As Charles Bukowski says, “Writers are desperate people, and when they stop being desperate, they stop being a writer.” Writing is a creative job, but being a quality writer requires you to spend your time, effort, and energy to make sure to come up with a remarkable idea.
Especially when it comes to historical fiction, it requires you to develop a plot that will help to attract more readers. Unlike any other genre of fiction, you need to make sure to state facts that are credible so that your audience can easily relate to your story.
History is always interesting, and adding the imaginative and innovative world of fiction to it, makes things even more charming. Since history can sometimes be a little dry topic, you need to ensure to keep things alive in your story.
For this, here are some of the many ways to make your history storyline interesting without having to get into much hassle.
Pick a Good Starting Point
Writing historical fiction is a bit different than any other fiction genre, which is why you need to be extra careful in planning your writing. If you want to connect with your audience properly and nudge their imaginations, try to avoid too much vapid or pretentious beginning.
This means that instead of boring, typical ways of starting your historical fiction, you can make sure to write something that will let the reader know that you have something substantial to tell them. Also, create curiosity at the beginning to compel the audience even more.
Try to describe the plot without revealing too much at the beginning. Just reveal information that is enough to intrigue the reader and generate their interest in the rest of the story. Also, try to work on the gradual development of the scenes and characters to smoothly carry out the transition to climax.
Identify your Audience
Almost every age group loves to read historical novels, but not every book is written for different age groups. For this very reason, it is necessary for you to understand your target audience properly before beginning to write.
This will let you know what your way of expression should be and what pain points you might need to address to make sure to attract your prospects. You can also make sure if your potential readers are even mature enough to understand the statements and the scene before making a composition.
To identify what the likes and dislikes of your readers are, you can research them and find out what their favorite historical fiction novels feature. This way, you will have a clear idea of how you should be writing a certain way.
Choose a Specific time Period
Writing historical fiction is a sensitive subject, which is why you need to identify things from a critical angle. For this, one of the many things you need to consider is to choose a specific time period on which your entire storyline will be based.
Instead of roaming around different centuries and leaving your readers confused, try to make sure you stick to a certain era so that they can create an image in their head. Sticking to a single time period will also help you to create your scenarios properly.
Pick all the historical events around a certain factual period and place all your fictional characters who experienced it and how their lives were affected by all of it. This will let your readers easily relate to your story by giving them a viewpoint.
Do Your Research Properly
In addition to selecting the specific time period and factual statements for your story, try to research small details about it. This inventory of slight details is important to be added to your work of art to generate credibility in your writing.
Even if you have no time to find out every single detail, you need to check if it is even close to the truth or not. If you have added any of these similar phrases, you can try to double-check your final draft with the help of professional and experienced history editors who are experts in their genre.
If you do not focus on such details, someone is more likely to point out the historical inaccuracies mentioned in your story. The secret recipe to a perfect and interesting historical fiction is the correct mix of truth and imagination.
Focus on the Plot of the Story
A strong plot makes a historical fictional story more authentic by building a world in the imagination of your potential readers. It also gives your target audience a reason to keep coming back for upcoming series and attracts them to your writing.
While fiction might be all about innovation and new ideas, historical fiction also requires to state credible facts in it to make the story sound real. This is why you need to build the fiction and characters properly to generate a great plot full of fantastic climaxes.
This will create a balance between exotic details and historical context and make your story grounded yet impressive. Since different historical times have different grammatical and vocabulary structures, try to include occasional phrases that will create a proportionate setting.
Don’t Add Extra Details
Most writers often end up getting their readers puzzled by adding too many unnecessary details in their stories. While it is significant to add details about your characters to develop the interest of your audience, try to avoid vague descriptions.
For this, you can try to analyze your idea properly and break it down into smaller parts. This will let you eliminate any details that might act as a barrier between your readers and the fictional characters of your storyline.
Also, try not to push the distinction too far and think of a way to summarize things that are necessary to add but not too important to be dragged around during the entire plot. This will let you avoid clogging the minds of your readers with extra information.
Conclusion
To put it all in a nutshell, most people might think history is a dry subject to address; adding the art of fiction to it can make things better. However, the foundation is to use an interesting and attractive way of expression of a specific era in your story to arouse the curiosity of your readers in an effective manner.