Top tips on writing historical fiction from 64 successful historical novelists

by Andrew Noakes

When you’re embarking on a new journey, there’s no greater asset than those who have walked the same path before you. Listening to those who have experienced the same worries and doubts, faced the same challenges, navigated the same tricky questions, and ultimately made a success of it is probably the single most valuable thing you can do.

So it is with writing. Listening to authors who have made a success of their writing is vital if you want to succeed yourself. It isn’t always easy to locate their advice, of course. Many authors are great at giving interviews, going to events, and responding to questions, but that requires you to do a lot of legwork to compile the information you need.

That’s why we’ve created this comprehensive guide, curated exclusively for historical fiction writers looking for advice on the craft from those who know best. We contacted each of these 64 historical fiction authors directly and asked them to respond to one simple question:

What is your top tip for writing historical fiction?

Below, you’ll find their answers. The featured authors have a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences, and we’ve deliberately chosen authors who are at various stages of their publishing careers. If you’re just starting out, landing a publishing deal or writing a well-received debut novel will likely feel like a more immediately attainable idea of success than, say, selling millions of books or becoming a household name, though you may well aspire to that kind of success one day. This article contains authors at both ends of the spectrum – and everything in between.

Top tips on writing historical fiction from 64 successful historical novelists…

Conceptualising your story

To write a story that’s cohesive and compelling, you must begin with an understanding of what it’s about. Ruadh Butler has some great advice on how to distil the essence of a story idea.

Ruadh Butler

Try to figure out what your story is really about. A single sentence will do it. An old trick is to imagine a guy dashing into a pub to report to his friends about an amazing match he just saw. He wouldn’t start by saying, “It was drizzling and Ireland’s starting outhalf was missing and the pitch was a bit patchy in Tokyo,” followed by a blow-by-blow account. He’d open up with the definitive moment of the match. “Oh my God, lads, you should’ve seen it. It’s the last minute and Carbery chip-kicked to Stockdale. He regathers in the air and gets it down. Ireland win the World Cup.” The sentence you write should inform both the start and the end of your story.

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Ruadh Butler is a writer of historical fiction from Tyrone in Northern Ireland.

Choosing your era

If commercial success is your goal, it doesn’t hurt to be strategic. Douglas Jackson recommends picking your era with care.

Douglas Jackson

‘Events, dear boy, events’, as Harold McMillan may or may not have once said. In an increasingly crowded historical fiction market it’s important to choose your era with care. If you’re going to be published it must be unique enough to stand out from the crowd, but commercial enough to attract sufficient potential readers’ attention. It also helps to have lots of things happening during your main character’s lifespan so you can offer a publisher not just one or two books, but potentially five or six. George McDonald Fraser’s Flashman series and Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels are a perfect example.

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Douglas Jackson is the author of the successful historical novels Caligula and Claudius, among many others.

Research

E.M. Powell reminds us of the importance of research in historical fiction. Sarah Sundin, Janet MacLeod Trotter, and Kaia Alderson offer some practical advice on how to go about it, while Beverly Jenkins advises us to draw from unexplored voices and viewpoints.

E.M. Powell

I know there are historical fiction writers who are happy to set off and see where their writing takes them. That approach brings me out in hives. I’m a diehard ‘research first, plot second’ writer. Yes, doing all the research first is a lot of work and puts zero words on the page. But it can yield all sorts of nuggets for plot ideas as well as great characters. I also can’t imagine writing a whole novel—and then finding out the premise collapses because of something I discover in the research. I’m just not brave enough!

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E.M. Powell’s historical thriller Fifth Knight novels have been #1 Amazon and Bild bestsellers.

Sarah Sundin

Create a system to document and organize your research material so you can find it quickly. Keep a numbered bibliography, entering every book, website, video, interview, and correspondence. Document the information you find, whether by handwritten notes, downloading, printing, or clipping information to online programs—keying the information to your bibliography. Divide your material into research topics, from setting to fashion to transportation. Organize your material in a “binder”—an old-school physical binder (with divider tabs for each topic) or a program like Scrivener or Evernote (with notebooks for each topic)—or both. Your future self will thank you!

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Sarah Sundin is a bestselling author of World War II novels.

Janet MacLeod Trotter

The Resources of Empire: Businessmen’s survey of the Empire’s resources (Federation of British Industries, 1924). This was one of the many gems discovered in the Lit & Phil Library in Newcastle which prompted me to start researching the tea industry in India – and turned into a series of four books! My tip is to find a good library – one that is full of biographies, bygone travel, gazettes, eye-witness accounts etc. so that you can immerse yourself in the chosen period. Live it, smell it, see it through the eyes of those who were there. My story ideas emerge out of my reading.

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Janet MacLeod Trotter is primarily an author of historical family dramas.

Kaia Alderson

Make a timeline of real life events for the time period you’re targeting, and then another one for the events that happen in your story. Combine the two into one big timeline you can refer to while you write. (I put the real life stuff in italics.) That way you don’t, say, have your characters talking about the movie Casablanca two months before its world premiere. (Yes, I did that and caught it in time. Whew!)

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Kaia is a comedy and fiction writer based out of coastal Georgia.

Beverly Jenkins

As an African American female writer of historical fiction, I make a point to research sources that aren’t considered mainstream. History is written by the conquerors, but some of the most intriguing and enlightening material can be found via the unexplored voices and viewpoints of the so called conquered. My advice? Widen your research net. Don’t limit yourself to what you’ve been taught as the truth; truth comes in many forms. Dig deeper.

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Since the publication of Night Song in 1994, Beverly Jenkins has been leading the charge for multicultural romance.

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