-
World Building in Historical Fiction: Layering in the Details
A child’s stiff leather shoes still in the box. A stack of undergarments. Bags of flour. Bulk teas and spices. A license to operate a business. Chopsticks. All things we would recognize today. Going about our daily lives, we wouldn’t consider any of them museum-worthy. But put them alongside an abacus, assay equipment (for determining…
-
Midyear Writing Check-in is a Reality Check
Somehow, we’re halfway through 2022! I set myself some ambitious writing goals in January, so thought it’d be a good time to check in on those. Never mind that my family’s also going through a major life change (insert face palm emoji). More about that below. 2022 Goals: Reality Check For my 2022 writing goals,…
-
Creating in the Midst of Chaos
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” Leonard Bernstein War in Ukraine. Climate change. Two years in a pandemic. Division. Anger. The world feels scary, out of control. Creating something may feel like the furthest thing from your mind. But it can be…
-
2022 Writing Goals: In With the New
2021 has ended, which proves that time flies even when you’re not having fun. Seriously, 2021 was a doozy. 2021 in the rearview mirror I leaned into writing as self-care because, let’s be honest, our options remained limited. I managed three writing retreats at AirBnBs, which helped considerably—having a different view and being in nature.…
-
NaNoWriMo’s Almost Here: How to Get Your Story Ready
Last year, I wrote about doing National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) during the COVID-19 pandemic. And here we are again in 2021. But this year we’re all a bit more ragged after 19 months of the pandemic. Last year, I tried plantsing: the liminal space between plotting and pansting (as in, write by the seat…
-
Maps Orient Us In Historical Fiction
Historical maps are windows into other worlds. They connect us to the past in a concrete way, allowing us to visualize how to get from the marina to the nearest thermopolium in Ancient Ostia, how to reach the King’s Apartments in Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace, or figure out the names of streets as they…
-
Historical Fiction Shines When It Reflects Our Diverse History
Every February, we celebrate Black History Month. Still, we haven’t yet heard many stories—stories that deserve to be told because they are part of our collective history. Understanding the complexity of the human experience requires inclusivity. Resetting how we learn history As a History major at the University of Texas, I took a writing seminar…
-
A Writing Plan for 2021: Taking Stock and Setting Goals
Like most people, I won’t be sorry to see the back of 2020. Setting goals for the new year feels odd when I know we’ll still be in quarantine for several months. In some ways, 2020 has shifted the way we view goal-setting overall; allowing ourselves some breathing room to do the best we can.…
-
Puzzling My Way Through Research
Research is an essential component of all the writing I do. Both my fiction (historical) and nonfiction (science policy) require a lot of upfront research as well as what seems like continuous research during writing and editing. Luckily, I enjoy research. But sometimes it can seem endless. There’s always more to research. I hand-write my…
-
NaNoWriMo in the Time of COVID
National Novel Writing Month is almost here! But this year feels different… because it is different. Preptober—getting ready for November In NaNo terms, you’re either a planner or a pantser (writing by the seat of your pants with no plan). I’m definitely a planner. In 2018 and 2019, I not only spent time developing detailed…
Kate Robertson
Writer.
