One Piece of Advice From 23 Historical Fiction Authors in 2023
Historical fiction is and has long been a popular genre for writers. Even William Shakespeare saw the value in writing about times before his own, because there’s a distance from the subject matter and interest in the way people once lived.
(5 Research Tips for Writing Historical Fiction.)
I was fortunate enough to interview more than 20 historical fiction authors with new releases in 2023. Here I’ve collected one piece of advice from 23 historical fiction authors that covers writing, reading, researching, putting down the phone, and more.
If you’re interested in reading the full interview with each author, just click their names. Enjoy!
“I’m hesitant to share advice, per se, because every writer is different and what makes me tick may not work for someone else. But here are two mantras I stand by in my own writing: butt in seat and, as Ann Patchett says, “word by word” for getting a book written; and, you can always fix a bad draft, but a blank page will get you nowhere.” –Karma Brown, author of What Wild Women Do (Dutton)
“Look for the wonders that are all around you, just waiting for you to notice. Find them, savor them, then write about them, one hard-won page at a time.” –Lynn Cullen, author of The Woman With the Cure (Berkley Books)
“Keep going. Publishing is a hard business, whether you pursue traditional publishing or you self-publish, and it’s easy to lose confidence or momentum (or both!). But if writing is what you love and you want to share your storytelling with readers, keep writing in whatever manner works best for you!” –Liana De la Rosa, author of Ana María and The Fox (Berkley Romance)
“It’s easy to let self-consciousness creep in when you’re writing that first draft. But that’s the moment when you really need to let go. Whatever you’re feeling, no matter how undignified, let yourself feel it: anger, hurt, desire, jealousy, grief. Get it all out now. You’ll feel so much better, and chances are that your book will benefit, too.” –Kat Devereaux, author of Escape to Florence (Harper Paperbacks)
“Read. Read. Read. Read like a writer, with close attention to technique and detail. I never studied in a formal creative writing program (though now I teach in a wonderful one at the University of Houston). Reading great writers carefully, with a pen in my hand to mark important passages, helped me become a writer.” –Chitra Divakaruni, author of Independence (William Morrow)
“As soon as you have a new idea, get down as much material as you can. Fill notebook after notebook, and allow the writing to be messy and chaotic. Later, go back and find your story within that raw material and begin to chisel it into form. But keep the fictional world busy and alive and a little unwieldy as you give your novel shape.” –Ariel Djanikian, author of The Prospectors (William Morrow)
“Start writing, and finish what you start! It sounds obvious, but this is honestly the only way to find out if you really want to write, if you’re prepared to make sacrifices to find time to write, and if you have a story you want to tell.” –Hazel Gaynor, author of The Last Lifeboat (Berkley)
“Read—a lot. The good stuff. Read writers who inspire you. But don’t aspire to be them. Be different. Be unique. Find your own voice. … Most importantly, enjoy your writing! It really is the best part.” –Diane Hanks, author of The Woman With a Purple Heart (Sourcebooks)
“Don’t give in to the inevitable moment where you read back over your work and think ‘this is terrible!’ That will definitely happen—it always does. But keep going. Keep working. If you write it, you can improve it. If you don’t, you can’t.” –Emily Hourican, author of Mummy Darlings (Grand Central Publishing)
“Sit down, open the laptop, and get to work.” –Katherine Howe, author of A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself (Henry Holt & Co.)
“There are a lot of really good websites online about writing novels. Very few of them talk about the folk tale and its structures, but whatever.” –Paulette Jiles, author of Chenneville (William Morrow)
“Focus on what you can control. For example: The progress of your current project; how you choose to spend your time, both online and off; finding joy in the writing itself; trying new things and taking risks to challenge yourself as a writer. Everything else, the more you can let it slip by, the steadier and more peaceful your day-to-day experience as a writer will be.” –Kristen Loesch, author of The Last Russian Doll (Berkley)
“It’s useful to ask yourself why you write. Do you write to remember, to escape, to entertain yourself, to entertain your friends, to feel alive, to feel close to a character, to experience new things, to play with language, to see your name in print, to make money, to make yourself laugh, to continue a conversation, to change a conversation, to create alternate realities? There are more reasons than these, of course, and you can write for many reasons at the same time. Digging into the why can help you identify what matters most to you about the process. And that can give you a clear-eyed perspective on the possible outcomes, so you understand what you want to do with your writing, and what you want your writing to do in the world.” –Joanna Lowell, author of Artfully Yours (Berkley)
“Join a writing group—either online or in person. Writing groups can be both a support network and a great learning tool. … Writing groups are also good for building writing into your routine, for pushing you to write regularly. I know my writing group has been invaluable for me.” –Katie Lumsden, author of The Secrets of Hartwood Hall (Dutton)
“To have fun with your writing and write the stories you’d like to see in the world. When I first came up with the idea for Our Hideous Progeny, I worried constantly that it was far too silly to write for my final year project, or to turn into a novel, or to be picked up by an agent… … Ultimately, however, it was exactly the kind of weird, queer, science-fictiony, slightly-pretentious nonsense that I myself love to read—and given that the novel-editing process involves rereading your own work approximately 10 billion times, it’s important that you actually enjoy the book.” –C. E. McGill, author of Our Hideous Progeny (Harper)
“Learn your craft; to a writer it’s of the first importance. Keep studying and honing your work. But most importantly: Pay attention. … The buds of story ideas are everywhere around us.” –Shelley Noble, author of The Tiffany Girls (William Morrow)
“I always come back to that quote of Picasso’s: ‘Inspiration exists but it has to find you working.’ If you wait for the perfect time, the perfect location, the perfect inspiration you’ll never get anywhere. You have to train yourself to keep writing even when you don’t want to.” –Mat Osman, author of The Ghost Theatre (Abrams/The Overlook Press)
“Don’t write the book you think will sell based on what is popular on social media or the current bestseller lists. Write the story that you find exciting and compelling and impossible to set aside. If you’re very, very lucky you’ll end up with a bestseller, but even if you don’t, you’ll have created something that people will want to read.” –Jennifer Robson, author of Coronation Year (William Morrow)
“Aside from read, write, revise, the most important piece of advice I can offer has nothing to do with craft and everything to do with believing in yourself. You have to be able to bounce back from rejection and disappointment. For every one reject you get, send out five more queries. For every manuscript you finish, start writing another one. Be every bit as determined as Estée Lauder was to succeed.” –Renée Rosen, author of Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl (Berkley)
“A frequent question or comment that comes my way, wistfully, is, ‘How do you find time to write?’ And the answer is that I have never found extra time, because it doesn’t exist. I make time. Other very busy Black women have said the same: The only thing you can do is make the time. … No writer can tell you what process is going to work for you, you just have to sit down and get after it. This kind of discipline pays off—it may take a decade, it may take a couple of years. But if you never make time, even a few minutes at a time, you’ll always be the person asking this question.” –Joshunda Sanders, author of Women of the Post (Park Row Books)
“If you love to write—write. Don’t let anything stop you … and do not let anyone convince you that you’re too old.” –Alice Sherman Simpson, author of The Winthrop Agreement (Harper)
“Put your phone away. The smartphone is the enemy of creative work.” –Beatriz Williams, author of The Beach at Summerly (William Morrow)
“Always read—and read out of your realm of interest, across genres, and taking no notice of so-called genre categories. … I’m always fascinated by the work of other writers, whether from the past or different cultures and countries; how they use language, how they construct sentences, create tension, etc. For a writer, reading and paying attention to what you read is your masterclass.” –Jacqueline Winspear, author of The White Lady (HarperCollins)