Okay, so my new historical novel 'Dark Aemilia' comes out next month, and in this blog I'll be focusing on historical fiction and all things associated with it. Here are ten suggested 'top tips' which I hope might be useful both for new historical writers and people already writing in this field who want some fresh advice. I'll be fleshing these out in ten posts over the weeks leading to the publication date.
1. Know your field. Read everything, visit museums, find physical objects that inspire you, talk to family members, watch documentaries and films, pursue all lines of enquiry that are relevant to your chosen period or subject. Be an anorak, it’s more fun than you might think!
1. Know your field. Read everything, visit museums, find physical objects that inspire you, talk to family members, watch documentaries and films, pursue all lines of enquiry that are relevant to your chosen period or subject. Be an anorak, it’s more fun than you might think!
2. Be bold. Don’t be intimidated by the facts, or the
personalities that you discover. The facts are a starting point, not a straitjacket. Remember that even biography is an inexact science.
3. Tell a good story – character and plot are just as important
in this genre as in any other. Don’t make the mistake of letting the setting
dominate everything else.
4. Think laterally. Is your story a romance or a thriller? If
so, borrow from these genres. (Try and avoid a zombie mash-up if you can, this
is as passé as Jeremy Paxman’s beard.)
5. Put your reader in a time machine. If you have found a way
to immerse yourself in the period, try to give them the same experience.
6. Be succinct. Less is more in historical fiction – don’t get
bogged down in long descriptions or expositional dialogue.
7. Look for ‘the gaps in history’. Hilary Mantel has talked about
using the unknown in history, the unrecorded and forgotten moments. You can do
the same thing. You can also search out periods that are less popular than the
Elizabethan era, or more distant in time.
8. Character, character, character. Why is ‘Wolf Hall’ so
successful? Or ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’? They are all very
different in their approach, but all have vivid and believable characters that
the reader cares about. Even an apparently unsympathetic character like Thomas
Cromwell becomes engaging and absorbing when we are party to his thoughts and
fears.
9. Develop genre awareness. If you want to write a Tudor crime thriller,
make sure you read C.J.Sansom. If you want to write about the life of Charles
II, read ‘Restoration’. And so on. If you are worried about your style being
influenced when you are writing your own book, then stop reading other writers during
this period, but it should definitely be part of your preparatory research.
10. Read outside the genre. It’s essential to read as widely as
possible and as eclectically as possible if you want to write well and raise
your game to the highest possible level. Historical fiction is not just a
ticket to escapism, it’s a vibrant and varied genre in its own right.
