Emma Darwin ponders the challenges of writing her new guide to historical fiction. I’ve been known to argue that writing historical fiction is the ultimate challenge for a novelist, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that when John Murray Learning commissioned me to write Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction for their Teach Yourself imprint, […]
Historia Interviews: Alison Weir
Alison Weir is one of the UK’s best-loved and best-selling historians. She’s published seventeen history books and five historical novels, selling over 2.7 million books worldwide. Her latest project is ambitious – a re-telling of the lives of Henry VIII’s six wives, in six novels, over six years. The first, Katherine of Aragon: The True […]
I’ve fallen in love with a real historical character: how do I start writing the novel?
Dear Dr Darwin, I’ve been writing short stories and contemporary-set fiction for years, but recently I fell madly in love with a real historical character: a fascinating, forceful, charming person, Jocelyn, who was deeply involved in the big dramas of the day. I know I want to write a novel, not a biography, and I’ve […]
How to make us believe your bucklers are swashing and your Tyrian is truly purple
Dear Dr Darwin, You keep saying “make it vivid and convincing”, but how do I do that? When I put in lots of detail my writers’ circle say it slows up the story; when I cut it back they say they don’t believe in the places. When I make my characters act/think/react differently from how […]