5 Tips for Writing Page-Turning Historical Fiction

I loved history in school, but it always concerned itself with the wealthy and powerful: upper class movers and shakers who stitched the tapestry of the world, for better or worse. I couldn’t relate, so history never felt real. It was a window into a room where I didn’t belong.

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Then I met the love of my life: a folk singer, whose music offered me a doorway to a different kind of history. His songs were filled with stories, and they concerned themselves with ordinary people history seems to forget. Take The Factory Act of 1847—a law in Britain that limited child labor to 10 hours a day. I learned about this in school, but it meant little until I encountered "A Piecer’s Tale," by The Oldham Tinkers. In this poignant folk song, a small boy explains to a factory owner what it is like for a young child to spend every waking hour doing a dangerous job. The song brought the struggles of the 19th century working classes to life for me as no history class ever had.

If a four-minute song could do this, I thought, what would be the impact of a 300-page historical novel?

Initially, the idea of writing historical fiction seemed daunting; I assumed you’d need to be an expert on history above all else, but this isn’t the case. Historical fiction must bring the past to life, and because none of us were present at the time of the Black Death (for example), or the Salem Witch Trials, the ability to imagine the lives of the people involved is every bit as important as historical knowledge. When we write historical fiction, we must balance accurate world-building with imaginative storytelling—and that’s no small feat.

Here are five tips for creating historical page-turners.

The Promise She Made—my latest historical novel—centers around the sinking of the SS City of Benares. This ocean liner set sail from England in September 1940, filled with evacuees heading to safety in Canada. It was torpedoed by a German U-boat and dozens of children died. The incident isn’t well known, and it’s filled with dramatic potential. The ship was attacked in the dead of night, and survivors were left clinging to debris in the frigid waters of the Atlantic for hours before they could be rescued.

But the role of the imagination is vital when we set our stories in the past. What would it be like to climb up the rails of the ship, with fire behind you and the pitching Atlantic below, and prepare to jump? How might a survivor be transformed by an experience like this? What if that survivor was a chaperone—an 18-year-old whose younger sister was on the list of passengers "lost at sea?" How might she deal with her grief? And what a desire for revenge?

My first historical fiction, Her Secret Solder, was also inspired by a little-known historical event: "Operation Lena." This was Hitler’s failed attempt to infiltrate Britain with spies prior to the intended Nazi invasion. What if an injured German spy was discovered by a vulnerable young girl who could not bear to turn him in? This was the question that inspired the writing of this novel.

When you research historical fiction, you need to know only what happens up to the date when your story is set, because your characters can’t see into the future. In September 1940, when Ruby decides to leave England with her sister on the SS City of Benares, the threat of German invasion was very real. In retrospect, we know it didn’t happen, but this is unhelpful; what matters is the fear people experienced during that time.

The individual perspective of your protagonist is the most important thing when you are writing historical fiction. In The Promise She Made, Ruby lives in York, so what she pictures when she imagines a German invasion is Nazi jackboots thundering through the city’s ancient streets just as the Vikings once did. Her perspective is likewise colored by her life experiences. Ruby’s parents were killed in an accident for which she holds herself responsible, so she is determined to keep her little sister safe at all costs. This is why she insists on taking her to Canada aboard the Benares: from her perspective, staying in York is too risky. From a different perspective, York may not have seemed dangerous at all.

World-building is as important for historical fiction writers as it is for writers of fantasy, but in both genres, we must always place our protagonist at the center of that world. The bigger picture matters only to the extent that it impacts them. Their individual experience is everything.

When we write historical fiction, we usually deal with events that occurred before our readers were born. The behavior, expectations, and belief systems of our characters are governed by the world in which they lived, but as writers we must connect the dots between their lives and our own.

The important thing to keep in mind is that all people, no matter when they lived, share the same human traits. Readers of The Promise She Made have never chosen to leave behind a fiancé to take their sister to safety on the other side of the world, but we all understand love, and the loss of it. Readers of Her Secret Soldier have never had to decide whether to hand a German spy to the authorities, knowing he will be put to death. However, we have all faced tough moral dilemmas.

This is one reason so many historical novels employ a dual timeline—to signal parallels between our world and the past. It’s the same reason so many fantasy novels use the portal trope: The writer is creating a thread between the world we inhabit and the one in which our main story is set.

Before beginning to write, research is essential—after all, you need to understand whether your plot is feasible, and how your characters would think and feel. But research should also continue while you write. 

In The Promise She Made, Ruby returns home to York on the night of the York Blitz, entering the city as bombs streak through the skies. Writing the first draft, I relied on my knowledge of the city and my imagination—but later, I stumbled across an account of the bombing written by a soldier whose train pulled into York station just as a bomb fell in through the roof. His evocative description of the events that followed were enormously useful for subsequent drafts.

Historical fiction often requires detailed knowledge of something precise, and this is where AI can be useful. Imagine the hours it would take to answer a question such as: What types of handles might you find on the door of a third-class train carriage in England in 1940? AI can answer such questions in seconds, but it isn’t infallible and the information it supplies should always be checked.

If we do our job well, readers will be fascinated not only by our characters and their stories, but also by the world in which they live. Accurately describing the food your characters eat, the clothes they wear, their entertainment, the jobs they do—this is essential as you build a credible world. Equally important is imagining how characters would think and behave in their time period. Your protagonist may be ahead of their time—they are the protagonist, after all! However, to convey this, an awareness of societal norms is vital. 

In The Promise She Made, Ruby longs to strike back at the Germans who torpedoed a ship full of children. She wants to fight. This might not seem so unusual from a 21st century perspective, but in 1940s Britain, women were banned from war work that involved killing. They could load the Ack-Ack guns, for example, but they were not permitted to fire them. Knowing this is important because we appreciate how difficult it is for Ruby to achieve her goal.

Historical fiction appeals to readers because it offers insight into human experiences different from our own, but whether you are writing a novel set during the Roman Empire or the present day, the same raw ingredients are essential. You need a compelling protagonist with a goal that is difficult to achieve. You need an inciting incident, believable antagonists, rising stakes, climactic action. Whether you are writing historical fiction, fantasy, or crime, one essential fact always holds true: What you need above all else is a great story, well told.

Check out Julie Hartley's The Promise She Made here:

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