The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction
by James Alexander Thom
Writer's Digest Books, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58297-569-6
$16.99, paperback, 272 pages
Read an excerpt
Author James Alexander Thom explains the value of specific sensory information in works of historical fiction and how to consider and describe sensory information in a way that speaks to readers.
Read an exclusive Q&A with the author
James Alexander Thom discusses how even though it’s historical fiction, readers are counting on you for the truth; the importance of thorough research; and how to write to your readers' senses.
About the 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, Thom’s 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.
About the Author
James Alexander Thom was formerly a U.S. Marine, a newspaper and magazine editor, and a member of the faculty at the Indiana University Journalism School. He is the author of Follow the River, Long Knife, From Sea to Shining Sea, Panther in the Sky (for which he won the prestigious Western Writers of America Spur Award for best historical novel), Sign-Talker, The Children of First Man, and The Red Heart. He lives in the Indiana hill country near Bloomington with his wife, Dark Rain of the Shawnee Nation, United Remnant Band. Dark Rain is a director of the National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Planning Council. The author’s Website is: www.jamesalexanderthom.com.
Praise for The Art & Craft of Writing Historical Fiction
"Beyond a primer and in fact a statement of life and philosophy, not just readable but quite entertaining... something beyond success at a particular genre ..."
-Richard E.Cady, author of THE EXECUTIONER'S MASK
"... the best textbook I'd ever read. It was informative, entertaining, and loaded with lots of gems...This isn't solely for would-be historical novelists; it's for all of us."
-Lawrence S. Connor, former managing editor of The Indianapolis STAR and author
