There are a lot of good reasons to write a book series: it allows you to spend more time with the characters you’ve invested in, you can make repeated use of all the research you’ve done for your setting (something that historical fiction is particularly heavy on, of...
Historical fiction, as we know, is that fusion of history and story, fact and fiction coming together to offer a fascinating insight into the lives of those who’ve come before us – real or imagined – set against a background of delicious historical detail. Love...
The English Civil War presents its fair share of challenges for novelists. One of the toughest hurdles is to get the reader invested in a conflict in which neither side can, in retrospect, claim the mantle of ‘the good guys’. It takes a talented author to break...
Free indirect discourse is one of the most useful and effective tools available to those writing from a third person point of view. It sounds kind of fancy, but it’s actually quite a natural technique (you may have even used it without realising!). So what exactly is...
The process of writing historical fiction can throw up some pretty tough challenges, but with a bit of knowledge, practice, and determination, it’s certainly possible to overcome them. To help you along, we’ve put together this post on the top five challenges of...
Even if your story is not a historical romance, you may still want to incorporate a romantic subplot for that extra dose of spice and emotional depth. But you want to do it well. You’ve read your share of predictable, throwaway relationship subplots that left you...
In a market where formulaic fiction is churned out an ever-increasing pace, The Last Roundhead has a rare distinction indeed – it is something truly different, a genre-bending gem that mixes laughter with melancholy, substance with frivolity, and vulgarity with...
I’ve just finished Heresy by S. J. Parris, the first in her Giordano Bruno historical thriller series, and I enjoyed it so much that I decided a review is in order. Set in 1583, Heresy introduces us to an England riven by religious strife. The English Reformation has...
The first chapter of your novel – or your prologue if you prefer – must contain a compelling opening hook, giving the reader a taste of what’s to come and persuading them that the rest of your story isn’t to be missed. Get it right and your reader will commit to your...
If you’ve ever had a hard time wrapping your head around when you should and shouldn’t capitalise words like ‘sergeant’, ‘doctor’, ‘queen’, and ‘sir’, you can be safe in the knowledge that you’re not alone. Probably about half of the manuscripts I edit contain...
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