Writing Historical Fiction: A Guide

This simple guide aims to help the novice author who wants to write historical fiction make a start. Historical fiction is a very demanding genre to try and write, perhaps more so than any other. A writer has to try and recreate a world that has gone and do so convincingly. There are a great many things for the writer to consider – which form of narration to use, how to make the dialogue sound authentic, how to conduct research and how to stop a novel reading like a history textbook. Writing Historical Fiction: A Guide is an introduction to getting started writing historical fiction. It is intended for the novice author who is just beginning their creative writing journey and is unsure how to begin writing historical fiction. Included in this guide are links to the websites of historic places to visit in the UK, links to sites which contain information which may be of value to the novice writer researching their novel, as well as a few links to planning templates created by the author. Laura Dowers is the author of ‘The Queen’s Favourite’, a historical novel about the life of Robert Dudley, the notorious Earl of Leicester.