In my work as an author of both factual history books and novels, I like to make the background details and the lives of my characters as authentic as possible. Official contemporary documents can provide some evidence – who did what, when and where – but they don’t...

Every generation thinks it’s the one that knows how to have fun. After the past year, we’ve all come to appreciate how entertainment is a necessary part of a happy life. Changes to the form and venue of entertainment continue to come and go as they’re affected by the...

No matter how great a hero, no matter what they can achieve, what separates the good stories from the great is the quality of the antagonist. Look at Star Wars – Darth Vader was so popular George Lucas went and made three films about him specifically. Whatever your...

Along with flashbacks, dream sequences are one of the most controversial writing techniques out there. Done well, they can add an extra layer of depth to your writing and provide amazing insight into your character's motivations and fears. Done badly, they can make...

If you are new to writing, or feeling a little fragile about whatever you’re writing, you will probably be surfing the internet for help. You may be relieved – or alarmed – to know that even published authors do this. Writing ‘rules’ are out there and we, desperately...

Whether your story is plot-driven, character-driven or somewhere between the two, there will be times when it’s desirable to draw your reader deep inside a character’s consciousness, and others when it’s better to pull back for a broader and more objective view of...

Why does no one go to the toilet in historical fiction? Well, of course they do, but we don’t mention it. Writers are happy to offer detailed descriptions of wine, tea, and coffee consumed, water scooped from streams, juice squeezed from fresh oranges, et cetera, but...

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that you’ve got to laugh. Laughter is a fantastic coping mechanism, a chance to bond with fellow humans… and one of the best ways to create memorable – and relatable – characters in storytelling. Giving your characters a sense of...

If Homer and Virgil sat down to watch The Sound of Music, they might take umbrage with a certain singing nun. Apologies Maria, but the beginning is not always a very good place to start. In medias res is the literary technique of jumping straight to the heart of the...

We all know what historical fiction is. It’s stories that are set in the past. Easy. Next question? Except it’s never going to be that simple. History isn’t simple, and neither is fiction, so we can hardly expect a combination of the two to be straightforward....

In this post, we're going to explore historical cuisine and how to incorporate it into your writing. No matter when or where your story is set, your characters are going to need to eat. The presence (or importantly, the absence) of food is a great way to set the...

It is a truth universally acknowledged, it seems, that editors and agents and readers don't like prologues. Don't like them, don't need them, don't read them. But if this is true, why do writers keep writing them? What purpose do they serve? And how come they have...