Prompt: Bringing the Past to Life

[Prof. Sky Alton]

This month in the Book Club, we’re focusing on Historical fiction. This is a genre that requires a lot of research from a writer. People want to feel immersed in the past and while you could easily make up details that would satisfy a casual reader, others may be outraged if you don’t do your homework first.

The research is only half of the battle though. Once you know all your dates, recipes and obscure names for things, you need to weave that into the story. You don’t want to give your readers an info dump, so the trick is to drop in historical fact here and there where it makes sense to do so in the story. A character just going about their day gives you a lot of opportunities to casually work in period detail in a way that feels natural.

For this prompt, we’d like you to pick a time period and a character. In at least 200 words, write a short scene from their point of view. Try to include at least 5 facts about life during that time period without revealing that that’s what you’re doing.

You’ll earn 20 beans for completing this prompt as well as it counting towards the chance to snag our shiny Quill and Ink award.

There is no deadline as such for these prompts but if you’d like it to count towards your chance of earning the award for a specific year, we’ll need it by the end of that school year. If you’re comfortable sharing, then post below. If not, email your story to us via hol.bookclub @ gmail.com (without the spaces). Oh and remember it’s a good idea to check through your piece carefully for spelling and grammatical errors as they make it harder for people to properly enjoy your work.