Historia talks to Richard Foreman about about the HWA and Sharpe Books Unpublished Novel Award
Dr Darwin’s Writing Tips
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 […]
Dr Darwin’s Writing Tips
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 […]
Losing the Plot
Robyn Young on her new novel, Court of Wolves, and its difficult path to publication. Over the thirteen years I’ve been in this business, I’ve spoken to many writers about their methods and while no two authors tackle a novel in quite the same way, there’s clearly a spectrum – at the opposite ends of […]
How to Write a Historical Debut: A Cautionary Tale
HWA Debut Crown judge, Ben Fergusson, gives an inside view on what makes or breaks a historical
How do you research historical fiction?
Our resident agony aunt, Dr Darwin, answers a common question – how do you research historical fiction? Dear Dr Darwin, Everyone says “research till your eyes bleed” – you did in your post about cultural appropriation – but when I Google, all I can find is the information I know already, repeated in a million […]
Are there multicultural boundaries we must not cross in historical fiction?
Dear Dr Darwin, I’m working on a script that begins during the 1830’s. The central character is a fictional young Black teen, and two major characters are actual historical figures: a young Native American warrior and a mixed-blood warrior; the true purpose of the script is to tell their fascinating story. I, however, am White. […]
I know this story isn’t a novel, but I’m not a biographer!
Dear Dr Darwin I recently came upon a long-dead member of my family, Jebediah, who did some amazing things, in all sorts of places in the world. I think lots of people would find Jebediah fascinating, but I’m not equipped to do the formal, thorough research that a biography would need. Nor is there a […]