The top five challenges of writing historical fiction (and how to overcome them)

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 guide on the top five challenges of writing historical fiction, complete with tips on how to surmount them.

1) History vs. story

One of the biggest challenges is knowing how to strike the balance between including too much or too little history in your story. Too much, and your novel will start to read like a history book; too little, and it won’t immerse the reader in the period. Neither of these extremes is desirable, but it can be hard to successfully tread the line between them.

In truth, only around five to ten percent of the historical research you do should make it into your story. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do the remaining ninety to ninety-five percent. Even the knowledge that doesn’t make it into your book will prove vital in giving you a deep enough understanding of your period to reproduce it convincingly on the page.

The detail that does make it into your story should integrate seamlessly within it. So, if you were writing a historical action/adventure and you want to showcase the weapons of the period, it would be better to draw attention to them during, say, a battle that actually advances the plot, rather than just depicting your protagonist entering the armoury and inspecting them.

Likewise, if you’re trying to explain the historical background of your period, use a combination of narrative exposition, dialogue, and internal thought to convey it, and only do so when it feels pertinent to the story. Make sure any background information is broken up into bitesize chunks rather than dumped on the reader all in one go.

2) Knowing how much research to do

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