"Historical Fiction Boot Camp" with James L. Haley

What makes historical drama so compelling? From I, Claudius to Gone With the Wind, from Forever Amber to Riders of the Purple Sage, from The Night Watch to Downton Abbey, readers’ appetite for historical fiction has always been insatiable. Why?

Unforgettable characters and trenchant dialogue, certainly, but what this genre has that others do not, is the ability to recreate bygone worlds. The historical novelist has the power to make the past leap to life, but like all skills it must be learned and mastered. In this half-day class students will learn, among other things:

— What and how to research your time and place
— How to lay the boundary between accurate history and the needs of the story, and this is different for each book
— How to employ the historical setting to propel the story, and avoid historical bunny trails that do not serve the story
— How to use historically appropriate dialogue without tongue-tying your characters or slowing down the story
— How to use history to enrich every element of the story—even sex

Class exercises will illustrate cases in point, and at the end of the class handouts will summarize the key points, and provide concrete examples of the principles discussed. The class will be a good fit for writers interested in undertaking historical fiction, writers engaged in a historical novel who need guidance on melding history and fiction into a smoother story, and writers of traditional history who are interested in transposing their historical knowledge into a better-paying market.