The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction

About this book

Once Upon a Time it was NOW... While a historian stands firmly planted in the present and looks back into the past a historical novelist has a more immediate task: to set readers in the midst of bygone events and lead them forward allowing them to live and feel the wonderment fear hope triumph and pain as if they were there. In The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction best-selling author James Alexander Thom (Follow the River From Sea to Shining Sea Sign-Talker) gives you the tools you need to research and create stories born from the past that will move and inspire modern readers. His comprehensive approach includes lessons on how to: Find and use historical archives and conduct physical field research Re-construct the world of your novel including people and voices physical environments and cultural context Achieve verisimilitude in speech action setting and description Seamlessly weave historical fact with your own compelling plot ideas With wit and candor Thoms detailed instruction illuminating personal experience and invaluable insights culled from discussions with other trusted historical writers will guide you to craft a novel that is true to what was then when then was now.