Writing Historical Novels

May 21

Giving Characters Realistic Emotions And Beliefs In Historical Novels, by Anne Perry

What shocks you? In Puritan England you could have been seriously punished for blasphemy. You still can in some places, but not most. I have heard obscene and blasphemous language in the mouths of kindergarten children. It is difficult to avoid it. I am sad and offended, but I am not shocked.

What does get under my skin? What can be punished in law? Racist, sexist, and nationalist abuse – and also religious abuse, on occasion. Yet it used to be common to label people and discriminate against them, even assault them, persecute them, or, in some religious cases, burn them. Now such things are criminal offences that come under the term ‘hate crimes’ and are especially heavily punished. That would have been unthinkable in most historical times. In some people this behaviour would never have occurred anyway.

We must deal with the expectations and prejudices according to the time and place, of the story. That can be extraordinarily difficult because their values may be deeply offensive to us now, and therefore very probably offensive to many of our readers. The last thing we want to do is alienate people. Disturb them a little or make them think, by all means. That is not the same thing as making them so offended that they close the book and put it away.

Most of us say we believe in equality. Some of us really do, but we all have our emotional baggage of one sort or another. Most of us keep our political beliefs all our lives. Very few actually read political platforms and change our vote according to circumstances and manifestos but beliefs about what is good, or possible, change from one age and country to another.

People now generally take it as a human right that all sane and free adults should have a vote. It is not so long since black people did not. I don’t know – did they pay taxes? It is not yet a hundred years since women got the right to vote in most countries. Not all women, of course, but then not all men had either. It would be uncommon for a mid-Victorian woman to campaign for her right to vote. It was beyond the horizon. If she wanted some rights it would more possibly be for married women to be able to own property. I don’t mean real estate, I mean their own clothes, their jewellery and, if they worked, their earnings. It was the 1860s before that happened. Before then even your underwear was not yours, everything belonged to your husband. Very few people thought that unfair.

Changes over time are not strictly progressive. Under Irish (Brecon) law – in roughly the 7^th to 8^th Century AD, a woman was allowed to do anything she was able to do – such as being a soldier, bishop, lawyer, judge, physician, etc. The thing is to be realistic to the time, or if ahead, then only by a step or two. If your character is ahead of their time, there may be a high price to pay for it. More than a few people had been burned, hanged or otherwise put to death very nastily. The majority do not like having their ideas upset. That is definitely a fear for many people: ‘Don’t threaten my view of myself and how I fit into my world!’ or ‘Don’t make me question my beliefs about the order of the universe!’

People are always going to be afraid of war, death, disease, famine, etc. Many people are afraid of loneliness, of pain, of failure, of guilt, of not being loved or accepted, or not belonging, and in the end that we face extinction and nothingness. Such beliefs have no time or place but unite us all. The hope of redemption, however we see it, and of belonging unite us all. A good story will show that.

***

Anne Perry’s author website: www.anneperry.co.uk

Anne Perry’s bio page

***

United States (and beyond)

United Kingdom (and beyond)

Australia (and beyond)

Writing Historical Novels
www.writinghistoricalnovels.com

May 17

4 Comments

Historical Novels And Learning From The Past, by Paul Dowswell

As a writer of historical fiction, I’m very keen to spark an interest for the past in the teenagers I write for. The Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. I’m convinced this is one of the most important arguments for teaching history – either in a classroom or indirectly in historical fiction.

The invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11 is a classic example: every single invasion of this place has resulted in disaster for the invaders – be they Imperial Britain, Soviet Russia or the United States. I think with horror of the young neo-Nazis in Greece, Poland, Russia and Germany and can’t begin to understand how the grandchildren of citizens who suffered so cruelly under this most repugnant of regimes can even begin to think this is a good way of running a country.

I’m a writer rather than a trained teacher, so I can’t bring any pedagogic rigour to this discussion, but I do know a lot of kids are bored with history – and they tell me this when I visit their classroom. I’m puzzled by this because I know history teachers put a massive amount of effort into making the subject exciting. I also know most kids will happily watch a movie about World War Two, or Ancient Rome, or Sherlock Holmes in Victorian London. History is everywhere in entertainment for children and young adults – cinema, TV drama, theatre, video games, and novels…

I love history because I think it can be as strange as fantasy or science fiction but it really happened. Hitler and the Nazis, to take one example, have inspired all sorts of fantasy and science fiction stories – Dr Who’s greatest enemy, the Daleks, were directly inspired by the Nazis, as were Darth Vader’s Stormtroopers in the Star Wars films.

History is full of epic, fascinating stories: everything from the Ancient Egyptian myths to the witchcraft trials in Colonial America, or the forced imposition of new political ideologies on whole societies such as in Soviet Russia… What’s so amazing is that people believed in and supported these things at the time.

Harking back to my opening point, I believe, very strongly, that we need to look to history to remind us of the consequences of political and religious bigotry, intolerance and fanaticism: the Holocaust, Stalin’s purges, Mao’s disastrous management of the Chinese economy, the witchcraft craze in Medieval Europe… I hope these kinds of terrible events will never happen again but I suspect they will, in one form or another. Even in my recent lifetime we’ve witnessed ghastly massacres in former-Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and bizarre religious fascism in Afghanistan.

Freedom of thought is a vital aspect of human health, happiness and progress. Hitler, Stalin, the Inquisition and the Taliban were and are all forces directly opposed to it. What they all have in common is an absolute belief that theirs is the only true way of thinking about the world. This is a terrifying viewpoint at the best of times and it becomes very dangerous when it’s allied with absolute power.

All of us who write historical fiction are writing to entertain our readers. However, I also hope that Young Adult novels like mine (Auslander, Sektion 20 and The Cabinet of Curiosities), the wealth of brilliant books on the Nazi Era (from Ian Serraillier’s The Silver Sword to Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief and Morris Gleitzman’s series), and the abundance of other titles dealing with the grim history of human oppression, will help to innoculate readers against the perils of political and religious fanaticism.

***

Paul Dowswell’s author website: www.pauldowswell.co.uk

Paul Dowswel’s bio page

***

United States (and beyond)

United Kingdom (and beyond)

Australia (and beyond)

Writing Historical Novels
www.writinghistoricalnovels.com

May 16

1 Comment

Finding Support From Other Writers, by Stephanie Cowell

It is critical for a novelist to have a support group of other gifted writers. What used to be the world’s loneliness profession has now become one of the most gregarious ones with social media and email.

But you need support… because writing can be daunting. It can take many years to bring your vision to the page in a full enough way that an agent will accept it and a publisher will buy it. If you work at a regular job, you know that if you show up and do a good job every day you can in most cases expect to keep your job and earn enough for your needs. In writing novels it is hard to predict anything unless you have already sold incredible numbers of your other books. You cannot predict what you will earn. You cannot predict how long it will take to do. You cannot predict the public taste when you DO publish it.

No one can understand a historical novelist like another historical novelist. No one else can understand your sixteen drafts or why you simply had to travel to Greenland for research.

For ten years I had an extraordinary writing group. We met monthly at one of the women’s houses and everyone brought food… oh that food! I know I gained five pounds at least. We were eight to ten women and we had food for twenty. First we set out the food. Then we talked. We held hands and prayed for each of our needs. Then we ate and talked about everything… drafts, families, finding an agent. Finally we settled down and each writer took turns reading. We were four historical novelists, one historical playwright, a few poets and a few contemporary novelists. We supported each other in every way. We laughed and cried together; we called each other up late at night and talked about writing and relationships. If anyone had a problem in her work, we brought all our collective strength to it.

Almost none of us were published when we began and all of us were published at the end. When I sold my first novel Nicholas Cooke: actor, soldier, physician, priest, all the women bought T-shirts with the book jacket cover printed on them and did a kick dance in a row. Eventually, the novelist Judy Lindbergh brought her novel about 10th century Greenland to my agent, who sold it to my editor. Some of us got published in small journals; several of us got published and continue to get published in children’s, young adult and adult historical fiction.

Times change, several members moved away and the group unfortunately ended. We all still remain in close contact. We send draft novels to each other by email for comment and help.

Now, in addition to these women, I have reached out to so many other historical novelists on the web. If I love someone’s book, I write to her or him. I read, edit, blurb and review books and others do the same for me. We share information about our field.

Reach out to others. Start a support group.

***

Stephanie Cowell’s author website: www.stephaniecowell.com

Stephanie Cowell’s bio page

***

United States (and beyond)

United Kingdom (and beyond)

Australia (and beyond)

Writing Historical Novels
www.writinghistoricalnovels.com

May 14

What Makes For Great Historical Fiction? by Anthony Riches

I have to admit that I have some strange tastes when it comes to what I read: thrillers, good sci-fi (of which there is depressingly little about these days), modern military fiction; I’ll read them all voraciously, but when it comes to historical fiction I’m pickier than a six year old confronted with a menu devoid of the magic word ‘chips’.

I do like good historical fiction, I really do, but I’m just not drawn to those shelves in the bookshop that hold my contemporaries’ work (unless it’s to stop my wife from putting my books over theirs, as she does when given half a chance). Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of cracking historical authors out there, Scott, Kane, Sidebottom, Low, Kristian, and so on, and I like them all very much when I knuckle down to read them. It’s just that I never go looking for them with any hunger. My must reads are Iain M Banks, Richard Morgan, Lee Childs, Charles Stross, Joe Abercrombie and the like, perhaps because I spend so long researching and writing my own historical novels that I want something else when it comes to leisure reading – with one exception. There is one historical fiction author whose work I pre-order and consume at maximum velocity, and that man is Christian Cameron.

Cameron – if you’re not already a fan – has written at least a dozen books in two genres: contemporary military espionage thrillers under the name of Gordon Kent, co-authored with his father, and stunningly good historical fiction under his own name. I’m going to talk to you about just one of them in the hope that you’ll either be smiling smugly in a ‘read that’ way or that you’ll immediately buy a copy of the book and find out for yourself just how good a writer he really is. So, let’s consider Killer of Men or Long War 1 to use the clunky series title that we all get lumbered with these days as a way of pointing out to the reader that there are more of these out there and will they please buy them!

In Killer of Men Cameron uses that well tried and tested device, the old man telling tales about his life, to begin the story of Arimnestos, a young man who fights in a series of battles between Plataea and Thebes only to find himself enslaved, his father murdered by his uncle and his world turned upside down. As a slave he meets a series of famous characters from the period who Cameron slides into his well crafted plot to form the mainstays of its historical landscape: Miltiades, the Greek pirate and politician; Artaphernes, the Persian satrap; Heraclitus, the philosopher; Hipponax, the poet; and Aristagoras, the Greek who led the long war of the title against the Persians. Arimnestos grows to manhood and discovers that he has been blessed with the ability to fight like few other men can, his fame as a killer of men quickly spreading as he establishes a place for himself in the world.

So, what’s so great about it? The characters, plot and dialogue are all spot on, but more than that the fighting sequences all share that gritty realism (and deep research) that characterises Pressfield’s excellent Gates of Fire – another favourite – so that the reader finds him or herself immersed in what it was like to fight in the chaos of an ancient battlefield with weapons and armour made from bronze. The politics of the 5th century BC come alive, not as dry words on a page but as the life and death struggles between a people who were not all united against their enemy. This really is stunning stuff, perfectly researched, beautifully constructed and with that ‘can’t put it down’ factor that will keep you reading late into the night.

It’s a great series too, as Ari becomes a war leader for Plataea, suffers his own grievous losses and takes revenge on the man who condemned him to slavery. We take part in the battle of Marathon later in the run of books, which illustrates the last thing I love about Cameron’s work, his ability to show the big events from the viewpoint of the men fighting their way through what was to become the stuff of legend. That is what I consider to be the epitome of great historical fiction.

***

Anthony Riches’s author website: www.anthonyriches.com

Anthony Riches’s bio page

***

United States (and beyond)

United Kingdom (and beyond)

Australia (and beyond)

Writing Historical Novels
www.writinghistoricalnovels.com

May 12

Skills Needed To Be A Professional Novelist, by Julian Stockwin

For the new writer just learning the craft, you have to find what works for you. Getting a handle on the nuts and bolts of writing isn’t hard. There are numerous excellent books on the subject, evening classes and discussion groups. It’s crucial to brush up on spelling and grammar, as well as the mechanics of character formation, plot, pace, etc. You mustn’t take it for granted that a copy-editor will do this for you.

The crucial thing to becoming a successful author is finding your own “voice”. I had given to me an incredible piece of advice which actually went to the heart of the creative process: “Write the book you yourself want to read.” It’s so simple, but it threw everything into perspective - if you think about it, it fundamentally defines your voice and it also energises the necessary passion for the subject.

The other side of becoming a successful author is being a successful editor. When you finish your manuscript, you’re only halfway there and the competition is high. The final product has to be very polished and this involves possibly doing several drafts, some rewriting and certainly very careful line by line editing. There are outside agencies that will help with this side of things if you feel you need an objective eye, but look at several before you commit to spending any money. It’s also a good idea to set the manuscript aside for at least six weeks before starting on the edit.

From my experience and from talking to people in the publishing world, there are a number of other things that all potential authors should bear in mind:

The saying “write about what you know” does have a lot of truth in it. By writing on a topic you know about, you will have a certain confidence in your writing. However, not all topics will be of equal interest. If you know dentistry, for example, it’s not the sexiest of topics, but if your story involves an interesting central character and a good plot, it could still work.

Don’t follow the market. It’s a mistake to think you can just see what is selling well and then write something along similar lines. By the time your book is written and then appears in print at least two years will have elapsed; this is how long a manuscript takes to appear on the shelf of a book store. The bandwagon will be long gone!

Publishers will want between 90,000 and 110,000 words for adult novels. Generally speaking, if you write outside this range for it will be much harder to find someone to publish your work.

Finally, be prepared for the paradox of having to become tough-skinned and also needing to cope with a heightened sensitivity in the way you think about the world.

Georges Simenon, the Belgian novelist, once said, “writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness”. I disagree. To be a successful writer it’s true that it’s absolutely necessary to be a consummate professional at each step of the way - but if you’re lucky enough to be able to write for a living it’s a profoundly deep and happy experience. At least that’s what I’ve found.

***

Julian Stockwin’s author website: www.julianstockwin.com

Julian Stockwin’s bio page

***

United States (and beyond)

United Kingdom (and beyond)

Australia (and beyond)

Writing Historical Novels
www.writinghistoricalnovels.com

May 11

1 Comment

Writing A Great First Chapter For A Historical Novel, by Ben Kane

Painting a vivid picture in the mind of a reader within the first few pages of a historical novel is a vital skill. Certain people will pick up and buy a book just from the title or because they are familiar with the author’s previous work. Yet writers also rely on those who have never read any of their work to buy their books. Often this happens by word of mouth or the recommendation of another reader on a forum such as Goodreads or Amazon. Historically, it happened when, attracted by the cover, people picked up the book in a bricks and mortar store. This is not the case so often now, sadly. Nonetheless, the same principles still apply. The reader has to be interested moments after they decide to take a look. This has been facilitated online by the way that retailers allow potential buyers to read the first few pages or chapter of a novel.

So, whether it happens in a bookshop or online, the reader’s eyes start to move along the page. What happens next is crucial. As a reader, I have to be captivated within the first page, maybe two, of a novel. If I’m not, I simply put the book back on the shelf or close the e-sample and continue looking for another. How is it done, then? For me, it’s about painting an exciting scene that catapults the reader back to the time in which the book is set, making them forget that we live in the twenty-first century. Often that means beginning with a fight, but that’s not always the case. As long as the reader is drawn in, it doesn’t matter what I describe.

To better explain my thoughts, I went to the bookshelf above my desk. My eyes were drawn to books by Christian Cameron, a favourite writer of mine. He opens Tyrant, his first novel, with the lines:
The sky above the dust was blue. In the distance, far out over the plain, mountains rose in lavender and purple, the most distant capped red by the setting sun. Up there in the aether, all was peace. An eagle, best of omens, turned a lazy circle to his right. Closer, less auspicious birds circled.

Magnificent! I can remember when I first started reading this book. In fifty-five words, Cameron had me. I could see a large plain, with mountains on the horizon, the tops of which are coated crimson, the colour of blood. A clear sky above ― peaceful-looking, but with birds that signified both good luck and bad. An as-yet-unnamed protagonist bore witness to this scene and I wanted to read more. This paragraph may look simple but I think one can find within its lines all that is necessary in the opening of a novel.

Know your period well. Read novels set in that time period by authors that you admire but also by those whose work you do not like. Pick your scene - make it one that would interest almost anyone. Write out the scene blow by blow. Choose your opening line with great care. Write the first page and then the chapter without losing your momentum through too much editing. Return to the first page and edit it. Then edit it again and again and again. And again. Go back to the rest of the novel, and work on that but return to your opening scene at regular intervals to see how it reads. Be prepared to continue editing it or even rewriting it for some time. Remember, it is this scene that will sell your novel to an agent, a publishing house or a reader.

***

Ben Kane’s author website: www.benkane.net

Ben Kane’s bio page

***

United States (and beyond)

United Kingdom (and beyond)

Australia (and beyond)

Writing Historical Novels
www.writinghistoricalnovels.com

May 11

1 Comment

Writing Authentic And Engaging Characters For Historical Novels, by Emma Darwin

If you admit that you write historical fiction then the first thing that readers and aspiring writers often say is how you must have to do lots of research. They have heard that everyone should ‘write what you know’ and they know that we write what we don’t know. I do lots of research, of course, although my goal is always, as Rose Tremain put it, to leave the research behind.

Researched material must never read like researched material in your novel. It must become no more, no less and, above all, no different in its value or quality from everything else that you know. Once I’ve found the material, ideally I toss it into the pot of my imagination to stew down until I can’t remember when or where I found it: until it is ‘what I know’. It can then float up like any other piece of knowledge, simply because the story demands it.

But what material? When people think about how historical settings are different from ours, it’s material culture they’re most aware of: food, transport, weapons and contraception. Those are important but they’re also relatively straightforward - if not always easy - to find out about. Then there are the subtler things: voting systems, church-going habits and smoking manners.

What about the things your characters think about life on earth and life beyond it: death, birth and love? We know that clothes change, but we’d rather believe that human nature is eternal: that we ‘know’ it. You can read up on sun-worship or astrology or human sacrifice, though it can be difficult to get a feel for the range of people’s beliefs within a doctrine and how that played out in everyday life.

An absolute faith that God made the world and has his eye on you is hard for some modern writers to truly live inside, let alone evoke for readers. What about the knowledge that the woman you love passionately is nonetheless absolutely your inferior? Or that you have the right of life and death over your children? Or that you’re predestined to salvation or damnation and no good or bad act of yours can change that?

After all, your characters don’t think about whether they believe these things, any more than we now think about whether stars explode or humans evolved from primates: these ideas shape what we see and do, and what we are to ourselves and others.

Even if you know all that’s to be known about Then, you’re writing for readers Now. Yes, we must believe in them as people in their time, but we must also feel real human connection with us in ours, or why should we care what happens to them enough to keep reading? A real 17th century pickpocket or duke had views about Jews or dogs or Catholics or Protestants to which we probably have a knee-jerk reaction of disgust but we must care about your pickpocket or your duke. You’ve got some finessing to do.

***

Emma Darwin’s author website: www.emmadarwin.com

Emma Darwin’s bio page

***

United States (and beyond)