I’ve said it before, but I love the research. I think, to write historical fiction, you have to. And the research I did for Her Mother’s Secret was fun and fascinating so I thought I’d share with you what I did to make the book come to life, as well as give you an insight into how an author goes about researching historical fiction. This is Part 2 in my series taking you behind the covers of Her Mother’s Secret. You can find Part 1 here. The Cosmetics Industry As the book is about the birth of the cosmetics industry…
Posts Categorized: Writing Historical Fiction
For me, getting the heroine right in my novels is the most important thing of all. The heroine is the heart and soul of my book, she is the way readers connect with the story, she is the thing that hopefully lives on in the reader’s mind after they’ve closed the pages. So I thought I’d write a 3 part blog series all about heroines in fiction, starting with why compelling heroines are so important, moving on to how I write them, including tips for writers wanting to get engaging heroines into their stories, and finishing off with my favourite fictional…
So, I’m back from my amazing trip to Paris and New York where I was researching what I hope will be my 2018 book, The Seamstress from Paris. The trip exceeded all of my expectations and if you’re not sick of hearing about it, I’d thought I’d share some info about what I did and why I think it was such a success, including my 5 tips about researching a novel. Researching the Topic My book concerns the fashion industry in Paris and New York in the early 1940s. So, in both cities, I organised a one on one fashion…
My visit to the atelier yesterday was too amazing to describe in a Facebook post so I decided to write a blog about it instead. In case you somehow missed me blabbering on about it, I’m in Paris researching a book at the moment. The book is partly set in an atelier—fashion workroom—and I’ve just had a behind the scenes tour. The Atelier The business, Atelier Boutique Legeron, has been in the one family for 150 years, bought by the great-grandfather, handed down to the grandfather, then the father and now the son. Everything is made by hand with so…
In case you haven’t heard me babbling excitedly about it on social media, I’m in Paris at the moment, researching what I hope will be my 2018 book. I love visiting the places in which I set my books because while I always go to the city with a list of things I need to know, it’s the unexpected things I discover while researching a novel that make all the difference. Take today, for instance. A part of my book revolves around an old and once grand house, one of the Hotels Particulier in the Marais district, which is where…
A couple of weekends ago, I was talking to a bestselling author about plotting books and she mentioned the fact that it gets harder to come up wth plots the more books you write. That, as an author, you have to contrive your plots a bit more than in the early days when you haven’t yet used up all of your best ideas. It was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me because it so exactly reflected the way I was feeling about coming up with an idea for my fifth book. I had been wanting to just get a…
I’ve just finished the first redraft of Her Mother’s Secret and, when I did, I realised I actually, finally, have a writing process! I feel like a proper grown-up writer now! Those of you who’ve followed this blog for a while will know that I’m an inveterate pantser when it comes to writing, although I’ve slowly been beginning to plot more and more. Prior to this year, if anyone had asked me how I go about writing a book, my answer would have been, “I don’t really know!” Well now I do. So here’s how I go from idea to first…
I’m flying through the redraft of my fourth book at the moment (working title One Night), which is fabulous. But one of the reasons why I’m flying through is because I’ve really been making Scrivener, the writing app I use, work hard for me. Many of you know I love Scrivener. I started using it when I wrote my third book, A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald. One Night is the second book I’ve written with Scrivener so I know the program much better now and I love it even more than before. And, as it’s been a while since I last raved about Scrivener, I thought…
Those of you who follow me on Facebook and Twitter will know that I’ve just finished a first draft of my fourth book, tentatively titled The Painted Face. But what does that mean? What does a first draft of a novel really look like? How polished is it? I’m often asked questions like this and of course all writers are different but I thought I’d show you what a first draft means for me. Step 1 of a First Draft – Thinking Time As I learn more about writing, I’ve started to do a bit more planning. Not a lot,…
Most novels need at least some research. For my first book, What is Left Over, After I had to research photography because my main character was a photographer. In my second book, I had to research organ donation and heart transplantation. Obviously, given my next two books are historical novels, I’ve had to research all kinds of things. But what is the best way to go about researching a novel? Do you research first and write later? Or vice versa? Or something in between? Here’s what I do, and why. Write the First Draft First Research is all about facts.…