Do you have a compelling vision for a story set in the past?

Are you inspired by novelists such as Hilary Mantel and Philippa Gregory? Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction is designed for anyone who wants to write in this exciting and wide ranging genre of fiction, whatever your favourite style and era.

Designed to build your confidence and help fire up creativity, this book is an essential guide to mastering the practicalities of writing historical fiction, showing you where to start with research, how to develop your plots, and to how to convincingly and imaginitively capture the voices of the past. Using Snapshots designed to get you writing quickly, Key Ideas to help crystallize thought, and a wealth of supplementary material, this indispensible guide will have you telling amazing and rich historical stories in no time.

- Learn to research and plan your story
- How to develop characters and settings
- Perfect your characters' voice
- Transport the reader to another era

Emma Darwin is the author of the historical novels The Mathematics of Love and A Secret Alchemy, and her short fiction has been published and broadcast. She has appeared at literary festivals from Hay on Wye to New Zealand, she has taught creative writing for many institutions including the Open University, and she blogs at This Itch of Writing. She is the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin.