Writing Historical Fiction

The following words caught my attention when I read the article, “Tackling Historical Fiction,” by Susan Sherman, author of The Little Russian, posted on the Writer’s Digest blog. 

 

Thorough research is vital to historical fiction, not only because it sets the stage, but also because it helps fill out the characters giving them dimension and drive.  It also helps us with the voice of our characters. … The writer must be careful with research, however.  We don’t want our research showing.  We don’t want to include so much detail that it ends up weighing down the story and distracting the reader.

 

I love reading historical fiction, always have. And that is why I decided to tackle a historical fiction piece myself. As noted in Sherman’s article, I too did a lot of research before I started my story. Mine is a multicultural story. My main character is a fourteen-year-old Latina. The setting is Southwest Texas. The time frame is in the late 1930s. I had an idea about the plot and characters. I just needed to research the times. 

 

If you love doing research like I do, the only problem is knowing when to stop. As you dig deeper into history, you find yourself going off track into other intriguing stuff. But I finally did finish my story. It is ready to send out. So wish me luck!  

Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the main characters tend to be fictional. -- Wikipedia

The Slush Pile

Before you start sending out that manuscript to agents or editors, you might want to read the blog post below  to make sure you’re sending out your very best. No writer wants their work to end up in that dreaded slush pile. On Notes from the Slushpile, Agent Jenny Savill and author Sara Grant collaborate and offer writing tips on revision. That’s right, revision. I talk about it all the time. Writers, it’s part of the process. Some of Savill and Grant's advice: “ … perhaps you need to flesh out the world of the story. Perhaps you need to rein it in. It might be that the manuscript stays basically the same structurally and changes only in more subtle ways, but one of the things that tends to happen is that old stuff from earlier drafts lingers in the latest draft.” 

 

There’s a lot of good stuff on this post. See for yourself. Happy writing day!

Slush Pile: The stack of unsolicited or misdirected manuscripts received by an editor, agent, or book publisher. – Writer’s Digest Weekly Planner

Writing Contests

Listen up! A good way to get started in this business is to submit your stories to writing contests. I’ve

Santa Fe

mentioned before that I started out by submitting my first stories to magazines. If you’ve never published before, this is a great way to get in print. There’s nothing more exciting than seeing your name in a byline. Your confidence and your credibility soar. So here are three magazines that are accepting submissions. Make sure you follow the guidelines and submit before the deadlines. Wishing you luck with your writing!! 

Cricket Magazine

Cheerios Writing Contest

The Children’s Writer   

 

Byline: Name of the author appearing with the published piece.—Writer’s Digest Weekly Planner

First page of a manuscript

Well at Mission San Jose

I’ve attended a couple of writer’s conferences where a panel has read the first page of someone’s (brave souls’) manuscript in front of the audience. Usually the name of the author is not disclosed. But you know when it’s the first page of your own manuscript when the first three or four words are read and there you sit in the audience, holding your breath, straining to hear what the editors or agents are saying as they dissect your first page while you try and take notes hoping no guesses that’s your work up there. Or maybe the comments are great and you want everyone to know that’s your page. But most of the time, there is always room for improvement. 

 

We all struggle, at one time or another, with that dreaded first page that we hope will draw the reader in. Here is a link on Bookshelf Muse that offers a few tidbits that might be helpful as you revise that manuscript again. 

Synopsis: A brief summary of a story, novel, or play. As part of a book proposal, it is a comprehensive summary condensed in a page or page and a half, single-spaced. – Writer’s Digest Weekly Planner

The Pitch

When an agent or editor asks you what your story is about, do you automatically come up with a genius pitch? Or are you like most of us who fumble around trying to come up with a good pitch using only a couple of sentences? Do the editors’ eyes glaze over or are they focused on what you’re saying because it peaks their interest? It’s hard to summarize your entire story into a few words. But maybe this post, “One Simple Way to Sharpen Your Pitch,” written by Zachary Petit on The Writer’s Digest blog will help. It’s never too late to start practicing that pitch for when you’re at a conference and come face to face with editors and agents.

Anatomy of a book? Really? This is a fun post to read. Who knew there were terms to describe the anatomy of a book.

Hook: Aspect of the work that sets it apart from others and draws in the reader/viewer. -- Writer's Digest Weekly Planner

Submission replies

You polish up your story, follow the submission guidelines, and send out your manuscript. Then you wait … and wait … and wait to hear from the agent or the editor. It can be pretty frustrating at times. Some editors and agents clearly state in their guidelines that if you don’t hear from them in three or six months, they are not interested. How do you feel about this? Would you rather get at least a “no” rather than no reply at all? 

 

 “SCBWI’s Open Letter to the Kid Lit Industry About No-Response-Means-A-Rejection Policies,”  addresses this topic. Editors and agents also comment about why or why not they favor or don’t favor replies. You’ll get both sides of the argument here. 

 

Here’s a blog post by Adriana Dominguez, Book Reviews Editor for Mamiverse, on diversity in children’s literature. I found this post especially interesting since my books are bilingual.

 

Simultaneous submissions: Sending the same article, story or poem to several publishers at the same time. Some publishers refuse to consider such submissions; check individual writers' guidelines. -- Writer's Digest Weekly Planner

School Presentation

I just did a presentation at the University of the Incarnate Word and was thrilled by the presence and enthusiasm of the students attending. They are students in the Children’s Literature Class in Spanish at the university. Professor Mondriguez was kind enough to invite me to present a session on the writing process and creating picture books.

 

She even went so far as to have two containers full of aguas frescas to celebrate one of my books, Alicia’s Aguas Frescas. I drank a glass of each—the watermelon and the pineapple. Delicious! 

 

We had a very interesting Question and Answer session at the end. I wish the best to these young, bright students who are the ones who will make a difference in our society in the near future. They are blessed that they are getting such an awesome education at a great university like Incarnate Word. Thank you for having me visit your beautiful school.



SMILE!

 "My never-fail secret to getting your book published . . . Write it!" -- Stephanie Gordon Tessler