction, that’s alternative-history fiction.
Simply setting a story in the past does not make it historical fiction. The story of Romeo and Juliet, for example, can be—and has been—set in any time period. So that story by itself is not historical fiction. However, if Romeo is a Russian prince and Juliet is a Bolshevik, the story could be historical fiction, provided the events of the Russian Revolution come to play in the story. Suppose at the climax of the story, the Bolshevik Juliet is one of those who storms the Winter Palace and the prince Romeo, despite being a member of the deposed nobility, goes to the palace to find her. This story is historical fiction because the climax must happen at night on October 25, 1917 by the Julian calendar.
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