@h-jones

Well, G. K. Chesterton’s character Michael Moon, in Manalive, says “Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honour should decline”. I haven’t exactly experimented myself — maybe it’s a bit hyperbolic, considering that at least some people are called to celibacy, see also 1 Cor. 7? — but it’s an interesting analogy.

Jenny…[Read more]

@sarah-inkdragon She’s a girl. Okay. But she’s also. . . a human being. The differences between guys and girls (fictional or otherwise) aren’t big enough to turn them into two separate species. You can write human beings, obviously, because you’re comfortable writing guys. So. . . instead of focusing so much on what makes her a girl, for the…[Read more]

@seekjustice Girls or women going bareheaded. Unless it’s set after 1950-something (and even then some women still wore hats for special occasions), ye need to cover yer hair. There have been tiny slivers of time and place with exceptions to this rule. But still. If you’re writing a novel set during the Norman Conquest of England and your hero…[Read more]

@selah-chelyah what sources are those?

@selah-chelyah and everyone: G. A. Henty is good at plotting. Admittedly, he put a lot of work into making one plot, which he then used for every single book of his, but he wouldn’t be the only writer to do that. Once in a while he’s not terribly bad at characterization. However, his historical accuracy is conspicuous by its absence, as a…[Read more]

@valtmy Ahh. In that case, never mind. Historical fantasy is a different animal — sort of a chimera. But since you hadn’t previously claimed that genre, and popped into a historical fiction thread to express a conflicting set of principles, I was confused. In context it makes sense.

Yes, the difficulty with accurately telling a story about…[Read more]

@valtmy. . . if you don’t care for historical accuracy, why are you writing things set in a different time, in the first place? Why not write fantasy instead? If you claim to tell a story about a particular era but don’t portray it as it was, readers who don’t know better will walk away from your book with a false picture of the era in mind. That…[Read more]

@mickinley Historically there’s never been anything girly about being a bard (or singing poet if you prefer). Any more than singing bass is more manly than singing tenor. We need all kinds. I would actually like to read a story with a guy who’s not typically “manly” without him being portrayed as weak.

@Michelle I can recommend the OYAN blog’s resources on historical fiction (https://clearwaterpress.com/oneyearnovel/?s=historical+fiction), and I recently did a blog post of my own compiling links to things I’ve found helpful (https://ofdreamsandswords.wordpress.com/2019/01/26/historical-fiction-resources-online/), including but not limited to how…[Read more]

@Rochellaine, @eden-anderson, I wrote an American Civil War novel some years ago, in which a somewhat important plot point was the heroine’s needing to get married, despite not being very excited about it or in love with anyone. I collected quite a few sources on love and marriage during the war. If anyone wants them, I can dump links in the…[Read more]

@Daeus-lamb Right-o! Where would be the best place?

@daeus-lamb, “sometimes no answer is an answer”. Yes! Otherwise known as Till We Have Faces and A Grief Observed. Often this is life — often we don’t get the answers until near the end, if then — and it’s so, so important to acknowledge that and not brush it off as flippancy. Often no answer *is* the answer. At least if you want to have a bo…[Read more]

@kate, @r-m-archer, @the-fledgling-artist, @selah-chelyah: thank you so much. I get nervous over the smallest things and it helped to know you guys had my back.

The bad news: the paper does not have a copyeditor and is not looking for one, and the hiring manager was Out. I was given to understand that he is usually Out.

What kind of s…[Read more]

If y’all would pray I get this job I’m after that would be great. . . I need at least 30 hours a week more than what I’ve got right now and in less than an hour I’ll be walking into the nearest town’s newspaper office and asking if they want me for a copyeditor. . . the evidence strongly suggests they do, but they haven’t put out a hiring ad.…[Read more]

@Kate I’m so glad someone else has even heard of it!

@karthmin, then I will engage in a very characteristic behaviour and recommend you a few of his works. These are far from being his only good ones — I pick them because they’re good places to start.

Nonfiction: Orthodoxy

Long fiction: Manalive or the Napoleon of Notting Hill or The Ball and the Cross

Short fiction: The Blue Cross (of course…[Read more]