
Dictation for historical fiction authors: speed up the research process (and your first draft)
You just might have an invaluable writing tool in your pocket or sitting on your desk right now. A smartphone. It’s a modern gadget with a key function that can have a fantastic impact on your life as a historical fiction author. It has on mine. From note-taking to...

Giving your book a second soul: using other languages effectively
The idea that another language gives us a second soul comes from Charlemagne. As a polyglot and ruler of a multilingual territory, he understood what other languages meant to individuals and to societies. Tolstoy understood it too. In War and Peace, his aristocrats...

Marketing hacks for historical fiction writers
For many writers, marketing a book is the hardest part of the publishing process. It requires us to go out into the world and smile at people and make them like us — all the reasons we chose to become writers in the first place (not). And after a while, all the book...

How to write women with agency in historical fiction
Women are the primary buyers and readers of fiction today, so it’s unsurprising that many writers choose to center their historical novels on women characters. Not only is writing about women a savvy marketing decision, it’s also interesting—historical novels about...

How does AI affect historical fiction writers?
If you’ve spent any time lurking on the web recently, you’ve probably come across the intellectual debacle that is ChatGPT. It’s an AI processing tool that can generate written content in seconds, and writers are… concerned.Is AI the death knell of human creativity?...

Walk a mile in my shoes: immersive research for historical fiction
We all know how valuable research is for our writing, and don’t we just love the research! It’s so easy to get stuck into a book, visit a library, find just the right archive. But it’s also so easy to get sucked into the research, almost forgetting your original...

Five book marketing mistakes to avoid
Marketing is not a dirty word. It is simply introducing people to your book. Nor does it require a six-figure budget and a legion of Mad Men type executives. Anything you do to tell people about your book is marketing. However, whoever said "There's no such thing as...

What’s in a name? Character names and why they matter
Choosing the right names for your characters is crucial, not least when writing historical fiction. A character’s name, whether it be short and simple, or flamboyantly hyphenated, can convey a surprisingly large amount of information, and requires as much careful...

Top tips for writing a dual or multiple timeline novel
What are dual or multiple timeline novels? Essentially, these are novels which contain two or more separate storylines that alternate, eventually converging in some way by the end. In dual timeline historical novels, past events are woven with contemporary events, and...

From Saturnalia to Santa Claus: Christmases past to present
Christmas in your story is a great way of marking time, bringing people together, and giving readers something to enjoy. But although Christmas seems unchanging, beware of assuming your characters will do the same as we do now. Christmas is a rich confection, added to...

Writing from multiple points of view
One of the joys of historical fiction is to provide insight into the motives and emotions of characters living through historical events. Story writers plunge into characters’ minds, exploring their thoughts, in a way that is impossible for historians. Many novels are...

Top tips for writing gothic historical fiction
Gothic writing has chilled and inspired countless authors, and there is no reason why you can’t add a touch of the dark and brooding to your own historical fiction. However, writing gothic historical fiction is more than just slamming a big button saying ‘Tim Burton’...
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