How to Write a Historical Novel –
Step 1: Starting a new project
How do you start writing a historical novel? How do you research and plan it? How do you edit it and get it published?
This is the first in a series of blog posts discussing how I wrote my fourth historical novel, The House of Whispers.
Today, I’m talking about how to get going.
Kicking off
As thousands of us begin NaNoWriMo, I wanted to talk about how we to galvanise yourself into start a new writing project.
Different writers have different ways of making themselves start the first draft, be that setting a deadline, rewarding themselves with biscuits, or getting someone to taser them if they don’t get a move on.
For me, it’s all about confidence – about feeling I can do it, and making myself do it.
Things that help me…
1. Making sure that I’m clear about what I want to write, what genre I’m writing in, what my premise is, and what my hook is.
You won’t always know all this information at the outset, but I find that it’s helpful to set out what I am aiming to write, and what the central idea is, so that I can remind myself of this when I get stuck.
For The House of Whispers, I knew I wanted to write a historical ghost story set during the rise of Fascism in Italy. I worked out I wanted it to be a Gothic, Rebecca-esque tale about a woman who thinks that by marrying, she will protect herself from the forces of Fascism, but who ends up entering a house where she is far more in danger than she could ever have imagined.
2. Doing enough broad research to think I can start creating a convincing world, and to start feeding my story ideas.
That means broad reading around the era and the society in which my characters will play out their parts. For the House of Whispers that meant reading several books about Fascism, Italy and Slovenia in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as some research into the paranormal.
I find it important to set myself a timetable for STOPPING researching, or the research part can go on forever, and the business of writing the first draft never begins. While I am drafting, I will list for myself the further research that I need to do, but I try not to disappear down research rabbit holes, as the important thing is getting the first draft down. (I will be covering research in more detail in a later post).
3. A Plan
Every writer does it differently, but, increasingly, I find that I need to have quite a detailed outline of the plot. Again, this is about confidence. I might well diverge from the plan once I start drafting, but it gives me the illusion I know what I’m doing and not just walking into the dark.
4. Getting in the ‘Writing Zone’
I find pictures or photos of the setting and sometimes of people who look like I envision my characters. I pin these to my desktop and sometimes put on Pinterest (though the latter is largely a procrastination exercise) so that I can look at them before I start writing every day. It helps me get into the ‘zone’.
5. A deadline
If I don’t have a deadline set by my publisher or my agent, I will set one myself. I will also set up a daily word target in Scrivener (this is usually 1,500 words for a first draft, but I don’t always manage that. I know some writers who do a lot more and some who do less). There are so many other things that can absorb my writing time (I’m also working as a solicitor and a writing tutor and I have children), that it’s important I hold myself to my targets.
6. The writing mug
Lastly, and most importantly, there is the GO AWAY I’M WRITING cup containing strong coffee.
Once all of the above are in place, there are no excuses. It’s time to start on the first draft.
