Developing Historical Fiction

How I focus when writing fiction

Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash

In last week’s article, How I Am Able to Focus to Write, I discussed how I made time to write every day even if I couldn’t write at the same time every day and how not to be distracted. Today I’ll share my system for writing historical fiction.

As stated previously, I will publish the seventh book in my historical fiction series in a few days.

Focus Tools

In addition to diminishing the effects of distraction and devoting time daily to writing, I also use other tools to help my writing process.

I Start With a Basic Outline

I wouldn’t say that I’m a plotter, but I’m definitely not a pantser. Every year I use NaNoWriMo to write to write the first 50k words in my novels. Before the month starts, I have an outline of the main points I want to cover in the novel and some information about the protagonist. I might also have some information about any antagonist in the story.

This creates a framework for me to write more quickly and more accurately.

Pinpoint Accurate Research

Since most of the fiction that I write is historical, I have to do a lot of research for historical accuracy. I do most of my historical research online. I’m not…