Historical Fiction Writers continue to learn about their writing each and every day. This is something that you should remember even if you’ve already sold your first novel. You can always learn from this publication as you start writing your next one.
Know How Much You Need to Research
It’s important to realize that you don’t need to know everything about everything that happened during the historical period that you’re writing about. Your story will only occupy parts of that world anyway. These are the parts that you’ll want to learn a lot about.
Most readers won’t do any research of their own regarding your historical period. Therefore you should only do as much research as is required to help you move your story along. You don’t want to write a history book here because your reader doesn’t care about it. They’ll find themselves swept up in the details of the characters instead. With too much research you’ll actually distract them from this enjoyment.
Be Realistic
Historical fiction readers will tell you that the favorite part of their books is the fact that it feels real. You can make your book feel real to them by taking some time to read first-hand accounts (e.g. diaries, journals, letters, essays) of the historical period in which your book was written. These will help you get a feel for what everyday life was like which is more important than things like who the king or president was at that time.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should make glaring errors in your writing. After all, your readers are depending on you to bend the truth just enough to make your story work. This is something that you especially need to pay attention to when dealing with dialogue. If you write so accurately for the period your readers will need to routinely consult a dictionary which will distract from the enjoyment of the book. Instead, you’ll want to make just enough of a compromise that the language feels authentic but can still be understood without having a dictionary on hand. You’ll also find that it’s easier for you to write in this way.
The Bottom Line
Join in with other Historical Fiction Writers and take the time to continually learn from your craft. Doing so will help your writing get better and better as time goes on. Hopefully, these tips will help you get started in the right direction.
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