Use Historical Figures for Inspiration
This week's Write the Book prompt is inspired by Nancy Means Wright, who passed away recently. In honor of Wright, draft a story featuring...
5 Reasons for Characters to Hide and Then Confront Their Past
Backstory is critical to your characters' motivations, choices, and growth over the course of your novel. But it can be a struggle creating circumstances...
The Art of the Opening
The Stage 32 blog shares a StudioBinder video about the art of opening scenes. In the video, they provide examples of many ways to...
Create a Sanctuary for Your Creative Self
If you're like this editor, you start a lot of projects but don't always finish, or take your sweet time doing it. In a...
Portraying Women in Historical Fiction – Part 1
In part 1 of a 3-part series, M.K. Tod offers advice for portraying women in historical fiction so that the characters are relatable to...
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
Beginning writers often ask where they can find ideas. Sometimes there's a simple answer, but often a story's gestation is too complex to convey...
How a Polka Helped Win WWII
War or history buffs know the stories of plucky Finland fighting off the much larger Soviet armies on several occasions, but did you know...
The Difference Between Story and Plot
In a post on Writer Unboxed, Kathryn Craft offers a helpful exercise that demonstrates the difference between story and plot, and how each works...
Your Hero Has to Lose Sometimes
We often visualize our novels as an upward journey for our protagonist. During the course of the story, our hero overcomes internal and external...
Research: Enough is Enough
While we're on the subject of historical fiction, let's talk about the amount of research you need to do. Speaking from experience, it's easy...
