Guest post on writing historical fiction, by Rosemary J. Kind

Today's guest is my friend Rosemary J. Kind. She's the author of several novels including the excellent Flynn and Reilly series, and co-author of From Story Idea to Reader. I've asked her to visit the blog to share some insights into writing her latest historical novel, Violet's War.

You've written several historical novels, Ros. Which comes first, the story idea or the research?

Definitely the story idea. Once I’ve got a story then I know when and what I need to research. Usually, I’ll come across something and just feel compelled to tell the tale that’s behind it, in a way that can bring history to life.

Violet's War is set at the time of the first World War. What made you chose that period? 

The period was chosen by the story idea. In 1921 the English Football Association banned women’s football from their members’ grounds. Women’s football had become very popular as a result of factory teams raising money for charity during WW1. I wanted to bring that story to a much wider audience.

Which publications / resources have been most useful for your research?

There was a Preston based team called Dick, Kerr Ladies Football Team. They were one of the teams that made women’s football famous in their day and thankfully there are books dedicated to what they did. I read books specifically about the team and generally about women’s football. As the subject grew I also had to do a lot of research into WW1 and conditions and life in the trenches. I watched many YouTube videos of original footage and documentaries from the period. I’m also very fortunate to have a good friend who is an expert in the field and how was happy to answer my many questions.

Your characters' names seem just right for the period. How did you chose those? 

That was really fun. For one thing, I asked my readers for the names of their ancestors from that time. I had so many wonderful responses that it gave me good variety to choose from. I also use census records where I need to, in order to make sure I do get names which are typical for both the period and the location.

Violet Dobson is a football player. Were you already interested in the history of women's football, or did you have to learn it all for the novel?

When I was young I wanted to play football. I spent all my childhood out on a football pitch up until I was about ten. Then I went to our teachers, on behalf of myself and some of the other girls and asked if we could have a girls’ football team, instead of playing netball. This was in 1975 and I was very firmly told ‘no’ we could only play netball. It was an unforgivable response, but typical of the time. Sadly I left football behind because I was so cross about the response. I wish I’d known about the history of the women’s game then and had fought for our right to play. I’m just glad I know now.

Attitudes to women playing have changed quite a lot. Is there an extract you can share, without giving away too much plot, which shows some of the off pitch issues the teams faced?

‘Violet was just wondering whether to carry on when an older man walking a dog paused alongside the pitch. “You girls should be ashamed of yourselves, parading around like that. You,” he pointed his stick at Florrie, “the one in the shorts. Put some clothes on, young lady, before I have you arrested.”

Violet gasped, but Florrie was unfazed.

“Do you want to join in?” Florrie called to the man, who was smartly dressed and standing very upright for a man of advanced years.

He waved his stick at her and marched away from the ground.

Violet shook her head sadly; that was exactly the sort of thing she was afraid of.’

Did you learn any facts which caused you to change parts of your story?

That happens all the time. The biggest change was realising I needed to include chapters from Billy’s point of view and tell the story of him going off to war, in parallel to Vi working in munitions back home.

Can you share an example of historical detail and how you used it in the novel?

I had to understand what the girls would wear both working in a munitions factory and playing football. I deliberately don’t give the reader reams of descriptive passages, that’s not my style. However, it is vital that the tiny details that are fed in throughout the story are accurate. It took me quite a time to find the details for Billy, where he would have trained, how many slept in a room even how much their kit weighed. It’s all vital to making the story feel authentic.

I know from my own writing that your research will have provided more information than

you could use in one book. How do you decide what to leave out?

I only include what is necessary to give the reader a picture. That can be tiny details such as telling you that Vi traced the rose pattern on the wallpaper with her eyes while she was thinking. There is a lot of fascinating information, but I’d rather give you a list of my sources in case you want to read more than overdo the description so that the story gets lost. For me, it’s all about the story feeling authentic. If my readers want non-fiction description they would look elsewhere.

Violet's War really is a good story. You can get it here. You might also like to read The Blight and the Blarney, which is the first in Ros's Flynn and Reilly series and currently free, and Are We Nearly Famous? which is another freebie by Ros, myself and two of our friends.

Ros is giving away an ebook copy of Violet's War, which can be sent anywhere. To be in with a chance of winning, leave a comment saying you'd like a copy by midnight UK time 19th July. I'll announce the winner a few days later.

Improving characterisation in short stories

Today's guest is womagwriter and novelist Nicola Martin. 

5 ways to improve characterisation in your short stories

When it comes to creating compelling characters, short stories can be the most difficult medium. How do you make sure your protagonist zings off the page in as little as 1,000 words?

Looking back on my womag-writing career, I think improving characterisation was the number one change that clinched my success. When I first started, I received a lot of rejections. However, when I began focusing on characters as the heart of my stories, that’s when the acceptances started appearing in my inbox. It also helped me secure a publication deal for my psychological thriller, Dead Ringer.

Here are five tips on characterisation that have worked for me:

1. Establish key character facts early

At the start of a story, it’s a good idea to anchor your reader as quickly as possible. Who is the narrator/POV character? Are they a man or a woman? Age? Appearance? Job?

Of course, beginning a story with “Anna was a 35-year-old nurse with long blonde hair” is rather uninspiring. So you need to give clues, rather than spell it out for the reader.

Picking the right name can be a useful shorthand. Hollie is likely to be younger than Mabel. Mohammed is likely to look different to Rhys.

Otherwise, it’s a case of dropping breadcrumbs. A nurse might be pulling on her uniform as she heads out the door. A keen artist might have paint-flecked hair. A 50-year-old might be driving the flash car he bought to celebrate his big birthday.

2. Subvert the expected

In women’s magazines, the same themes and situations tend to crop up again and again. This is part of what’s lovely about the womag world, but editors do tend to look for fresh takes on familiar situations.

Using unexpected characterisation can keep things fresh. Instead of a new mum suffering the baby blues, why not a new dad? Instead of a cosy mystery starring a prim-and-proper white lady from suburbia, why not a Black woman who won’t take things lying down?

Don’t just stick with the first character idea that pops into your head. That first idea might be exactly what the reader is expecting. Instead, work on subverting those expectations.

3. Use contradictions

It’s easy to fall into cliché with characterisation. The cerebral surgeon plays chess in his spare time, or the rosy-cheeked primary school teacher bakes cakes in the evenings. My recipe for more interesting characters? Throw in a contradiction or two!

Maybe your serious vicar character also loves Zumba, or your gloomy teenage boy learns to knit.

Contradictory characters are unusually more interesting, and they make for interesting stories, too.

4. Get inside the character’s head

Because a character only appears on three pages, it’s easy to assume you only need to know three pages worth of information about them. In my opinion, characters are like icebergs. You may only see 10% of their characterisation in the story, but as the writer, you still need to discover the other 90%.

I do this through first-person free-writing. I spend an hour writing as if I am the main character. I write about ‘my’ childhood; ‘my’ job; ‘my’ relationships; ‘my’ hopes and dreams and fears and worries.

There’s no pressure for this stream-of-consciousness stuff to be any good. In fact, I won’t use most of it. But it allows me to get to know the character. Bits and pieces from this free-writing will always crop up in the finished story, creating a more fleshed-out and believable character.

5. Think about their emotional journey

Short stories can often suffer from the ‘so what?’ problem. You might have wrapped up the plot, but have you given the reader a reason to remember the story?

Taking the protagonist on an emotional journey (as well as a narrative one) can be the secret to making a story memorable. How are they changed by the events of the story? What are they going to do differently from now on?

You’ll find the answers to these questions by poking at the character’s emotional wounds. A recent divorcee might need to learn to trust again. An old-fashioned gent who’s always carried his family on his back might need to learn to accept help.

Weaving an emotional arc into your story, based on specific character details, can help to create something that resonates with the reader.

Think about your favourite books, movies or TV shows. You might not remember every detail of what happened, but you remember how heartbroken or joyful you felt when something big happened to your favourite character. When people tell me they’ve read my novel, Dead Ringer, they always talk about the characters and never about the plot or prose.

This is the reason it’s so important to take the time to create characters that connect with audiences. Characters are what people remember. And characters sell stories.

About the author: Nicola Martin is a writer from Bristol. Her short stories have appeared in The People’s Friend and placed in national competitions. Her debut psychological thriller, Dead Ringer, is about meeting your doppelganger (with disastrous consequences). The Daily Mail called it “tense and compelling”.

She blogs about books and writing at nicolamartin.com. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Interview with Womagwriter Helen Hunt

Today's guest is Helen M Walters (formerly Helen M Hunt)

1. What made you first start writing womag fiction?

I first started writing short stories about ten years ago. I’d gone along to a creative writing course at my local adult education college and once I’d written one short story, I found I couldn’t stop. I was addicted! After a while I decided I might as well start trying to sell them, and that started the long journey towards publication.

Since then, I’ve been published by Woman’s Weekly, My Weekly, The Weekly News, The People’s Friend, Take A Break Fiction Feast, Yours and Best in the UK as well as a few non-UK magazines.

2.Is there a particular genre within the womag market which you particularly enjoy writing?

I like to try different things. I don’t write a lot of romance stories as I prefer to write about a wider variety of relationships, including those between family members, friends, and even total strangers. I aim to write about things that are a bit unusual whenever possible – in the past I’ve written about alopecia, organ transplant, egg donation and sex change amongst other things. I enjoy pushing the boundaries of women’s magazine fiction.

3.Are you a disciplined writer producing a steady stream of stories, or do you wait until you're in the mood?

I’m not disciplined at all, I’m afraid. My story writing tends to go in fits and starts, depending on how many ideas I have. For example, at the moment I have five ideas waiting to be turned into stories, and I can’t find time to write them. But sometimes I can go for a couple of weeks without having any ideas. Those barren times are awful.

I also have to balance my short story writing with other writing commitments. I write a column for Writers’ Forum, which has to hit the deadline every month, other pieces of non-fiction and book reviews. I’m also working on a novel at the moment.

4. How do you deal with rejections? (I'm assuming you're not that one writer who never gets them - apologies if that's the case.)

Some rejections are harder to deal with than others. It’s all part of the job and you have to let it be like water off a duck’s back most of the time, but every now and then there’ll be a story you really love, and that you think was perfect for a particular magazine and they’ll turn it down. That always hurts. The only way to get over it is to keep going. Send the rejected story back out to another magazine, tweaking it first if necessary, and write more stories. Never give up!

5.The right writing snacks are very important - what's your fuel of choice?

Chocolate. Always.

6. I've heard that some writers use real people and situations in stories to work off frustrations or put something right. Do you ever do that?

To a certain extent, yes. I think we all put our own personal experiences into our work. It’s inevitable because it’s what we know and feel most deeply. And writing about what you feel most deeply helps you write more emotionally authentic stories. I do think you have to be careful though, to make sure that if you do that you’re not doing it in a way that could cause people to recognise themselves in your writing and take offence.

7. You teach writing don't you?

Yes, at the moment I’m mainly doing residentials for West Dean College and the WI College at Denman. I teach ‘Creative Writing for Beginners’, as well as an ‘Introduction to Short Story Writing’ and a specialised ‘Short Stories for Women’s Magazines’ course. All the details can be found on my website http://www.helenmhunt.co.uk. And I’m happy to answer questions about any of these courses if people want to get in to

My next specifically Women’s Magazine course is at West Dean from 5-7 June.

These are residential courses in lovely surroundings with excellent food laid on and will give people the right conditions to make really significant progress with their writing.

I’ve included photos of West Dean so that people can see how beautiful it is.

I love teaching because it’s always great to meet writers who are keen on finding out more about the craft. I always find that I learn from the students as well as them learning from me, and I always come away feeling inspired, if somewhat exhausted.

8. What do you think is the biggest hurdle for beginner writers?

That’s a difficult one. I suppose it’s getting your first publication really. You might find you have to make a lot of submissions and deal with a lot of rejections before you get that far, but it does get easier after that. And then ‘cracking’ each individual magazine will help you on your way. I think it’s true to say that with each magazine once you’ve had one acceptance, it is easier to get subsequent ones. The editors start to get to know your name, and trust your writing.

It took me a long time to get over that hurdle. I start writing in 2004, and started submitting in 2005. My first publication was in 2006, and that was a non-fiction piece for My Weekly. My first piece of fiction was published in 2007 by Momaya Press, as the result of a competition, and my first womag story was published by Woman’s Weekly in 2009.

That was quite a long and difficult journey, and I felt like giving up many times. Looking back, I’m not quite sure why I didn’t!

9. What has been your happiest or proudest writing moment so far?

That first womag fiction publication in 2009 was a very proud moment. I feel proud every time something I write is published though, I think it’s important to hold on to that and not become jaded with the whole process.

10. Can you pass on a tip for other womag writers?

Concentrate on actually writing. It sounds obvious, but there are so many things out there to distract aspiring and beginner writers. Talking about writing, networking on social media and going to lots of writing events won’t make you a writer. Only writing and getting published will.

And if you’re serious about being published by womags, then you have to read them and study them in depth so that you know the market inside out. It’s nice to write for yourself, but if you want to be published, you have to write for the market.

Thanks so much to Patsy for having me as a guest on her blog. If anyone has any questions, please do leave them in the comments section and I’ll pop back and answer.

Interview with Womagwriter Wendy Clarke

My guest today is Wendy Clarke. 

1. I know you've only been writing for about three years, Wendy - so I don't suppose you've seen any changes in the womag market or noticed magazines being more open to genres they'd not previously have considered?

Over the last three years, I have seen a definite change in the types of stories The People’s Friend are happy to accept. As one of their regular writers, I know that as long as difficult subjects are handled sensitively, it is now possible to push the boundaries a little. For example, I have written about bereavement, disabilities, a child with Asperger’s syndrome, divorce and post natal depression. I was also told I was the first person to sell them a ghost story. It is definitely a mistake to think that their stories are about teashops and cupcakes!

2. In your article in Writing Magazine you mentioned your 'signature style' could you describe that?

My stories have been described as having emotional depth – I hope this is true.

3. You've become very successful very quickly. Obviously the fact you write really good stories has helped, but I believe teacakes are also important?

Oh yes, the teacakes! I am very lucky to have a writing friend Tracy Fells living near me and once a month we sit in our local tearoom and put the writing world to rights. The support she has given me has been incredibly valuable... and it was over teacakes that I came up with the idea of putting together my first collection of stories, Room in Your Heart, last year.

4. You're very disciplined and write a new story every week. How do you manage that?

I’m lucky in that I have the time to do it. Since being made redundant four years ago (which is when I started writing) my only regular commitment is walking my step-dog... oh, and writing my novel!

4. Is it true that your husband reads all your stories?

Yes, poor thing. He has an engineer’s brain and is able to look for errors without getting caught up in the stories themselves. Having said that, he is very good at recognising if I’ve written a ‘so what’ story (as Gaynor from Woman’s Weekly likes to call them) – if I have, his face says it all. He is incredibly supportive, though, and immensely proud of my writing.

5. I've heard that some writers use real people and situations in stories, especially if something has annoyed them. Do you ever do that?

I very rarely, if ever, base my characters on real people. I do, however, use situations people have told me about in my stories... a lot. One of the stories in The Last Rose, called New Beginnings, came about after a good friend told me that she received texts from her baby grandson (written by her daughter of course). He would sometimes tell her he was having a bad day and I knew at once that it would make a poignant story.

6. You have two lovely collections of short stories available, Room in Your Heart and The LastRose - will there be more?

I have been asked for more, so I hope so... just not for a while!

7. I understand you're working on a novel now, does that mean you'll be giving up the short stories?

I know I should but I just can’t. I love writing short stories – the variety and the way they allow you to visit so many different centuries, characters, settings and situations. The only way I might give them up is if someone offered me a mega book deal... any offers?

8. What has been your happiest or proudest writing moment so far?

A have two perfect moments – when I sold my first story... and then when I sold my hundredth story!

9. Can you pass on a tip for other womag writers?

I’ve said this before and I think it’s become my mantra - just start writing: write the story you would like to read yourself and write it from the heart. If you love it, it’s more likely that the editors will too.