This article is especially for those of you who are writing historical fiction.
We’ve included 5 top tips to help you get started with your historical fiction novel.
1. Pick a time period and research it.
Why it helps
Historical fiction readers enjoy this genre because they want to escape into history. Good research helps to keep the story grounded in the time period the novel is set. If there are places or events mentioned that don’t match the historical timeline, then readers are pulled from their escape and are reminded they’re reading fiction.
How to include it
When including names of places or people, make sure they existed during the particular time period of your novel, no matter how insignificant those places or people might seem. Consider James Cameron’s Titanic: Jack references events and places in the US that shouldn’t exist when the Titanic sinks. This reminds audiences that they are watching a fictional drama, lessening the dramatic impact of the story for many of the viewers.
Create a timeline as you research and update it as you write. Anytime you mention a person, place, or event that seems historically relevant, plot it on your timeline to ensure it existed when your story is taking place.
2. Choose a subgenre to explore.
Why it helps
There are a few different types of historical fiction: historical realism, historical romance, historical fantasy, and alternate history. Each subgenre has its own set of tropes that readers expect to see. Knowing what these tropes are, and which ones can be subjugated in service of the plot, is important to keep the reader engaged without losing them entirely.
Different subgenres also allow for different methods of approaching historical facts: historical realism requires a stricter adherence to historical research while the other genres allow for more freedom, depending on how important historical events are to the plot.
How to include it
Once you’ve defined a time period, write out a general overview of the main conflict. Once you know your subgenre, you will know how important the finer historical details are from your research.
If you’re writing a story that impacts or predicts history, then you’re likely writing historical realism. This means that you can’t deviate very much from the established historical record. Your story should simply ‘fill in the holes’ instead of proposing anything new or dramatically different.
If you’re writing a ‘what if’ story about a historical event, then you’re likely writing an alternate history. This means that you need to decide at what point the historical record changes and how it changes. A timeline will become very important with this subgenre because you’ll have to include accurate information up to the point of change then change only those specific historical elements impacted by your plot.
If the story hinges on a forbidden or unexpected love match, then you’re likely writing a historical romance. This means that historical relevance is not as necessary (unless you’re writing a ‘doomed’ love match due to a historical event like in Titanic or if it is about a famous couple) because the focus is more on the characters rather than historical relevancy.
If the story is set in a historical place but uses magic or supernatural elements, then you’re writing historical fantasy. This means that historical accuracy is important more for the setting than plot.
3. Build the historical world at the start.
Why it helps
Good plots can take place at any time in history. What defines them is the world in which they are set. A historical romance could just as easily have the backdrop of the American Civil War or the French Revolution. The only way for readers to know is through the writer’s world-building at the start.
Depending on the time period of the novel, the world has changed dramatically—both geographically and socially—over the thousands of years of human history. Building the historical world at the start of the novel allows the reader to acclimate to the differences between the time of the novel and the present day.
How to include it
Spend the first few chapters describing how the setting looks and how the characters dress and speak. Make these elements historically accurate to your time period, regardless of what kind of historical fiction you are writing.
Don’t go overboard with descriptions; just be sure to highlight the time-relevant differences. Gone with the Wind opens with a description of Scarlett O’Hara and her antebellum-accurate clothing, as well as those of her twin siblings. Titanic opens by showing the exploratory submarine team discovering early-1900s furniture and high-end chandeliers and staircase railings.
It’s also okay to directly state the year or period of the novel in those first few pages, but it is the subtle descriptions that build the historical world for the reader more.
4. Keep characters accurate but relatable.
Why it helps
While society rules have changed dramatically over the thousands of years of human history, humans haven’t really. We still have a lot of the same emotions and hopes and dreams as a our pre-history ancestors did. This connection is often what allows readers to escape into historical fiction because they can imagine themselves or those they know fulfilling those same roles.
The Bridgerton series, for example, takes place in a fictionalized Regency period, but the romantic interactions of the characters have could just as easily haven take place in a present-day high school or in a Shakespearean play or ancient Rome.
That doesn’t mean historical relevance isn’t important; different time periods have different rules for how characters can interact with each other. But grounding the character relationships in the human experience rather than the historical will make the story more engaging for the reader.
How to include it
Once you’ve decided on a plot and characters, do some research on the time period to see what you can allow and what you need to avoid. This will allow you to explore your conflict while remaining historically accurate.
Different genders, races, and cultures have had different privileges throughout history, depending on the time and place, so pay attention to those elements of your characters when writing and researching. If you choose to subvert those historical societal expectations (like the Bridgerton TV series does), then you need to introduce that element from the start through world-building.
Once you’ve addressed the historically important elements, then you are free to write the character relationships in a way any reader can relate to.
5. Don’t over-do the ‘history’ element.
Why it helps
While historical fiction does desire to be historically accurate to some extent, readers of historical fiction do not want a history lesson packaged as a novel. They don’t want a litany of dates and events name-dropped throughout the story to make the story seem plausible. Once the history element overshadows the fiction one, it becomes less ‘novel’ and more ‘textbook.’
How to include it
Good historical fiction uses historic elements as a backdrop for the main storyline, even when said storyline focuses on a particular historical event. Gladiator focused on the games in the Coliseum but didn’t spend an over-abundance of time exploring the history of those games or why they were fought as they were. Beloved is focused on the lives of African-Americans post-Civil War but doesn’t go into detail about how they came to be ex-slaves or what the societal rules were like.
Use history to guide your novel but don’t make it the sole focus of it. This is why research, world-building, and character relationships are so important: they provide the historical context so that you can write the story.