Lori Z. Scott

One thing I’m struggling with in trying to write my first historical fiction work is this… how do you develop individual character voice when they’re originally speaking another language? I’m translating over some idioms and such used at that time in their culture, but I’m really struggling at diversifying the character voices enough to where you could know who was talking even without a speech tag. Maybe I’m making a big deal over nothing, but something between the historical factor & originally foreign language/culture factor is tripping me up. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!

I like what Kristiana said about putting our characters through hardship to their benefit. I never thought about it quite that way, but her explanation about it refining them as we are refined by our Author is really beautiful. Thanks for sharing these perspectives Lori!

Amen! Glad these authors were able to touch your heart.

As a writer with Crohn’s Disease, who wants to write clean reads for the secular market, I appreciate this article.

Yay! I’m glad my words encouraged you. See how God works?

I’m so glad you found encouragement here. Keep writing! God will use every lesson you have earned.

So much good stuff! I usually hate romance (why can’t we be Vulcans?) because 90% of the time it’s used to keep readers flipping when the story/characters/writing isn’t good enough. It’s a gimmick–and it really sells. “Nay!” I yell, “I shall never fall prey to thy cheap fiction contrivance!” *commences to throw all romantic books across the room* Needless to day, there are books with great romance plots. We all know a few. But when we (at times, kicking and screaming) write romance ourselves, we suddenly see the slippery slope and stand aghast. It’s SO EASY to write bad romance.

But you’ve hit the nail on the head here with your great advice! I love how you show romance shouldn’t exist in a vacuum, which is huge.

Adding to #1, being realistic sometimes means making your characters say dumb things or feel silly. If you want a great example of a realistically written romance, read Les Miserables. Victor Hugo’s portrayal of Marius’ bungling pursuit of Cosette is great. Marius does dumb things, misreads situations, berates himself for nonexistent faults, is high and low and high again, and jumps to ridiculous conclusions. Cosette is flattered, then frightened, then interested. She smiles at him one day, agonizes over it and refuses to look at him the next, (Marius shall die because she despises him!) agonizes again and smiles the next day (Marius shall live, for she loves him!) I love the point when Marius finds a handkerchief (belonging to Cosette’s father) with the initials U.F. and is convinced her name is Ursula. His Ursula! What a lovely name, the most beautiful of names… You get the idea.

Another fabulous romance writer is Booth Tarkington. Embarrassingly realistic. 😬

Thanks for the great article!!

I’m not a huge romance fan either, but I’m hoping to enter an anthology contest for romance stories, so this article was just in time!

Needed this! This is one part of marketing that has completely mystified me and I hadn’t been able to find any practical resources until this article.

Awesome article!!! Endings are so hard sometimes, and as one who just finished Return of the King last night, I was feeling a bit under-qualified to write a good one. Perfect timing, and excellent article as always, Miss Scot!