Emma Darwin examines the importance of faith during a turbulent period of European history, and how difficult it is to convey the “visceral” quality and power of religious belief when writing historical fiction. Evoking love comes more easily to us, yet love and faith have often been in conflict, as in her latest novel, The […]
Why should I not Tell? Why must I Show?
Dear Dr Darwin, People in my writing forum keeping telling me “Show, don’t Tell,” but I don’t understand what they mean. How can I not Tell, if I’m telling a story? And while I think I get what Showing means, I get desperately bored putting in all the details – so I’m sure a reader […]
How much should I explain? And how?
Dear Dr Darwin, As a reader of historical fiction I want to be in a place which may resonate in my world, but is not my world. That’s not only about politics and clothes, and how the people think and feel and believe, but in how they talk and write, and what they talk and […]
My writer’s circle friend keeps getting his facts wrong
Our resident agony aunt, Dr Darwin, answers a common question: how can we make sure our historical details are accurate – and believable? Dear Dr Darwin, Someone in my writers’ circle keeps getting facts wrong: things like calling a 17th-century character Tiffany, and giving her mother a vote in elections. He makes both of them keen […]
I want to write a parallel narrative novel, but I don’t know how
Historia’s resident agony aunt, Dr Darwin, answers another question about the craft (and art) of writing. This time: how to write a parallel narrative novel which grabs – and keeps – your reader. Dear Dr Darwin, I have fantastic idea for a novel which is made of two almost entirely separate historical narrative threads plaited […]
How do I convey necessary information without it being clunkingly obvious?
Author Emma Darwin explains how you make sure historical fiction readers get necessary information without it being clunkingly obvious
Finding your historical voice
Our resident agony aunt, Dr Darwin, answers a common question: How can I find a voice for my historical fiction? Dear Dr Darwin, Writing courses boast they’ll help you to “find your voice”, and “the voice” is the thing that publishers and therefore agents say they are looking for almost above all. But what does […]
What counts as historical fiction?
Our resident agony aunt, Dr Darwin, answers a common question: what counts as historical fiction? Dear Dr Darwin, I told my grandmother that I was writing a historical novel set in the Liverpool of the early Beatles, and she laughed so hard she nearly fell off her motorbike. I told my brother the Beatles weren’t […]