Historical Fiction Writers

Historical fiction writers and ghost writers are richly rewarded, even when the fiction they pen never hits the list of bestsellers. The primary reason for this sense of deep satisfaction could lie in their ability to bring the past to life and add their own creativity to the story. The power to re-create history is what attracts writers to choose this genre. The writing of screenplays with history as their back-drop proves to be lucrative since movies or teleplays they are turned into are big budget projects. It is far from easy to construct sets to depict the yore accurately. The costumes of the characters are expensive too, yet lure authors to work on screenplays based on the eras gone by.

Winning critical acclamation from the readers is important for all writers, and there could be nothing more gratifying than having a novel published that has historical fiction as its theme. Historical fiction writers have the option to write books, articles for the newspaper or magazines, and scripts for television or theatrical plays. There is a plethora of such novels in the market for readers who love to explore the past and enjoy the stories built around it. Authors conduct research on a notable period from the past, making use of both real and fictitious characters to compose their story. Historical fiction writers have to go out of their way to check and re-check all the details mentioned in the story because wrongly-quoted occurrences will immediately set the alarm bells ringing. Loss of creditability is the worst thing that could happen to literary work that took years of hard work to compile. Authors generally refrain from challenging authentic history.

At the same time, artistic license is permitted to historical fiction writers, but they should not deviate too much from established history. Such speculative literature is termed as alternate history. Often authors fabricate events from the point of view of history that was not documented with imaginary characters giving a brand new perspective to the bygone period of time. Another method is to use actual historical figures to deal with events that were not recorded the way they are depicted. Yet another technique is to use a historical event to complement the story, even though the people, events or the situation may have been altered in some way. Feelings, emotions, motivations and aspirations of fabricated characters during factual period of time require both excellent writing skills and a good grip on the knowledge of the time being dealt with.

Historical fiction writers transport the readers into another world; the use of the Stone Age, Biblical times, Middle age, or Victorian ages is quite common. There are several organizations that help to launch new writers, which helps to further the cause of all historical fiction writers, publishers, agents, librarians, and booksellers. The Historical Novel Society and Historical Writers' Association are two of the most noteworthy organization that have made significant improvements in the professional lives of writers of historical fiction.