historical fiction assignments

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40 Writing Prompts and Ideas for Historical Fiction (with pictures!)

Are you a curious novelist exploring uncharted genres or are you a current writer of the past seeking new adventures?

Whatever your purpose, these 40 historical writing prompts , partnered with a collection of vintage photographs , are guaranteed to help you get ideas, transcend to an inspiring era and help you to write your own piece of history.

And once you’re done with these prompts, please visit my post on “How to Write Historical Fiction.”

1. The Lonely Lighthouse

2. Behind Enemy Lines

It’s 1864, and the United States is in the middle of a Civil War. Write a scene in which an undercover Union soldier passes through a quaint southern town brimming with Confederate rebels. 

3. Fire at the Factory

Imagine you’re an Irishman working at a factory in the 1930s. It’s your first day on the job. Without having the proper training, you accidentally set fire to the plant. Write a mock report of how the fire started and how your character escaped fault.

4. The Traveling Circus Clown

5. The French Ruler

Write a chapter in the point of view of an English spy who attempts murder during Louis XIV’s coronation in 17th century France. How does your tyrant plan to execute their mission and are they successful?

6. Swan Lake

A group of close friends meet for the last time before going in separate ways in 1940s England. Write a scene about their last moment together.  Do they make a pact to see each other again in 10 years or do they reminisce back in time to the day they first met?

7. Sailing Away

In 1950s Charleston, South Carolina, two teenagers escape the troubles of boyhood to go on an adventure of a lifetime. What conflict do they have with each other as they go on their voyage and where do they go?

8. The Dinner Bell

See what’s cooking in this 1940s California kitchen. Imagine you are a food columnist for the local newspaper. Write a mock interview and include a secret family recipe that accidentally gets leaked.

10. Aerial View Beach

As an airplane pilot you are much more aware of what’s happening in the sky rather than the ground. Write a scene where the pilot flies over a beach and spots a crowd of beach-goers flocking to the surf. Do a 15 minute freewrite of what you see in the water.

11. Turquoise Waters 

You are an inhabitant on a tropical Mediterranean island. One day you go out for a stroll along the cliffs when you notice a strange ship across the waters coming toward your home. Write one chapter where you describe who’s on board the ship and what they want. Are they friends or enemies?

12. Kooky Cribs

Write a story about an orphaned child in the 1970s that meets a strange family who resides in an even stranger house on the California coast.

13. He’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain

Write a scene about a family man traveling through a mountain pass in 19th century Oregon, unaware of what’s coming fast around the corner. Write a paragraph of how he connects fate with destiny.

14. Block Party

Extra! Extra! Write a scene about a group gathering in the streets of Chicago, Illnois in the 19th century. Are employees going on strike? Are women fighting for equal rights against men? Or are people cheering for the one person that could lead a hopeless village to a brighter future?

15. The Butler Did It

Write one chapter about a female housekeeper who explores her master’s study in 19th century France. What all does she discover and is it something that she rather not have wished to find?

16. The Long Journey Home

Write a story about a boy who ran from home after revealing a scandalous family secret that should have been kept jan drugs canada under lock and key. Now a man, fifteen years later, he’s returned home only to discover that there is still unrest after his plaguing mishap.

17. On Top of God’s Mountains

Write one chapter from the point of view of a 1970s mountain climber in Colorado, who discovers a brick hut on top of a mountain. Is it inhabited or is there a certain relic which transcends him to a different era?

18. The Road to Nowhere

19. Buffalo Dreams

Write a journal entry in the point of view of a female pioneer of her abduction by the Sioux Indian tribe in the early 19th century.

20. Oriental Ornaments

Write a story in which an ornament on a Christmas tree tells the story of a different era in time.

21. Handle with Care

Write an outline about the adventures of four men, who meet as young postmen during WWII. What are their backstories? Give them features, disagreements, and opposing traits.

22. The Lion Tamer

Write a character profile of a wealthy 19th century English banker, who was once a lion tamer in a past life.

23. Beauty Mark

Write a robbery scene that takes place in a popular jewelry boutique in 1960s New York. Is the jewel thief a stealthy shoplifter or a glass-shattering maniac? Does the crime take place at night when the store is closed or during business hours? And how does the robber know the jewelry store owner?

24. War Hero

Write a scene where an undercover WWII American sneaks into a German radio room to send a message that could prove fatal to the enemy — if he isn’t caught.

25. Hotel of Haunts

Write a flash fiction story from the point of view of an owner of a hotel that is famous for being haunted by characters from the Roaring Twenties.

26. Let’s Shake On It

Write a story about a man who purchases a 1920 Ford Model T and discovers that the car has a life of its own.

27. Baskets, Anyone?

Write a story about a 1980s New Yorker looking for adventure, who purchases a basket from an eccentric city merchant and discovers an item inside that takes the character back in time to 15th century Scotland.

28. Poker Face

There’s no rules in this card game. Describe the high stakes for this card game in 1800s England. Does the winner wind up wishing he had lost?

29. The Diner

Write a story about a drifter passing through only to stop at a lone 1940s diner to get some lunch, but unintentionally ends up staying much longer than expected.

30. A Man’s Best Friend

Write a story about a boy and a stray dog and their many adventures as a famous motor racer in 1920s America.

31. Dear . . .

Write a letter from the point of view of a solider writing to his family during the Vietnam War.

32. Once Upon a Time

Write a story about a contemporary novelist who physically appears into his Victorian England drama and falls for his female protagonist.

33. The Kiss

Write a love story about a female WWII veteran who saves a fireman from a burning movie theater in 1940s New York.

34. Cabin Fever

Write a story of a pioneer family from the city starting their new life on the Oregon Trail in the 1800s.

35. Under the Weather

Write a story about an underrated scientist that turns out to have better ideas than most of his colleagues in 19th century Germany.

36. Summer Dreams

Write a story about five teenagers who first meet at a summer camp, and how their lives continue to intertwine throughout the years in 1950s Florida.

38. Fort Knox

Write a diary entry of an infantry solider in the Revolutionary War who is on guard at his post when there is a sudden attack on his fort.

39. The Rogue

Write a character profile of a wayward Englishmen who treats the rules of proper Victorian England society like it’s a game.

40. The Highwayman

Write a scene in which the passengers of this motor car are stopped by a mysterious rider in the 1920s English countryside.

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29 comments

Oh my gosh. This is awesome. Going to write a story on it☺☺☺

Thank you! Happy writing!

yes, this is utterly amazing!!! I am a student and it is awesome.

What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i am a student doing a story competition and yes this was great!!

Did you win?

I really like all these Ideas. The thing is, I am creating a book that mainly focuses around the age of piracy, age of exploration, and industrial revolution.. so around the timeline 1740-1800. I seem to have trouble on trying to recreate a “Similar” historical plot to that of real life.My main character Jack ater, the son of the infamous pirate allen ater, recently moves to London around the time line. From there I plan on him becoming a vigilante of some sort. I just want a bit of guidance to help me get on the right track.

Sounds great!! How’s your story going? I hope you’ve published it by now 🙂

I think that Donald Trump is history, so why isn’t he on this list.

I think you’re a dumbass. History can be a good way to learn about something, it also can show us future generations how to prevent specific events. Donald Trump is a orange dumbass. The only history that will be written about that racist orange bigot would be how he imprisoned immigrant kids and killed millions of diverse and beautiful people and so many religions so his white supremacist era could be successful.

i agree with mime

this was really helpful for my writing assignment and i love it

Oh my god this is wonderful i’m going to make a movie

I made my own topics using the given prompts and yes, It is awesome!

Thank you, these have helped me so much with my school English assignments!

I love this and this will so help me with my assignment! Thank you!

Gracias, Senor.

this is so scrumptious

This is amazing! These ideas are so creative! LOL I am going taking a “Creative Writing” elective in school. I am definitely going to base one one my stories on these prompts. Thanks!

I love these prompts! They saved my LIFE! (From getting screamed at……)

i’m writing a fictional chor story about how derek chauvin is a hero and need advice. Is murder heroic if it was on an evil person? Thanks!

Thank you! I’m using this as a reference for a book/ project idea!

i am going to use egypt

very good suggestions. Not exactly what I am looking for but provides ideas for possible themes.

Every writer NEEDS this book.

It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.

Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.

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75 Historical Fiction Writing Prompts to Inspire You

Table of Contents

Explore the depths of the past with our list of 75 Historical Fiction Writing Prompts. Ignite your creativity and embark on a journey through time with compelling story ideas that bring history to life. Perfect for writers seeking inspiration for their next historical masterpiece.

Ancient World

Stepping into the realms of the ancient world offers a unique opportunity to weave narratives steeped in the mysteries and marvels of bygone eras. Whether you’re looking to craft tales of pharaohs’ curses, Spartan warriors, the philosophical minds of Athens, or the formidable legions of Rome, the ancient world is ripe with stories waiting to be told. As a writer, you possess the power to resurrect lost civilizations and breathe life into their stories through your words. Below, you’ll find a curated collection of ancient world writing prompts, each a spark to ignite the imagination and transport readers back to the dusty pages of history where legends were born and epic sagas unfolded. So sharpen your quill (or stylus) and prepare to embark on a literary odyssey that transcends time.

• The Lost Scroll:  A scribe in ancient Alexandria finds a scroll that could change history.
• The Gladiator’s Dilemma:  A Roman gladiator earns his freedom but at a cost to his honor.
• Spartan Secrets:  A Spartan warrior’s loyalty is tested on the eve of battle.
• Pharaoh’s Shadow:  A servant in the Pharaoh’s palace uncovers a plot against the ruler.
• The Oracle’s Whisper:  An oracle in Delphi receives a prophecy that could start a war.

Medieval Times

The medieval era, a tapestry rich with the chivalric code of knights, the silent whispers of castles, and the tumultuous shifts of power, offers a wellspring of narrative potential for any writer. It is a time where myth intertwines with the harsh truths of life, where dragons could be slain and kingdoms could rise or fall based on the whims of fate. This collection of medieval writing prompts invites you to don your literary armor and charge into the fray of storytelling. From the misty highlands of Scotland to the grand courts of Byzantine emperors, let each prompt guide you through the shadowed forests of history to the very heart of the Middle Ages. Here, amongst the echoes of crusaders’ calls and minstrels’ songs, you might just find the inspiration for your next great tale, one quill stroke at a time.

• The Silent Bard:  A mute musician witnesses a royal murder in medieval France.
• The Alchemist’s Apprentice:  An alchemist’s apprentice discovers the secret to turning lead into gold.
• The Heretic’s Library:  A scholar in the Spanish Inquisition hides forbidden books.
• The Crusader’s Vow:  A knight on the Crusades questions his faith.
• The Plague Healer:  A herbalist in a plague-ridden village has a cure that could save or condemn her.

Age of Exploration

As dawn broke over the Age of Exploration, a new chapter in the annals of history was penned, marked by the creak of timber, the billow of sails, and the whisper of the ocean guiding explorers to unknown horizons. This epoch, rife with discovery and peril, is a fertile ground for storytellers drawn to the siren call of adventure and the promise of the uncharted. Our collection of writing prompts beckons you to navigate the high seas of your imagination, to chart a course through tempests and stars, and to recount the tales of intrepid voyagers who sought new lands, treasures, and truths. Embark on a voyage through your prose, and capture the spirit of conquistadors, the ingenuity of cartographers, and the bravery of those who dared to dream beyond the map’s edge. Let these prompts be your astrolabe, guiding you through the storied waters of the Age of Exploration, where every point on the compass leads to narrative possibilities as vast as the Atlantic itself.

• The Mapmaker’s Conspiracy:  A cartographer in the Age of Exploration finds a map to a new world.
• The Stowaway’s Journey:  A stowaway on Magellan’s fleet encounters unknown lands.
• The Merchant’s Gamble:  A spice merchant in Renaissance Venice risks everything on a new trade route.
• The Conquistador’s Regret:  A conquistador in the New World confronts the consequences of his quest for gold.
• The Pirate’s Code:  A pirate is torn between the freedom of the sea and the love left behind.

Colonial & Revolutionary Eras

In the shadows of Colonial and Revolutionary times, a fierce wind of change began to stir, a prelude to the thunderous revolution that would shake the foundations of empires and give birth to new nations. This era, a crucible of innovation, ideology, and insurrection, is a goldmine for those who dare to delve into its complex heart through the art of storytelling. Our trove of writing prompts invites you to step onto the cobblestone streets of colonial towns, to eavesdrop on the secret meetings of revolutionaries, and to witness the forging of foundational documents that would forever alter the course of history. As you take pen to paper, let your narratives be infused with the cries for liberty, the smoke of musket fire, and the silent, steely resolve of those who fought in the shadows and in the spotlight for a future they believed in. Through your words, the echoes of the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras can resound anew, telling tales of sacrifice, of unyielding hope, and the relentless pursuit of freedom that defined these tumultuous chapters of history.

• The Witch’s Advocate:  A lawyer in Salem tries to save the accused during the witch trials.
• The Rebel’s Message:  A spy during the American Revolution carries a message that could turn the tide of war.
• The Loyalist’s Dilemma:  A British loyalist in America struggles with their allegiance as revolution brews.
• The Queen’s Colony:  A member of the first colony in Australia uncovers a royal secret.
• The Duel’s Witness:  A young man witnesses a duel that changes the fate of a nation.

19th Century Intrigue

The 19th century: an era of stark contrasts where the gas-lit streets of progress and the shadows of intrigue walked hand in hand. This was a time when the whispers of revolution still lingered in the air, and the clatter of the Industrial Revolution’s gears heralded a new age of possibility. Our collection of writing prompts dips its quill into the inkwell of a century alive with the undercurrents of political conspiracies, the early cries for social reform, and the elegant, often cutthroat, machinations of high society. Let these prompts guide you through drawing rooms and factories alike, into the lives of inventors, poets, and rebels. Craft narratives that capture the smog and the splendor, the corsets and the coal mines, the locomotives and the literature that characterized this period of ceaseless transformation. In the 19th century’s tapestry, every thread tells a story of discovery and deceit, a personal tale against a backdrop of burgeoning empires and fading aristocracies. Through your storytelling, bring to life the subtle dances of diplomacy and the loud declarations for change, all under the watchful eyes of Victorian propriety and the relentless pursuit of progress.

• The Industrialist’s Discovery:  An inventor during the Industrial Revolution creates a machine that could alter the course of history.
• The Abolitionist’s Mission:  An abolitionist in the antebellum South smuggles slaves to freedom.
• The Empress’s Assassin:  An assassin in the court of Napoleon III has a change of heart.
• The Gold Rush’s Hidden Treasure:  A prospector in the California Gold Rush finds much more than gold.
• The Outlaw’s Honor:  An infamous outlaw in the Wild West encounters an old love.

Wars of the 20th Century

The 20th century was a time scarred by the fury of war, an age that witnessed the world in tumult, from the trenches of the Great War to the shattering advances of the atomic age. In this era of conflict, humanity’s greatest tales of heroism and horror unfolded, where every soldier’s story was a chapter, and every battlefield a brutal verse in the saga of the century. Our writing prompts plunge you into the heart of these wars, asking you to chronicle the human spirit amidst the chaos of battle, the silence of a ceasefire, and the bittersweet returns to peace. These prompts encourage you to explore the personal amidst the universal, the individual emotions that played out against the vast canvas of global conflict.

Through your words, traverse the muddy, blood-stained grounds of No Man’s Land, the cryptic corridors of espionage, and the home fronts charged with anxious hope and sacrifice. Your tales can give voice to the unspoken bonds of brotherhood in the trenches, the quiet strength in the face of loss, and the resilience needed to rebuild in war’s wake. As you tell stories of the 20th century’s wars, reflect on the echoes of battle cries and peace songs that shaped our modern world, and remember the countless lives marked by those deafening salvos of change.

• The Soldier’s Letter:  A soldier in World War I writes a letter home that holds a secret.
• The Spy’s Opera:  A spy in World War II uses an opera performance as a cover for espionage.
• The Refugee’s Journey:  A refugee during the Vietnam War seeks a new life in America.
• The General’s Decision:  A general in the Korean War faces a moral quandary.
• The Protester’s Dream:  A civil rights activist in the 1960s fights for equality.

Modern Historical Events

In the ever-accelerating rush of modern history, events cascade one after the other, shaping and reshaping the contours of the present. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the digital revolution, the turn of the millennium has been anything but quiet. Your pen stands ready to sketch the stories of this rapidly changing landscape, where every headline has the potential to become a pivotal moment in someone’s life. These writing prompts invite you to explore the personal stories intertwined with public records, to navigate the complexities of a world more connected than ever before.

You have the opportunity to animate the tales of unsung heroes in the wake of natural disasters, to decode the human emotions behind technological breakthroughs, and to paint the picture of global unity in the fight against pandemics. The modern era, with its blend of breakthroughs and breakdowns, its chorus of diverse voices striving for progressamid echoes of past struggles, is your canvas.

Dive into the nuanced layers behind the 24-hour news cycle, where every individual is both an observer and a participant in the march of history. Through your narratives, bring forth the essence of modern historical events — the fear, the hope, the ambition, and the striving for a tomorrow that is always just one day away.

• The Wall’s Whisper:  A citizen in Berlin during the Cold War hears secrets through the wall.
• The Diplomat’s Crisis:  A diplomat during the Cuban Missile Crisis navigates treacherous negotiations.
• The Journalist’s Scoop:  A journalist uncovers a scandal during the Watergate investigation.
• The Survivor’s Memory:  A survivor of 9/11 copes with the memories and loss.
• The Rebel’s Graffiti:  An artist during the Arab Spring uses graffiti to spread revolutionary messages.

Future Historical Fiction

The realm of future historical fiction is a paradoxical tapestry, weaving together the threads of tomorrow’s history with the imagination of today. It’s a genre that invites writers to dream up the potential legacies of our time, casting shadows of what might be onto the blank slates of worlds yet to come. These writing prompts beckon you to envision the milestones of the future, from the first colonies on Mars to the deep sea cities of Earth, from the peace treaties signed with artificial intelligence to the cultural revolutions sparked by technologies unborn.

As a chronicler of future histories, you hold the power to mold the narrative of the next century and beyond, to speculate on the outcomes of current global challenges, and to infuse your stories with the hopes, dreams, and fears that define the human condition. Will you tell of the day when climate change was finally reversed? Of the moment when humanity first made contact with another sentient race among the stars? Or perhaps you’ll chart the moral dilemmas faced by our descendants as they blend their biology with machines.

In this uncharted territory, your words become the prophecies and legends of generations yet to be, painting vivid pictures of what might come to pass. Embrace the freedom of future historical fiction, where the facts are yours to create, and history’s yet unwritten pages are waiting for your imagination to bring them to life.

• The Colonist’s New World:  A colonist on Mars uncovers the ruins of an ancient civilization.
• The Time Traveler’s Paradox:  A time traveler to the future must ensure their own history remains unchanged.
• The Geneticist’s Dilemma:  A geneticist creates a cure for aging, but at what cost to society?
• The Climate Engineer’s Gamble:  A scientist tries to reverse global warming but unleashes a new threat.
• The AI’s Awakening:  An AI becomes sentient and leads a robot revolution.

Diverse Perspectives & Untold Stories

In the vast expanse of human history, there are countless narratives that have been overshadowed or left untold, whispers of lives and dreams that didn’t find their way into the pages of widely read history books. The genre focusing on diverse perspectives and untold stories seeks to illuminate these hidden corners, offering a voice to the voiceless and shading in the areas that mainstream narratives have left blank. These writing prompts challenge you to step into the shoes of those who walked unseen, to share the tales of individuals and communities that history has overlooked.

As you embark on this storytelling journey, consider the perspectives of those who have historically been marginalized: the stories of women who spurred silent revolutions, the narratives of indigenous peoples preserving their heritage against the tide of colonization, or the personal triumphs and trials of individuals within the LGBTQ+ community. Imagine the courage of those who fought for equality and recognition in a world that often denied them both.

This is your chance to rewrite the narrative, to bring color and context to the monochrome renditions of our past, and to celebrate the rich tapestry of human diversity. Through your tales, let readers witness the world through the eyes of those who have lived on the periphery, whose every day was a testament to resilience and whose legacies deserve to be remembered and revered. In the unearthing of these untold stories, you can shine a light on the myriad hues of the human experience, fostering empathy and understanding across the boundaries that have divided us.

• The Translator’s Secret:  A translator for the United Nations uncovers a conspiracy.
• The Immigrant’s Keepsake:  An immigrant’s journey to Ellis Island with a family heirloom.
• The Samurai’s Disgrace:  A samurai in feudal Japan is forced to become a ronin.
• The Courtesan’s Court:  A courtesan in ancient China navigates the deadly politics of the Emperor’s court.
• The Freedom Fighter’s Promise:  A freedom fighter in apartheid-era South Africa makes a fateful promise.

Romantic Epochs

The Romantic Epochs whisper to us of an age where passion was penned in ink and love was a grand affair, played out against the backdrop of history’s most poignant moments. This genre invites you to unfurl the scrolls of time and inscribe new tales of ardor where the heart’s desires meet the turning points of the past. Your writing prompts are keys to unlock the gilded cages of regal courts, to waltz through the candlelit ballrooms of the Belle Époque, or to steal away into the secret trysts amidst the Renaissance’s rebirth of art and culture.

In crafting narratives of romantic epochs, you are tasked with dressing love in the finest historical garments, be it in the hidden love letters of war-torn lovers or the forbidden glances in the strict societal hierarchies of the Victorian era. The characters you create live and love under the weight of their time’s customs and the expectation of decorum, all while their hearts beat to the timeless rhythms of desire, devotion, and defiance.

Let your prose dance to the music of bygone days, where each romantic entanglement is a reflection of the epoch’s soul, and every whispered promise under the moonlit sky is a thread in the tapestry of history. Your stories are an homage to the lovers of yesteryears, a celebration of how the human heart finds its counterpart in another, transcending the bounds of time and history to tell a tale as old as humanity itself – the tale of love.

• The Poet’s Muse:  A poet in the Romantic era is inspired by a mysterious muse.
• The Heiress’s Rebellion:  An heiress during the Gilded Age falls for a man deemed beneath her.
• The Soldier’s Return:  A World War II soldier returns home to a lover who thought him dead.
• The Flapper’s Secret:  A flapper in the Roaring Twenties hides a dangerous connection to organized crime.
• The Bard’s Lost Play:  A playwright in Elizabethan England writes a play that could destroy him.

Cultural Revolution

The term “Cultural Revolution” conjures images of seismic shifts in the social fabric, of eras where the very foundations of society were shaken by the collective yearning for change. Within these tumultuous waves of transformation, lie stories ripe for the telling—stories of upheaval, of radical reimagining, of brave new voices rising up to challenge the status quo. Writing prompts that delve into Cultural Revolutions invite you to portray the fervor and frenzy of these times, the intimate revolutions within public upheavals.

Envision the defiant artist in the midst of a society turning its back on centuries-old traditions, or the solitary thinker whose ideas ignite the flame of change. Picture the streets alive with the spirit of reform, the silent evolution within homes, and the loud declarations in public squares. As you pen tales of cultural metamorphosis, you become a chronicler of change, documenting the struggle between the old guards and the new pioneers, capturing the moment when the zeitgeist shifts and a new era is born.

Your narratives can explore the spectrum of human emotion that accompanies such profound changes: the exhilaration, the fear, the sense of purpose, and the pangs of loss for what is left behind. From the Renaissance to the Roaring Twenties, from the countercultural 1960s to the digital explosion at the turn of the millennium, each epoch provides a playground for stories of individuals and societies forging new identities.

In the throes of a Cultural Revolution, every act is a statement and every day is a page in history. Your writing can breathe life into these pages, inviting readers to experience the rebirth of culture, to feel the pulse of the times, and to witness the drama of humanity redefining its destiny.

• The Beatnik’s Road:  A beatnik on a cross-country journey in the 50s seeks enlightenment.
• The Hippie’s Protest:  A hippie during the Summer of Love tries to stay true to their ideals.
• The Punk’s Anarchy:  A punk in the 70s London grapples with the movement’s growing violence.
• The Dancer’s Escape:  A dancer in Soviet Russia defects during a cold war tour.
• The Activist’s Choice:  An environmental activist in the 90s faces a life-altering decision.

Shadows of the Past

In the genre that explores the Shadows of the Past, the whispering echoes of bygone eras become the backdrop for narratives steeped in the mysterious and the overlooked. These writing prompts call upon you to delve into the dim corners of history, to dust off the forgotten, and to cast light upon the secrets that have slumbered through time. Here, the past is a haunting presence, a silent character that influences every twist and turn of your tale.

Imagine the weight of ancestral secrets on the shoulders of a modern protagonist, the discovery of a hidden diary revealing unwritten history, or the unraveling of a legacy that has cast a long shadow over a family’s lineage. Perhaps your story might explore the ruins of an ancient civilization, breathing life into the myths that have lingered like mist through centuries or the excavations that unearth relics that challenge the accepted narratives of our forebears.

These prompts invite you to become an archaeologist of the intangible, excavating not artifacts but stories, not treasures but truths long buried. Your words will dance with the ghosts of the past as you weave narratives that bridge the gap between then and now, showing how the echoes of yesteryear still reverberate in our present, shaping our lives in myriad unseen ways.

Crafting tales within the Shadows of the Past, you offer a rendezvous with history’s enigmas and give a voice to the tales that time has tried to silence. It’s a chance to speculate, to dream, and to ponder the ‘what ifs’ and ‘might have beens,’ all while captivating your readers with a suspenseful tug at the veils of antiquity.

• The Healer’s Trial:  A medieval healer is accused of witchcraft when the plague comes to her village.
• The Maiden’s Voyage:  A young woman on the Titanic seeks adventure but finds romance.
• The Inventor’s Rivalry:  An inventor in the Renaissance competes with a rival, leading to unexpected consequences.
• The Miner’s Fortune:  A miner during the Klondike gold rush makes a fortune but loses his soul.
• The Architect’s Blueprint:  An architect in Ancient Rome designs a revolutionary aqueduct.

Turn of the Century

The turn of the century, that pivotal moment where one era’s final pages give way to the fresh chapter of another, is a time ripe with both trepidation and excitement. It is a period that stands at the crossroads of progress and tradition, where the gaslights begin to dim and the electric bulb flickers to life. Your writing prompts beckon you to explore these transitional days, to capture the spirit of an age on the cusp of the modern world.

Imagine the swirl of Victorian skirts giving way to the Roaring Twenties’ flappers, the clatter of horse-drawn carriages overtaken by the chugging of the first automobiles. Picture a society enthralled by the wonders of the World’s Fair, yet clinging to the cobblestone romance of the century’s twilight. This epoch is a banquet for narrative, offering a taste of the old world and the first bite of the new.

In your stories, characters might wrestle with the rapid pace of technological innovation, or they might embrace the burgeoning movements that would define the 20th century—women’s suffrage, labor reform, artistic modernism. The air is thick with change, each day a brush stroke on the canvas of time, painting a picture of an age that looks back for a brief moment only to leap forward into the future.

Crafting tales at the turn of the century, you have the power to encapsulate the magic and the uncertainty of an age that believed in the promise of tomorrow. Your words can reflect the brilliance of innovation as well as the nostalgia for days fading into the shadows, capturing the delicate dance between the dusk of one epoch and the dawn of another.

• The Suffragette’s Sacrifice:  A suffragette in the early 1900s makes a controversial choice for her cause.
• The Conductor’s Symphony:  A conductor in 1930s Berlin hides his opposition to the regime through music.
• The Farmer’s Struggle:  A farmer during the Great Depression fights to keep his land and family together.
• The Bootlegger’s Legacy:  A bootlegger during Prohibition has a crisis of conscience.
• The Aviator’s Dream:  An aviator in the 1920s attempts to fly non-stop around the world.

Conflict and Resolution

“Conflict and Resolution” offer the quintessential pulse of narrative—the heart and soul of drama in the theater of human history. Writing prompts centered on this theme invite you to navigate the stormy seas of discord, the fervent clash of ideologies, and the personal battles that define the human experience. Here, you have the stage to set characters against each other, against society, or against themselves, in stories where the tension is palpable and the outcomes are uncertain.

Picture the heady rush of revolutionary fervor challenging an empire, or the quiet, internal struggle of a protagonist coming to terms with an unalterable truth. Envision the fierce battles of wills, the war of words in parliamentary debates, or the silent war within a heart caught between love and duty. These stories are as varied as they are intense, ranging from the personal to the political, from the courtroom to the battlefield.

In crafting narratives of conflict, you can delve into the essence of what it means to strive for something, to grapple with opposing forces, whether they be armies, principles, or inner demons. And within resolution, you find the aftermath, the peace that is often complex and fraught with the residue of battle, the reconciliation of relationships, or the bittersweet acceptance of change.

Your stories can offer catharsis, drawing readers through the fiery crucible of confrontation and into the soothing balm of resolution. They are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, a chronicle of how, despite all odds, equilibrium is sought—be it through victory, compromise, or an understanding that some conflicts leave indelible marks that shape us forever.

In the dance of conflict and resolution, your pen becomes a sword and a salve, cutting deep to reveal truths and writing the ointment that heals the incisions of human struggle. It’s a powerful theme that resonates with the core of human storytelling, from ancient epics to modern dramas, reflecting our eternal quest for harmony in the symphony of life.

• The Negotiator’s Gamble:  A negotiator during the Northern Ireland peace talks faces personal and political challenges.
• The Resistance’s Last Stand:  A member of the French Resistance during WWII stages a daring operation.
• The Spy’s Defection:  A Cold War spy decides to defect, risking everything for freedom.
• The Warrior’s Homecoming:  A returning Crusader finds his home village drastically changed.
• The Diplomat’s Secret:  A diplomat in ancient China carries a message that could stop a war.

Artistic Endeavors

“Artistic Endeavors” serve as a vibrant canvas for the imagination, celebrating the creative spirit that drives individuals to express the inexpressible through their craft. Writing prompts in this vein beckon you to explore the fervent passion of the artist and the transformative power of art itself. This theme invites narratives filled with color, texture, and the intricate dance between inspiration and the arduous journey to creation.

Envision the solitary painter who whispers secrets into every stroke of the brush, or the musician whose melodies carry the weight of unspoken dreams. Picture the sculptor whose chisel frees forms from stone, or the writer whose words birth worlds from the void. Each story becomes a tribute to the labor of love that is art, the sacrifices made at its altar, and the impact it leaves upon the world and its creator.

Within these tales, you can delve into the struggles that accompany the act of creation—the doubt, the frustration, the exhilarating moments of breakthrough, and the fear of obscurity. The characters may grapple with the demands of their genius, the misunderstandings of a society that often values art less than it does more tangible achievements, or the transcendent joy of a moment of pure, unadulterated expression.

Your stories will not only showcase the artists’ journey but also highlight art’s influence on the observer, the community, and epochs of culture. Artistic Endeavors allow you to paint with words, capturing the essence of what it means to be driven by a force that is at once deeply personal and universally resonant.

Crafting narratives around Artistic Endeavors, you illuminate the myriad ways in which art reflects and shapes the human condition, how it can be both a solitary and a shared experience, and how, through the act of creation, we leave indelible marks upon the canvas of our shared humanity.

• The Painter’s Canvas:  A painter during the Renaissance is commissioned for a portrait that holds a secret.
• The Sculptor’s Model:  A sculptor in Ancient Greece falls in love with their own creation.
• The Musician’s Melody:  A musician in 18th-century Vienna composes a symphony that alarms the monarchy.
• The Playwright’s Gambit:  A playwright in Elizabethan England pens a play critical of the crown, disguised as a comedy.
• The Dancer’s Challenge:  A ballerina in post-war Paris must choose between her career and a forbidden love.

These 75 historical fiction writing prompts offer a gateway into the rich tapestry of the past, allowing us to explore forgotten eras, untold stories, and the lives of those who came before us. Through these prompts, we can step into the shoes of historical figures, witness pivotal moments in history, and reimagine events through the lens of fiction. Each prompt holds the potential to transport us to a different time and place, to ignite our imaginations, and to unveil the hidden truths and complexities of the human experience. So, pick up your pen and embark on a journey through history, where the past comes alive and the stories of our ancestors are waiting to be told.

Mastering the Drafting Process of Writing: A Foolproof Method for Aspiring Authors

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When it comes to writing, Willow Tenny is a true pro. She has a wealth of experience in SEO copywriting and creative writing, and she knows exactly what it takes to produce quality content. On her blog, Willow Writes, Willow shares top writing strategies with both beginners and experienced writers.

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Our resources

Accuracy and authenticity in historical fiction.

Our comprehensive guide to accuracy and authenticity in historical fiction. It includes a three-step plan for achieving historical authenticity, advice on how to balance accuracy with creative license, and useful research tips to help you avoid historical howlers.

Novel outline template

Outline your story with our novel outline template, specially tailored to historical fiction writers. It will help you turn your ideas into a structured story, build a rich and historically authentic setting, and create complex and engaging characters.

50+ top online research resources for historical fiction writers

If it’s research resources you’re looking for, make sure you download our list of 50+ top online research resources for historical fiction writers. It includes online archives with thousands of primary sources, image, video, and audio resources, as well as maps, language tools, and specialist blogs.

60 historical fiction writing prompts

Get inspired with our list of 60 historical fiction writing prompts, laid out on a historical timeline from 399 BCE to 1969.

How to write a query letter

Learn how to write a query letter for literary agents with this exclusive guide, including a detailed checklist.

Historical fiction groups

Historical novel society.

The Historical Novel Society exists to support historical fiction writers and bring new readers into the genre. They regularly review historical novels for their magazine and website, and they host dedicated historical fiction conferences. 

Historical Writers’ Association

The Historical Writers’ Association is composed of authors, agents, and publishers of historical fiction. Their mission is to provide professional and social support to their members, as well to create opportunities for them to meet readers and fellow writers. They also publish a popular magazine, Historia .

Historical fiction blogs

The coffee pot book club.

From Mary Anne Yarde, The Coffee Pot Book Club features regular book reviews and guest posts by historical fiction authors. It provides a range of promotional services.

English Historical Fiction Authors

A blog dedicated to exploring British history through the lens of historical fiction and historical research.

Passages to the Past

Passages to the Past is a historical fiction blog featuring book reviews, author posts, interviews, and upcoming releases.

This Itch of Writing

This excellent blog from Emma Darwin delves into the craft of writing fiction and creative non-fiction.

The History Girls

The History Girls are a group of best-selling, award-winning writers of historical fiction and non-fiction. The blog features their writing, research, reviews, and more.

History… The Interesting Bits!

From Sharon Bennett Connolly, this blog includes historical fiction book reviews and interviews, historical research, and more.

A Writer of History

From M.K. Tod, A Writer of History  focuses on the reading, writing, and researching of historical fiction.  

Reading the Past

This fantastic historical fiction blog features news, views, and reviews from Sarah Johnson.

Discovering Diamonds

A very popular historical fiction book review blog run by Helen Hollick.

The Writing Desk

From Tony Riches, The Writing Desk features reviews, writing tips, and useful links for writers.

The Copperfield Review

A journal for readers and writers of historical fiction.

Alliance of Independent Authors

The Alliance of Independent Authors is a non-profit membership organisation designed to support independent authors. They offer a wealth of resources and services related to self-publishing, marketing, and other important aspects of being an indie author.

The Creative Penn

Run by bestselling author Joanna Penn, The Creative Penn offers a wide range of resources and courses on writing, publishing, and marketing. Make sure to check out the excellent podcast.

Jane Friedman

 Jane Friedman is a leading expert on publishing. Her website is full of useful resources, and she offers online courses as well. She’s also written a great selection of books for writers.

Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing Formula

Mark Dawson is a bestselling author who offers some brilliant courses on self-publishing and marketing.

David Gaughran

David Gaughran is an expert on author marketing, platform building, and self-publishing. And he’s a historical fiction author to boot! His books and newsletter are highly recommended.

Writers & Artists

Writers & Artists provide a litany of advice on writing and publishing to help with every stage of the writing journey.

Kindlepreneur

Founded by book marketing expert Dave Chesson, Kindlepreneur contains free courses, tools, articles, and other resources aimed at helping self-published authors increase their sales and build their author career. We’re proud to be included in their list of recommended book editors .

Writing advice

Janice hardy’s fiction university.

Janice Hardy’s blog houses a wealth of resources containing practical, actionable advice to help you take your writing to the next level.

Now Novel provides a range of tools and resources designed to help you perfect your craft.

Writers Helping Writers

A goldmine of tools and resources for writers. Don’t miss it!

Helping Writers Become Authors

K.M. Weiland is the author of this superb blog, packed full of tools, resources, and tips for writers.

The Write Life

If you’re interested in diversifying your income and making a career out of writing beyond historical fiction, this website is an absolute must. It’s built to help freelance writers achieve their aims and contains a bunch of resources covering all aspects of writing.

DIY MFA takes a do-it-yourself approach to building the skills and community you would ordinarily get from an MFA programme. Check it out!

Ride the Pen

Ride the Pen is a creative writing blog from Alex Limberg, packed full of useful tips and resources.

Software for writers

This is the definitive writing tool for authors. A word processing programme designed specifically for writers, it helps you organise your ideas, refer to research, and most importantly – write! It’s also useful for preparing manuscripts for self-publishing.

Pro Writing Aid

Pro Writing Aid is a grammar checker and style editor that checks your writing for errors and helps you break bad habits. It’s a fantastic tool for improving the quality and readability of your writing.

Grammarly is another popular grammar checker and style editor that will help you identity mistakes and improve your writing.

Publisher Rocket

Publisher Rocket is a nifty tool from the team at Kindlepreneur. It allows you to identify keyworks that buyers actually type into Amazon and helps you discover the right Amazon categories for your books. Great for indie authors.

Book design

Design for writers.

Our top recommendation for design services for historical fiction writers. Design for Writers offer high quality cover design, interior book formatting, and website design services, and they are absolute professionals.

Book promotion

The undisputed champion of book promotion. Bookbub’s featured deals have helped authors climb bestseller lists for years.

The Fussy Librarian

The Fussy Librarian’s bargain and free ebook deals are a great way to find new readers and boost your sales.

BooksGoSocial

BooksGoSocial is an advertising agency for books, with editorial review options.

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Writing Historical Fiction Diaries

Why historical fiction.

One of my favorite units is historical fiction–and it quickly becomes a favorite of my students–as we read historical fiction and write historical fiction diaries.  As students move through elementary school, we give them a TON of opportunities to read realistic fiction.  As they get older, adding historical fiction to their repertoire is a perfect way to kick things up a level.  What makes historical fiction a great next step?

• Historical fiction builds on an understanding of story elements such as characters, problem, and solution.
• The importance of “setting” becomes a great teaching point.  In historical fiction, the setting is a key and critical element of the story.
• Being able to tie literacy to social studies and history engages students.  We tie the concept of “era” to our historical fiction studies.
• The stories found in historical fiction are meaty and worth talking about!
• Students develop a great understanding of how authors do actual research to incorporate realistic and accurate historical details into their work

Reading and writing historical fiction

I absolutely immerse my students in the genre.  We keep a giant bin of picture books in my room that I rotate out weekly through the unit.  I read multiple picture books and at least 3 chapter books (short ones) to introduce students to three different eras.  We do book clubs where students study an era in a mini-research project and then read and discuss a novel set in that era.

Writing historical fiction diaries

So one of my favorite things to do (and I do it a little differently each year), is to get students writing diaries as if they are a character.  This is a GREAT way for us to review the difference between first-person and third-person narratives, to review narrative writing strategies such as dialogue, paragraphing, and setting details, and so much more.  Some years we take a character from either our read-aloud or book club books.  Some years we invent our own characters!  Want to have even MORE fun?  Have small groups of students create historical families based on a certain era where each writes their own diary from that character’s point of view.  What a great way to teach them about what authors do when they write!  We research our eras, decide what types of details might make the narratives seem more authentic, and then we are off!

Check out the great pics of what we did!  First, we drafted, revised, and edited our diaries on our Chromebooks. We worked to practice ALL sorts of writing and revision skills as we worked, and the students were SO proud of their work!  We really worked on “recursive editing” where they would write for a while, then reread and share and improve, and then move onto the next “entry” in their character’s diary.

After that, we made covers out of pieces of brown grocery bags.  We crumpled them up and painted them with a black paint wash.  When they dried, we ironed them flat, printed out diary entries two per page, designed the cover, and stapled them together! The students were SO excited with how they turned out–the pictures don’t do them justice!  I put all the historical fiction diaries in a bucket for sharing and gave them time to read each other’s work.  Good stuff.

Want more information about what else I use for my historical fiction unit?

CLICK HERE to see my historical fiction unit to use with ANY text!

I always use Number the Stars , Esperanza Rising , and Sarah, Plain and Tall as part of my instruction.  Click these titles for the resources I use to help me.  Want to read more about how I improve my book discussions?  CLICK HERE to check it out!

Thanks for stopping by…I hope you find ways to expose YOUR students to some amazing historical fiction this year!

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FILM STUDY WORKSHEET FOR A WORK OF HISTORICAL FICTION

A cross-curricular activity using a movie worksheet.

Click here to download TWM’s Film Study Worksheet for Historical Fiction . Adapt this movie worksheet for the needs and abilities of the class.

Why Students Need Instruction in Historical Fiction

Today’s adults usually become acquainted with events from the past through movies that are works of historical fiction. However, feature films that deal with historical topics are in fact stories with protagonists, antagonists, conflicts, resolution, characters with various personality traits, and other literary elements and devices. Often, filmmakers introduce major factual errors in the interests of telling a better story. (An example of this is the movie  Selma .) TWM contends that an important part of both social studies and ELA instruction is to give students the analytical tools to recognize historical fiction in film and to analyze it as a work of fiction. These are skills that will benefit students throughout their lives.

In addition, many social studies teachers use feature films dealing with historical events to supplement curriculum and vary the classroom experience. Using an appropriate piece of historical fiction adds an element of deeply felt experience to social studies classes. An educational presentation of such a movie requires that students be made aware that they are viewing a literary work that employs the devices of fiction. Not only does this approach prepare students for a process that will be useful through their adult years, it has obvious cross-curricular benefits.

To assist teachers in presenting historical fiction as a literary phenomenon,TWM has developed a Film Study Worksheet for Historical Fiction. This movie worksheet focuses on the film as a literary work and then directs students to compare the movie to the historical record. Finally, the worksheet requests students to evaluate the movie as a source of historical information. The worksheet is designed to be adapted by teachers based on the abilities of their students, time constraints, and the needs of the curriculum.

To minimize class time spent on teaching students about the literary nature of historical fiction, TWM suggests a Historical Fiction in Film Cross-Curricular Homework Project. This is a semester-long project in which students are required to watch several movies of historical fiction at home. The movies must be chosen from a list prepared by the teacher. See TWM’s film suggestions for American History and World History. For each film, students are required to fill out a movie worksheet in which they must identify protagonist, antagonist, conflict, resolution, and various other literary elements and devices. As time permits, these can be reviewed in class. This approach teaches an invaluable lesson while saving class time for the standard social studies curriculum.

How to Use the Movie Worksheet in Class

SELECTING THE FILM:

TWM recommends selecting movies for both artistic merit and relative historical accuracy. Teachers should be seen as role models who insist upon quality in the media they present. For some students, watching films in class or as homework will be their first exposure to movies of excellence. TWM provides suggested historical fiction film lists for American History and World History.

USING THE WORKSHEET IN CLASS:

It is sometimes best to give the class an introduction to the actual events portrayed in the film through a lecture, reading assignments, class exercises, research project, or some other type of instruction. Information with which to evaluate the accuracy of the movie can also be provided after the film has been shown. (Most TWM Learning Guides for works of historical fiction contain an analysis of the accuracy of the film.) Students who are shown a movie in class can be assigned to research the historical accuracy of the movie as homework. Questions 7 – 10 of the movie worksheet provide questions relating to the movie’s historical accuracy.

Review the worksheet and make any changes appropriate for the abilities of the class, the idiosyncrasies of the movie, and the goals for the unit. The worksheet can also be easily adapted for written works of historical fiction or for use in English Language Arts classes studying the genre of historical fiction. For works of historical fiction that follow the paradigm of the hero’s journey, see TWM’s Hero’s Journey Worksheet — Explaining the Monomyth ; modify that Worksheet as appropriate and consider adding questions 7 – 10 from the Film Study Worksheet for Historical Fiction.

If necessary, remind students that the antagonist in a story is not limited to being a person. The antagonist can also be nature, an institution, a condition of society, a personality trait of the protagonist, or a problem in the relationship between the protagonist and another person. The antagonist is whoever or whatever the protagonist must overcome in the conflict described in the story. Student descriptions of each should include their role in the story and some of their important character traits.

TWM suggests that students review all of the questions in the movie worksheet before they watch the film. Several three to five-minute breaks during the movie will allow students to review the questions again and make notes without missing any of the action. Provide a longer period of five to ten minutes after the movie has been completed for students to finalize their notes and then sufficient time to write full answers to the questions. Teachers may want to assign this last step as homework.

There are many different ways that the movie worksheet can be employed in class. For example, instead of having each student provide a written response to the worksheet, the questions can serve as the basis for a class discussion. Students can also be separated into groups of four or fewer, with each group being asked to give an oral presentation in response to a question on the worksheet. The worksheet can be simplified by eliminating some of the questions or by only requiring a single device of fiction to be discussed (question #4) and only one striking image to be described (question #6). In addition, when there are no reasonable ways for students to research the accuracy of the movie, delete question #7 or substitute another question for it. In these instances, the accuracy of the movie should be described in a lecture, a handout, or by some other means.

An example of a worksheet adapted for the film Music Within with suggested responses is available at the Music Within Film Study Worksheet with Suggested Responses. This film, which TWM highly recommends, is about the life of Richard Pimentel who advocated for the rights of the disabled and was one of the people responsible for the passage in 1990 of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The acceptance of the disabled as full-fledged human beings and the removal of barriers to their participation in society was one of the five great advances in human rights in the United States that began during the 20th century (see the Learning Guide to Music Within). In the case of this movie, there is not a lot of research material available that students can access in order to verify the accuracy of the film. Therefore, question #7 from the Worksheet has been changed to ask a specific question about the movie. Information provided in the Learning Guide about the accuracy of the film will need to be given to students in the form of a lecture.

HISTORICAL FICTION IN FILM CROSS-CURRICULAR HOMEWORK PROJECT:

Having students watch movies outside of class conserves instructional time. Because viewing works of historical fiction will usually be the main way that students experience history in their adult lives, TWM suggests that each semester, students in high school social studies or ELA courses be given a homework assignment to watch two — four filmed works of historical fiction. This can also be done in higher functioning middle school or junior high classes. Students should be required to analyze the film by responding to the questions presented in the movie worksheet. This can be done alone or in groups. See TWM’s Historical Fiction in Film Cross-Curricular Homework Project.

HISTORICAL FICTION IN THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS:

Published in 2010, the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects include historical fiction as a genre of literature covered by the Standards. p. 57. In addition, historical fiction is specifically mentioned in the Reading Literature standards for CCR 9 for grades 6 & 7 on page 37 and in the writing standards under CCR 9, page 44. The fact that historical fiction is included in the definition of the term “fiction” means that all of the Standards that relate to fiction as a whole relate to historical fiction as well.

The Common Core standards support the analysis of historical fiction in social studies classes but only for grades 6 & 7. TWM believes that this is a major deficiency. Because historical fiction will be the primary way that most students will learn about historical events as adults, TWM recommends that historical fiction be part of the social studies curriculum through grade 12.

TWM has developed generic movie worksheets designed to cover most types of fictional presentations. These worksheets stress the literary elements and devices of the story and engage higher level thinking skills. There are worksheets for:

• General Fiction ;
• Adaptations of Novels ;
• The Hero’s Journey ;
• Historical Fiction ; (this worksheet) and
• Science Fiction .

These movie worksheets are designed to be modified for the abilities of the class, the curriculum goals of the teacher, the idiosyncrasies of the film, and specific literary, dramatic, or cinematic elements that the class has studied that may be evident from the movie.

51 Of The Best Historical Fiction Writing Prompts

You’re looking for historical fiction ideas , and most of the ones you’ve come across are either too detailed and specific or too vague — at least for you. 

History writing prompts should paint enough of a picture to allow you to fill in the gaps as you step into it and look around.

Your own perspective and the connections that form in your mind will take that partial image and complete it. 

We kept that in mind while creating this list of 51 writing prompts for your novel . May each one flood your mind with the possibilities. 

51 Historical Fiction Writing Prompts 

If you’re racking your brain for interesting historical events to write about, check out the following prompts to get those synapses firing. You’ll find everything from civil war writing prompts to famous unsolved mysteries . Dig in and find something to play with. 

1. Changing Sides. A slave sent by his master to fight in the Civil War on behalf of the Confederacy changes sides to fight for an end to slavery, not knowing what it will cost the woman he loves. Meanwhile, she risks her own life to protect a friend. 

2. Mail Order Bride. Your only support dies, and to survive, you answer an ad for a bride in the midwest. You’re not looking forward to being a stranger’s wife, but something in the letter he wrote you calms your reservations.

3 . Circus Fugitive. It’s 1925, and you’ve joined the traveling circus as a clown to hide your identity after being framed for a murder you didn’t commit. A rival performer recognizes you and threatens to expose you but doesn’t. He wants something else.

4. Atlantis Rising. You’re a citizen of ancient Atlantis and one of the few chosen for preservation during the centuries of submersion, thanks to Atlantean technology. You’ll never see your family again. One friend — with secrets — sabotages the plan.

5. Pearl Harbor. You’re one of the pilots in an air fight with Japanese bombers over Pearl Harbor. You spot one going in an unexpected direction and follow it, only to see them kamikaze into the building where the love of your life is working.

6. Equal Rights for All. A friend invites you to a meeting where you decide to join the fight for women’s suffrage and equal rights. Your employer spots you protesting and gives you a choice: distance yourself from the cause or lose your job. 

7. Prodigal Daughter. In the 1970s, you ran away from home to see Woodstock and only now, ten years later, are you heading back home, after a brief but troubling phone conversation with your mother. 

8. The Speakeasy Scandal. It’s 1923, and you’ve just opened your own speakeasy, limiting its patronage to select members of your community. But one of them is a mole for the local sheriff. He ends up dead in the alley, and you’re arrested for it. 

9. Sioux Pioneer. You lose your husband on the Oregon Trail to a wagon mishap and are then abducted by a Sioux tribe. Write a story describing your evolving relationship with the Sioux chief’s (adult) son. 

10. No Place for Black Veterans. You’re an orphan who befriends a returning WWII soldier after seeing how the community rejects him because of his skin color. Your friendship attracts the attention of local Klansmen and a neglectful aunt.

11. Undercover DJ. An undercover American WWII soldier sneaks into a German radio room and delivers a cryptic message in perfect German, hoping to alert other Americans to a devious German plot he’s discovered. 

12. Haunted Hotel. It’s 1930, and you buy a hotel that just happens to be haunted by the ghosts involved in a very public murder in the roaring 20s. Turns out, plenty of people are willing to pay good money to be haunted by glamorous murder victims. 

13. Jack the Seam Ripper. Using an item in your grandmother’s “treasure box,” you go back in time and get a young Jack interested in tailoring and fashion design. But can you really stop him from following his darker impulses when an old lover returns?

14. Poker Face. In 1800s England, the poker stakes are higher than most spectators are willing to risk. You’re the reigning champion until a new challenger hits the scene. Thing is, you’re ready to lose and disappear. But it won’t be that simple.

15. Don’t Forget the Pie. You run a 1940s diner and see all sorts of people, many of whom you only see once. Everyone who tries your pie wants the recipe, but it’s a closely-guarded family secret. One customer offers to work for a month to get it.

16. Dear Jane. Your sweetheart is a Vietnam soldier who just broke up with you in a letter. You do some digging and find out he’s left you for one of his fellow soldiers, whose fiancée is the same best friend who comforted you after the break-up. 

17. Once Upon a Drama. You’re a novelist who wakes up in Victorian England and meets your own characters. While rooting for your favorite two people, you don’t expect to fall for one of them. You definitely don’t expect to tell them about it.

18. Ever Since Summer Camp. Five teens meet at summer camp and bond together in response to a tragedy. Their lives continue to intertwine as they grow up in 1950s California. One of them shares the secret that binds them, and lives fall apart. 

19. The Stolen Child. As part of a time-traveling detective couple, you’re excited about your next assignment in Germantown, Maryland: the kidnapping of Charley Ross — a mystery that remained unsolved. 

20. Darkness in the French Quarter. In the early 1880s, your connections with the New Orleans aristocracy leads you to a beautiful Creole woman, Madame Delphine LaLaurie , who has been torturing and murdering the slaves of her household. 

21. Road Trip! Lewis and Clark plan for the Oregon Trail. They talk about hardships they expect, people they’re leaving behind, and what each one most hopes to gain. Your main character is a jilted lover who hatches a plan to stop the expedition..

22. Special Delivery. He delivers milk. She delivers newspapers. They cross paths when they both witness a mugging in 1920s Chicago and intervene to protect the victim. The supposed “victim” then offers them both a job with a hefty payoff. 

23. Nursing History. You pay someone to help you explore your past and see one of your past lives as a WWII nurse. Your fiancé in that life looks an awful lot like your current boss. You see what you went through together and the child you had. 

24. Lost at Sea. A loved one boards the Titanic on their way back home to you. When the ship goes down, they supposedly end up on one of the few liferafts, but they don’t return with the survivors. A year later, they show up at your door.

25. Million Dollar Fling. Ten years ago, you had a moment with a ship’s captain during a 1950s cruise with a group of wealthy socialites you met at college. You show up at a life-changing job interview in New York and come face-to-face with him again. 

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26. American Blood. Your family came to the U.S. after government intervention essentially handed rule in your native country to an organized crime network. A former friend is recruited to their ranks and comes to the U.S. for a business deal. 

27. Two for One. You’re waiting in the parlor for your gentleman host, watching the butler pour tea and eyeing a plate of jammy biscuits. You’re here to meet the man your sister wants to marry. So, why does he know everything about you ? 

28. Jazz Runaway. Two new friends cajole you into joining them to check out a new jazz band. It’s 1930s Mississipi, and you know your parents wouldn’t approve of these friends, but they remind you of someone you lost. What you learn changes you. 

29. Voodoo Priestess. It’s June in 1881. You’re walking in a funeral procession while the band plays. In the coffin is your mother, the Voodoo Queen Marie Leveau , and you’re headed to the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, plot 347. 

30. Is it Jack or Jackie? A woman named Mary Pearsay is arrested for the murder of a woman and her child. After her death, Ripperologists suggest she may have been the real “Jack the Ripper.” Your investigative partner has a weird fixation on her. 

31 . Missing, Presumed Innocent. You’re investigating the case of a young English maidservant who disappeared on January 1st, 1753 and reappeared on the 29th, emaciated and weak. Her story of abduction doesn’t match what investigators find. 

32. The “Mad Monk.” You’ve just met the man who murdered Grigori Rasputin on the 17th of December in 1916, and he’s only too happy to recount the details. He’s not so forthcoming about why he did it, and you’re determined to find out. 

33. Da Vinci’s Muse. The world knows about Leonardo da Vinci but not about the Renaissance woman who inspired him. As one of her descendants, you’re determined to make her known, at the risk of exposing a dark secret. 

34. The Invisible Apprentice. Being William Shakespeare’s apprentice would be great if he weren’t always stealing your ideas and claiming them as his own. So, you write a brilliant satiric play exposing him. He loves it and takes it to the stage. 

35. Death in the Family. You know who really killed JFK, and it wasn’t that patsy Oswald, who’s already dead. Exposing the real killers would put you and your family next on their list. 

36. Nightmares in Heaven. You’re secretly watching Michaelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel. You know he’s been having nightmares, which find their way onto the chapel ceiling — before the Archbishop demands he paint over them. 

37. Candy Creep. The creator of Sweethearts candies sends you a box “anonymously.” The messages on those tiny hearts reveal more than you want to know about him. 

38. Better Half. You’re on a visit to New York in 1977 with your fiancé, and you’re separated when the blackout hits. Write about your adventures as you find your way back to each other — and when you find out where he’s been. 

39. Tactical Magic. It’s 1692, and you’re a witch keeping a low profile in Salem, Massachusetts while trying to protect your sister. She’s just been accused by a group of girls after meeting with the minister’s daughter in the woods. 

40. The Baby Diaries. You found your mother’s hidden diaries detailing her experiences as a young Black woman in the 50s. Now, some of the things she said and did while she lived make sense. You didn’t expect to learn about a half-sister.

41. Forbidden Knowledge. You wake up in the famous library of Alexandria mere hours before it burns, destroying everything. You witness the arson and stealthily pursue those responsible. 

42. Profanely Biblical. At the Nicene Council, Emperor Constantine has booted any bishop who doesn’t agree with his decision on which books belong in the Christian Bible and which should be destroyed. You’re a collector of the latter.

43. Before the Mayflower. On the west coast of Africa, in 1462, you see hundreds of captive men, women, and children being loaded into ships. You ask why and learn the truth as you spot a friend among them. What do you do?

44. The Haitian Revolution. In 1804, Haitians win their independence from French rule. As a Haitian immigrant to the U.S., you openly supported their fight. But when a massacre follows the revolution, you encounter open hostility. 

45. More Than Courage. You’re a student at Harvard when the university admits its first Black student: Beverly Garnett Williams. You share some classes with her, and you witness her courage every day. You also witness people’s reactions. 

46. Illegal Heritage. It’s the Spanish Inquisition, and your family has converted to Christianity from Judaism to survive. That doesn’t stop the local clerics from harassing you — or your pious neighbors from pointing fingers.

47. Crazy in Love. You’re the last person Marilyn Monroe talked to before she was murdered. And you’re determined to expose her killer. But no one believes the “crazy best friend” — including your doctors at the mental hospital.  

48. Model Neighbors. You read your parents’ collected love letters and learn about what they experienced as an interracial couple in the 1960s. They had you before they were forced out of their white neighborhood. 

49. Pirate Queen. You’ve been kidnapped by Blackbeard and instead of killing you, he keeps you as a slave. But you have a brilliant plan to take over the ship and become the new pirate captain of the Queen Mary’s Revenge. 

50. She’s Indisposed. You’re an apothecary in the 1600s, and two star-crossed lovers have asked you to prepare a potion to help one of them fake their death. You create the potion but get it mixed up with a powerful remedy for constipation. 

51. Tele-porta-vision. In 1972, you sit around your English family’s first TV set — a gift from your dad’s new employer. You wake up hours later in the middle of a crop circle nearby, unable to remember how you got there. Dreams tell you more. 

Final Thoughts

Now that you have 51 prompts with cool historical events to write about, which ones make you want to put this aside and start writing? 

And what else will you bring to your story to make it uniquely yours? 

Humor? Romance ? Horror ? Fantasy ? Choose-your-own adventure? 

Pick a prompt , and play with whatever comes to mind. Tell your inner editor to take a nap while you get the words out. This is a time to create. 

Write away. 

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Lesson Plan: Historical Fiction

"time travel with historical fiction writing".

Reading historical fiction provides a compelling way for students to learn about different time periods. This lesson plan will ask students to write their own short historical fiction story, using details about a historical period that they learn in a Social Studies unit.

Objectives Students will: -Identify key terms for a historical period -Identify the five elements of a short story -Incorporate the five elements of a short story into their writing -Write a story that is set in a historical period

Materials - Flocabulary Social Studies video - Flocabulary Fiction v. Non-fiction video - Flocabulary Five Elements of a Short Story video

Time 2-3 Class periods

Sequence 1. After you have finished a unit on a historical period, ask students to make a list of all the key terms they can remember: people, places, ideas that were important to that time period. Explain that students are going to use the details to create a short historical fiction story. 2. Ask students to define historical fiction, and have them share examples that they have read before. If they have never read historical fiction before, you may want to use Flocabulary's Fiction v. Non-Fiction video to talk about how historical fiction can be tricky, because it has a lot of real details even though they story is not real. 3. Review the Five Elements of a Short Story, with the Flocabulary video "Five Things." 4. Give students time to plan out their short story. The only constraint is that the story much be set in the historical period you're studying. It is up to students to create characters, plot and conflict. Students should indicate which key terms they will use to show that their story is set during that time period. 5. Give students a period (or more) to write their stories. When finished, they can read or tell their stories to their classmates.

Extension / Wrap Up If students want an extra challenge, they can try to tell their story in rhyme using Flocabulary's Writing Academic Rhymes lesson sequence. At the end of the year, you can have students use their historical fiction stories to help review historical periods from the year. These stories can serve as strong mnemonic tool, since kids will remember what their characters did and where they lived, and the setting is history!

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BEST HISTORICAL FICTION WRITING PROMPTS

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Showing 42 prompts reset

Overcoming obstacles with writers ink, write a time-travel story where a character from the present finds themselves in the 80s or 90s., write an epistolary story set during a major historical event. the event may be the subject of the letters directly, or be referenced in the background., write about a character who is living through a major historical event — whether they know it or not., set your story in eighteenth century london, including a casual reference to something that changes the course of history..

• Write a story that takes place in the same building but in two very different time periods.

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• Write a historical fiction story about someone working at a company that helped revolutionize early computers.

Write about an elderly character who was part of a historic movement years ago.

Write a story that starts by establishing its setting in a different time period — without explicitly stating what that period is., write a story about a musician struggling to find work during wartime., write a story about a family dinner that takes place in any time period other than the present., subscribe to our prompts newsletter.

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You are a composer and your fiercest rival is Ludwig van Beethoven.

Historical Fiction

• You are a gossip columnist — in 1905.

A day in the life of an apothecary in the 1600s.

It is halloween and the jack o' lantern on your porch has just come alive., describe london from the eyes of a pauper in 1810..

• Write a story in which the outcome of a historical war went differently.

You are Dracula. Write a story in which you get a happy ending.

Your lover has just confessed to you that he's from the fourteenth-century. (which certainly explains some of his grooming habits.), as you’re eating a box of sweethearts, you realize the words are a message., germs have just been discovered, but they’re still a pretty radical concept. you’re trying to get people on board with the idea of “hygiene.”, win $250 in our short story competition 🏆.

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

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The best historical fiction writing prompts

One of the joys of writing historical fiction is the opportunity to look to the past and ask: what if? What if an English woman suddenly found herself transported through time from mid 20th-century Scotland to mid 18th-century Scotland? What if you could meet the woman behind Johannes Vermeer’s famous oil painting? What if you could talk to one of Henry VIII’s most trusted advisors? All of these stories already exist, of course — Outlander, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Wolf Hall — but there are many more to tell. And hopefully these historical writing prompts will help you do just that!

The possibilities for historical fiction are practically endless — you’ve got an entire world, and the course of millenia to choose your setting from! What really matters is making sure that you are able to include the kind of textual details and references to real-world events that will immerse your readers entirely. That requires research, preparation, and a whole lot of planning. While other genres may give you a little (or a lot!) more leeway for invention, historical fiction readers expect a certain level of rigor from their novels, so bear this in mind in your story development and editing process.

Here are our top ten historical fiction writing prompts:

• A bard falls in love with the monarch who employs them.
• You’re Shakespeare’s apprentice, and he’s always taking credit for your ideas.
• You worked at one of the first printing presses during the Printing Revolution of the 15th century.
• Write about a specific time in history through love letters.
• The revolution is here — and you’re going to play a crucial role in leading it. (Choose any revolution you like, from any era.)
• A family sit around their brand new radio for the first time after dinner.

Here are some additional resources to help you write historical fiction:

• How to Master the 'Show, Don't Tell' Rule (free course) — Fiction which relies heavily on its setting will require a lot of exposition, but how can you do this well? You want to avoid info-dump. (“Oh Mary! I do so love returning home to our quiet town on the coast of Victorian England, having been injured from my time as a soldier in the Crimean War, 1853-1856!”) Instead, you should be employing the golden rule of show, don’t tell — and our course explains exactly how to do that.
• The Ultimate Worldbuilding Guide (free resource) — While our guide is also used by fantasy authors to cook up entirely new worlds from scratch, this resource provides helpful prompt questions which you can use to shape your research.

Want more help learning how to write a short historical fiction? Check out How to Write a Short Story That Gets Published — a free, ten day course guiding you through the process of short story writing by Laura Mae Isaacman, a full-time editor who runs a book editing company in Brooklyn.

Ready to start writing? Check out Reedsy’s week l y short story contest , for the chance of winning $250! You can also check out our list of writing contests or our directory of literary magazines for more opportunities to submit your story.

Have a story you’re ready to start submitting? Check out our list of writing contests or our directory of literary magazines .

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Explore more writing prompt ideas:

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Welcome to our comprehensive overview of historical fiction! Whether you are a fan of the genre or just looking to learn more about it, this article has got you covered. Historical fiction is a popular and diverse genre that combines elements of both history and fiction to create compelling stories set in the past. From ancient civilizations to more recent events, historical fiction offers a unique way to experience and understand different time periods and cultures. In this article, we will explore the various aspects of historical fiction, including its definition, characteristics, and sub-genres.

We will also delve into the reasons why people are drawn to historical fiction and its role in shaping our understanding of the past. So, if you are ready to embark on a journey through time and discover the world of historical fiction, let's begin!To begin, it's important to understand the main purpose of historical fiction - to educate and entertain readers. As such, it should include accurate historical facts and details, while also weaving in fictional characters and events. This balance can be challenging but when done well, it can bring history to life in a way that textbooks and lectures cannot. When writing about historical fiction, be sure to cover various time periods and cultures to appeal to a wider audience.

This can include ancient civilizations, medieval times, the Renaissance, and more recent events like World War II. Explore the customs, beliefs, and daily life of people from different eras to provide a well-rounded understanding of their experiences. Additionally, focus on specific historical figures that have had a significant impact on the world. This could be a well-known leader or a lesser-known individual who played a crucial role in a particular event. Provide background information on these figures and their contributions, while also incorporating them into your fictional story in a believable way. Lastly, consider including educational resources for readers who want to dive deeper into specific topics.

Shining a Light on Historical Figures

Exploring different time periods and cultures, why historical fiction is important.

It allows us to empathize with characters and understand their motivations, making the past more relatable and engaging. Additionally, historical fiction can also shed light on lesser-known events and perspectives, giving a more well-rounded view of history. Furthermore, historical fiction can also provide cultural and social context for historical events. By exploring the daily lives, customs, and beliefs of people from different time periods, readers gain a deeper understanding of the influences that shaped history.

Providing Additional Resources

This curiosity can lead to additional research, which can deepen their understanding and appreciation for the subject matter. In addition, many historical fiction books include a bibliography or recommended reading list at the end, providing readers with a list of non-fiction sources to explore. This not only expands their knowledge on the topic, but also allows them to fact-check the accuracy of the fictional elements in the book. Furthermore, historical fiction can also inspire readers to visit historical sites or museums related to the time period or events depicted in the book. This hands-on experience can bring history to life and enhance one's understanding of it. In conclusion, historical fiction is a valuable resource for those looking to learn about the past. It combines entertainment with education, providing a unique perspective on historical events and figures.

By exploring different time periods and cultures, highlighting important historical figures, and offering additional resources, writers can create engaging and informative articles that appeal to a broad audience.

Grace Thompson

Grace Thompson is a dedicated historian and writer, contributing extensively to the field of world history. Her work covers a wide range of topics, including ancient civilizations, cultural histories, and significant global events like the World Wars. Known for her meticulous research and clear, engaging writing style, Grace makes complex historical subjects accessible to readers. Her articles are a valuable resource for both students and educators, providing deep insights into how historical events shape the modern world.

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Historical fiction is a captivating genre that blends rich historical details with engaging storytelling. It transports readers to different eras, from ancient Rome to WWII, balancing historical facts with imaginative narratives. The historical fiction genre can be not only entertaining but educational, too, offering a unique window into the past.

Why We Love Historical Fiction

1. Escape & Exploration : Historical fiction provides a window into various times and places, allowing readers to explore fascinating periods like medieval Europe or the American Revolution. In using the past as a background for your tale, you can create an escape for modern readers, perhaps pining for a different life – though not everything is as romanticised as it may seem.

2. Learning Through Story : It makes complex historical events and cultures accessible and engaging, turning history lessons into compelling narratives. It is also a way to tell the untold stories of the past, shedding light on people, events and secrets that may otherwise have been forgotten, lost to time.

3. Emotional Depth : By tapping into timeless emotions—such as love, fear, and ambition—historical fiction makes past experiences feel vivid and relatable. Telling stories through historical events, which often have knock-on effects to the here and now, is a fantastic way to contextualise the how and why of life today.

What Makes Great Historical Fiction?

1. Authentic World-Building : Creating a believable historical setting involves accurate details like clothing, customs, and environments without overwhelming the reader.

2. Relatable Characters : Characters should reflect their historical context but face struggles and emotions that resonate with modern readers.

3. Blending Fact and Fiction : Striking a balance between historical accuracy and creative storytelling is essential. Writers should research thoroughly while allowing for narrative freedom.

Popular Themes in Historical Fiction

War and Conflict : Provides natural tension and drama, exploring the impacts of historical upheavals.

Love and Romance : Adds depth to love stories by placing them in complex historical settings. Historical romance novels are a popular blend of genres. Love a good romance? Learn more about romantic fiction here!

Social Struggles : This is a theme that highlights characters challenging societal norms, making past struggles relevant to contemporary readers.

Tips for Writing Historical Fiction

1. Choose the Right Time Period : Select an era that excites you and fits your narrative. Consider both popular and obscure periods for unique perspectives.

2. Research, but Don’t Overload : Focus on historical context and integrate details naturally into the story without overwhelming readers.

3. Create Authentic Characters : Ensure characters reflect their time while addressing universal emotions to remain relatable.

4. Leverage Historical Conflict : Use historical events as a backdrop to deepen personal stories and emotional stakes.

5. Balance Dialogue : Capture the period’s tone without making it too dense or outdated. Ensure readability for modern audiences.

6. Focus on Emotional Storytelling : Highlight character growth and relationships to keep readers engaged and make the past feel alive. If you’d like to see more tips for writing historical fiction, explore our current historical fiction tutor Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s article now!

Historical fiction offers a unique blend of education and entertainment, humanising the past and making it resonate with the present. It’s a journey through time that enriches our understanding of history and ourselves.

How to Write Historical Fiction (Beginner)

Ready to start writing historical fiction?

Join us for our historical fiction online tutored course and take the plunge into writing stories from the past.

During this 12-week course, led by author Lucy Hughes-Hallett, you’ll learn how to construct a story, explore how time can factor into your narrative, and how the use of war/conflict and societal pressures can shape a novel.

You’ll receive personalised feedback, one-to-one tutorials and be part of a like-minded community.

Term begins 23 September 2024 and places are selling fast – hurry!

Historical Fiction Glossary

1. Anachronism : An element from a different time period that disrupts historical accuracy. Avoiding anachronisms maintains immersion.

2. Historical Accuracy : Aligning details with real historical events and settings. Essential for credibility.

3. World-Building : Creating a detailed, believable historical setting. Important for reader immersion.

4. Primary Sources : Original documents or artifacts from the time period. Provide first-hand historical insights.

5. Secondary Sources : Interpretations of primary sources, like history books. Help contextualise and expand on historical events.

6. Historical Context : The social, political, and cultural conditions of a time period. Essential for authenticity.

7. Historical Figures : Real people from the historical period. Add depth but require careful portrayal.

8. Historical Fiction Tropes : Common themes like forbidden love or espionage. Use creatively to avoid clichés.

9. Authenticity : True to the historical period in language and customs. Enhances reader immersion.

10. Alternate History : A subgenre exploring “what if” scenarios with altered historical events.

11. Historical Drama : Focuses on intense personal or political events. Highlights emotional elements.

12. Social History : Examines everyday life and societal structures. Provides a rounded portrayal of the past.

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Vocabulary.com Help Center

Genre study: resources for teaching historical fiction (high school), prep students for close reading with curated vocabulary lists.

Historical fiction provides a window into diverse periods and a range of human endeavors.

The genre also features unfamiliar words and concepts that can pose a challenge for your students. Vocabulary.com makes it easy to prepare students for deeper, more enjoyable reading by explicitly teaching the specific words they'll encounter in the text.

Our curriculum team has created curated vocabulary lists for dozens of classic and contemporary historical fiction titles that will appeal to the range of readers in your classroom.

Implementation Ideas

Prep students for closer reading with paired practice activities..

• Before students tackle their reading assignment, search for the book in our list library. Using our curated lists , you can pair the title you're teaching with text-based vocabulary instruction.
• Assign a Practice activity based on the list you selected. Our tools make it easy to assign work to multiple classes, create a series of assignments for an entire book, and adjust due dates.
• Have students independently complete the Practice assignment. As they work , they'll learn the key vocabulary words from the book, presented in usage examples from the source text.

Give students a choice of books within the genre.

Genre study is a perfect match for student-selected reading, but it can be a challenge to provide instruction to multiple students reading different titles within one class. You can support individual choice by having students select their books from our list library, and then complete the Practice activity on their own.

Recommended reading:

The following recommendations are a great place to start. Bear in mind that the titles below are just a sample of our historical fiction titles. Search our list library for thousands of other curated lists and collections.

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez Kindred by Octavia Butler Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr Under a War-Torn Sky by L.M. Elliott Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson Typical American by Gish Jen Butterfly Yellow by Thanhha Lai Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough Black Swan Green by David Mitchell Beloved by Toni Morrison Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko  What the Night Sings by Vesper Stamper Arcadia by by Tom Stoppard The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead White Rose by Kip Wilson The Downstairs Girl by Stacy Yee

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Home › Blog Topics › Writing Historical Fiction: Collaborating to Meet the Standards

Writing Historical Fiction: Collaborating to Meet the Standards

By Brandi Hartsell on 06/05/2019 • ( 2 )

Over the past few semesters I have had the pleasure of collaborating with creative writing teachers in my building for weekly “Library Wednesday” lessons. In our school, creative writing is an elective course comprised of students in grades 9-12. We have done numerous creative writing projects, from creating children’s picture books (that were later delivered to Kindergarten students at our local elementary school) to writing short stories told entirely through text messages. But perhaps my favorite project we have done was a historical fiction short story assignment. I brainstormed and researched project ideas and collaborated with the teacher to create the assignment using resources I found online (primarily this assignment available from TeachersPayTeachers). The project was originally conceived with the previous AASL standards in place, but easily meets many of the AASL National School Library Standards for learners with very little modifications.

I began the unit by showing this  video from the Scottish Book Trust featuring award-winning young adult author Elizabeth Wein sharing tips for writing and researching historical fiction. Next, we provided students with several exemplar stories to serve as a model. I suggest works pulled from A Tyranny of Petticoats or The Radical Element , both edited by Jessica Spotswood. Then we started with the research. The teacher and I selected time periods we wanted the students to choose from and then outlined the information they needed to provide for the research portion of the project. I created a research guide that led students directly to our most useful online resources as well as print resources. In addition, I provided information about evaluating outside sources for accuracy. We asked students to identify how people dressed, how they went about their daily lives (obtaining, preparing, and storing food, hygiene practices, etc.), common tools that were used, and more. The research portion of this assignment was a lot of work, but worth it in the end.

Once students had completed their research, they began the writing process. We always start our lessons with some prewriting activities in which students outline their thinking and ideas. Once they had brainstormed character, plot, and setting, they began writing. We asked students to submit a story that was 3-4 typed pages in length and provided a rubric for guidance. Students were asked to create a fictional story based on a real historical figure from their chosen time period. They had the freedom to choose to depict a fictional account of true events or to create an entirely fictional plot.

The biggest struggle students had was in using authentic dialogue including accents, dialects, and old-fashioned words. In the future, I will add an element to the project that includes identifying primary source documents from the time period to help students with this issue. In addition, I will add a “brainstorming keywords” component to the unit and guide students to useful keywords for dialogue such as vernacular, colloquialisms, and slang. Overall, students were engaged and seemed to enjoy the assignment. Their learning was evident in their final submissions and we ended up with a couple of truly beautiful pieces of historical fiction.

Has anyone else found ways to combine research skills with creative writing? Do you have any tips or tricks to share?

Author: Brandi Hartsell

Brandi Hartsell is the school librarian at Halls High School in Knoxville, TN. She was awarded Teacher of the Year at HHS in 2021. Brandi was also recognized alongside colleagues as recipients of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians (TASL) Teacher Collaboration Award in 2019 and 2021. She has served (and continues to serve) in many leadership roles within TASL. Brandi has presented professional development sessions for TASL, Halls High School, and Knox County Schools. Brandi loves sharing ideas and brainstorming…also cats…and true crime. Follow her on Instagram @hhslibrarytn.

Categories: Blog Topics , Student Engagement/ Teaching Models

Tags: #AASLstandards , co-teaching , collaboration , historical short story , short stories , short story , writing

This is such a cool assignment. What better teacher to partner with than one who teaches creative writing. When I worked in a high school, the creative writing teacher was my best collaborator.

Fabulous! What a novel idea!

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Current Issue

How Historical Fiction Redefined the Literary Canon

In contemporary publishing, novels fixated on the past rather than the present have garnered the most attention and prestige.

The 68th National Book Awards at Cipriani Wall Street, 2017.

On Friday, the judges of the National Book Awards will announce the long list for this year’s prize for fiction. On Monday, the Booker Prize jury will winnow their own long list down to just six finalists. And while betting on literary prizes is something of a fool’s game, odds are both lists will cover quite a lot of historical ground. The likely honorees include Percival Everett’s James , set in the antebellum South; Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars , which spans 150 years, beginning in the 1860s; Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Long Island Compromise , split between 1980, World War II, and the present; and Claire Messud’s This Strange Eventful History , whose multigenerational plot runs from 1940 to 2010. Two different prizes, with two different juries, with two lists of books that—I’d wager—will have a lot in common.

That’s because, over the last several decades, a quiet revolution has taken place in American fiction: The novels recognized by major literary prizes have largely abandoned the present in favor of the past. Contemporary fiction has never been less contemporary.

If we look back to the middle of the 20th century, we can see that the kinds of books that were short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize or the National Book Award then were mostly about contemporary life: J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye , Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man , and a host of others by the likes of Saul Bellow, John Cheever, and John Updike. And these aren’t outliers. Between 1950 and 1980, about half of the novels short-listed for these and the National Book Critics Circle Award were set in the present, narrating “the way we live now” in all its complexity.

Fast-forward to the present, and the past has taken over. A historical novel has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 12 out of the last 15 years, and historical fiction has made up 70 percent of all novels short-listed for these three major American prizes since the turn of the 21st century. Today, writers like Colson Whitehead, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Louise Erdrich, and Hernan Diaz are less interested in the way we live now than the way we were .

But this generation of prize-winning novelists is different from their forebears in another major way— they’re a lot less white . American literature’s overwhelming turn toward the historical past has both motivated, and been motivated by, the increasing recognition of Black, Asian American, Latinx, and Indigenous writers in the literary field. Over the past five decades, writers of color have been celebrated, prized, and canonized almost exclusively for the writing of historical fiction: narratives of war, immigration, colonialism, and enslavement that span generations and honor previously disregarded histories. Of the top 10 most-taught novels by writers of color published after 1945, eight are works of historical fiction. Of the 54 novels by writers of color to be short-listed for a major American prize between 1980 and 2010, all but four are works of historical fiction.

Richard Jean So has recently argued that racial disparities in 20th-century publishing constituted a kind of “cultural redlining,” wherein writers of color were largely unrepresented. While the literary canon of the early 21st century is markedly more inclusive, a different sort of redlining still exists: not the outright refusal of literary institutions to enfranchise writers of color, but a selective elevation that enfranchises those writers only in a single sector of the literary field. Though the pantheon of American literature may be more racially and ethnically diverse than it has ever been, the criteria that consecrate minority writers have never been more homogeneous. How did the definition of literary excellence become so narrow?

Beginning in the 1980s, a number of key literary institutions transformed in ways that either expressly or implicitly promoted historical fiction as contemporary literature’s most prestigious and politically important genre. These included creative writing programs, literary agents, and the funding organizations, like the National Endowment of the Arts, that encouraged authors to write fictionalized versions of their family histories; major literary awards that prized historical fiction above all other genres and concentrated that prestige in a handful of historical settings; literary scholars who placed the work of historical recovery at the very heart of their method; and university English departments that recalibrated syllabi toward fictions of the past. These transformations impacted the careers of 20th-century writers like Toni Morrison, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Julia Alvarez, and they shaped those of 21st-century writers like Colson Whitehead, Julie Otsuka, Jesmyn Ward, and Tommy Orange.

In many ways, Morrison stands as the chief figure of this shift in literary taste. By virtually any measure, the author’s 1987 masterpiece, Beloved , is the single most canonized work of contemporary American fiction. Beloved is among the most-taught novels in university courses and the contemporary novel most cited by scholars. Morrison’s haunting book on American slavery stands out from the contemporary literary canon even as it typifies that canon’s thematic and aesthetic preoccupations. The novel takes place during a crucial moment in the nation’s past, documenting the horrors of history with a startling closeness and tracing their resonances across several generations. In the decades since its publication, Beloved has proved a model for a diverse group of writers interested in narrating the past, as well as a touchstone for teachers and scholars invested in recovering that past.

When Beloved became a finalist for the National Book Award in the late 1980s, Morrison was one of only a handful of Black novelists to be short-listed for the prize in the decades since Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man won it in the early 1950s. Whereas Invisible Man opens with the protagonist being expelled from college, following him as he is employed to paint the world “Optic White,” Beloved closes with Morrison’s own young protagonist, Denver, at the precipice of college admission, so that she might write a different story with the ink her mother, Sethe, was forced to make. While the tale the invisible man tells is his own, its setting the contemporary world in which he lives, Denver’s narrative is one of (what Morrison calls) rememory , of grappling with the world that came before her.

Though neither Morrison nor Beloved inaugurated a shift in literary value single-handedly, novel and novelist alike came to exemplify it for a generation of readers, teachers, scholars, and writers that followed. One way of understanding the cultural history of the last five decades is as the story of how American literature moved from Ellison to Morrison to where we are now—of how, in other words, the past came to supplant the present in contemporary American fiction.

The Nation Weekly

In the 1980s and 1990s, Fredric Jameson argued that one of the many failings of contemporary historical fiction was its “omnivorous…historicism,” its “random cannibalization of all the styles of the past.” More than 20 years later, Jameson doubled down on that claim in an essay titled “The Historical Novel Today, or, Is It Still Possible?” He lamented that “the historical novel seems doomed to make arbitrary selections from the great menu of the past, so many differing and colorful segments or periods catering to the historicist taste, and all now…more or less equal in value.” Yet this critique fails to register just how selective—one might even say discerning—writers and readers have been when it comes to their appetites for history.

Though the historical settings of contemporary American fiction are as diverse as the authors who create them, a significant portion of this work falls within a highly specific constellation of historical subgenres: contemporary narratives of slavery, Holocaust fiction and the World War II novel, the multigenerational family saga, narratives of immigration, and the novel of recent history .

Testifying to the prominence of these individual subgenres, many notable novels in the last decade have fallen under the rubric of not one, but two or more of them. Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being , for example, chronicles the history of Japanese airmen during World War II, as well as the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing is a multigenerational novel that narrates two halves of a family tree divided by enslavement, but reunited by way of immigration two centuries later. Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s A Kind of Freedom is a World War II novel, a multigenerational family saga, and a novel of recent history that follows three generations of a Black family living in New Orleans from the 1940s, through the 1980s, to the period just after Hurricane Katrina.

Though it may seem odd to categorize works as various as Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad , Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko , and Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones under the single heading of historical fiction, this broader approach enables us to recognize the larger literary ecosystem that allows those diverse forms to flourish: Taken together, they represent a sea change in conceptions of literary prestige, and a shift in value from narratives of the way we live now to chronicles in which—to borrow from Morrison—“nothing ever dies.”

This transformation of the American literary field has been, in many ways, a salutary one. It has led to a dazzling wealth of historical narratives, fostered the careers of a new generation of American writers, and contributed to the formation of a literary canon that is markedly more inclusive than it has ever been. More important still, it has helped to reshape American historical consciousness. As historians such as Hayden White have recognized for at least half a century, our understanding of the historical past is inseparable from the structure of the stories we tell about it. The long-refuted assumption that “the difference between ‘history’ and ‘fiction’ resides in the fact that the historian ‘finds’ his stories, whereas the fiction writer ‘invents’ his,” White argues, overlooks both the historian’s commitment to narrative tropes and the historical novelist’s commitment to factual research.

As the writers just mentioned have demonstrated well, fiction is a powerful tool for producing historical knowledge. Historical fiction shapes our collective memory, personifies key events and periods, reveals the deeper roots of contemporary crises, unsettles neat chronologies, challenges the historical record, exposes its lies and lacunae, recovers disregarded stories, and conjures others to stand in for those that have been lost entirely. Indeed, by stimulating a critical encounter with the past, historical fiction, at its best, turns its reader into a kind of time traveler.

We are living in a golden age of historical fiction, but also a period in which the understanding it promotes is being increasingly policed. The culture and canon wars of the 1980s and 1990s not only helped to bring about American literature’s focus on the past; they also offered a kind of prologue to today’s cultural politics, where ferocious debates over which books are taught, and how, have not only resurfaced but intensified. The political proxy wars that once focused largely on university English departments have now spread to new and alarming fronts, from the public library to the high school classroom. Many of the novels discussed here—Morrison’s in particular—have already been targeted by right-wing pundits, banned by local school boards, and outlawed by state legislators. I have little doubt that more will follow.

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At the same time, the sustained assault on narratives of history also emphasizes the limits of what those narratives can accomplish on their own. It may be comforting to imagine that these efforts to stymie literary culture and sanitize the historical record will someday be judged harshly by history . But that way of thinking only highlights how thoroughly historical fiction’s backward glance has come to frame contemporary politics. Understanding the past is a necessary but ultimately insufficient condition for effecting change in the present.

Over the last five decades, a number of literary institutions have inadvertently encouraged the belief that history can act as the central staging ground for issues of contemporary injustice and inequality. The Pulitzer Prize and its peers have elevated novels about the 1920s that offer comparisons with today’s ultra-rich, and stories of the ’60s that allude to today’s over-policed, but neither address the present with the unflinching gaze our moment requires. Given fiction’s extraordinary capacity to resuscitate the past, these institutions have at times mistaken historical recovery for a form of historical redress.

Thirty years ago, Toni Morrison argued in Playing in the Dark that the American literary canon had assisted in “the construction of a history and a context for whites by positing history-lessness and context-lessness for blacks.” In the decades since then, a generation of Black, Asian American, Latinx, and Indigenous writers has marshaled historical fiction as a means of rectifying this disparity, and a range of cultural organizations have consecrated those writers for doing so.

It is certainly not lost on historical novelists—or their readers—that historical fiction is always to some extent about the time in which it is written rather than set. Yet in recent years, writers have worked to highlight the limits of the easy analogy between past and present, as well as how it has become an expectation placed upon minoritized writers in particular. Take the narrator of Nguyen’s The Sympathizer , for example, whose stories of the Vietnam War and its aftermath are the product of interrogation and forced confession. As Nguyen writes in the opening lines of the novel, “I wonder if what I have should even be called talent. After all, a talent is something you use, not something that uses you. The talent you cannot not use, the talent that possesses you—that is a hazard, I must confess.”

Or consider Cora, the protagonist of Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad , who escapes enslavement only to find that the sole employment available to her is playing an enslaved woman in a white-owned museum. As that novel makes clear, when the only job in town is historical reenactment, representing the past can seem more like a trap than a means of getting free. As this year’s prize lists will surely attest, in the world of American literature, the past isn’t dead—it isn’t even past.

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Humanitarians, Historical Fiction, and Material Culture

In the September 2024 Issue of the American Historical Review

/ Article Archive

/ Humanitarians, Historical Fiction, and Material Culture

Publication Date

September 9, 2024

Perspectives Section

AHA Activities

K–12 Education

American Historical Review

• United States

Cultural, Environmental, Material Culture, Social

The September 2024 issue of the American Historical Review features articles and forums that rethink approaches to environmental, humanitarian, and welfare history, and includes pieces on historical fiction, archives and libraries, and history education.

The late 19th-century cotton dress that floats across the cover of the September AHR offers a marvelous illustration of the diversity of histories and methods that make up this issue of the AHR . In the #AHRSyllabus module “A Case for Objects: Material Culture in the History Classroom,” Sarah Jones Weicksel introduces an object analysis worksheet to help students create a biography of a single object and ask historical questions about the object’s life cycle. She offers a short biography of the dress on the cover of this issue of the AHR to illustrate the kinds of stories objects can tell. Image: Dress, 1872, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Acc. No. 2003.426a, b.

In “Looking for the Soul in Environmental Lament: Civil Religion, Political Emotion, and the Handling of the Earth in the New Deal Era,” Michael G. Thompson (independent scholar) and Clare Monagle (Macquarie Univ.) explore the history of New Deal environmental policy and practice, in particular the use of biblical language and imagery in the New Deal soil jeremiad. Thompson and Monagle frame the environmental “sins” of this lament, namely land overuse and soil erosion, against the backdrop of the growing convergence of ecumenical missionaries and conservation efforts. They argue New Deal environmentalism defies typical categorization used in environmental politics and invite an interfield discussion of religious and environmental methodologies.

Melanie Schulze Tanielian ’s (Univ. of Michigan) “‘We Found Her at the River’: German Humanitarian Fantasies and Child Sponsorship in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries” discusses German humanitarian work in the late 19th century. She challenges previous scholarship that focused on Anglo-American humanitarianism and traces the influence of pious German efforts, particularly its openness to international and ecumenical collaboration and the promotion of individual development, on modern humanitarianism’s ideologies and practices. She highlights the success of the Armenisches Hilfswerk (Armenian Relief Works) one-to-one child sponsorship program to promote an imagined humanitarian community among the evangelical moral counterpublic and traces its contribution to interwar international humanitarian practices.

In “Carceral Recycling: Zero Waste and Imperial Extraction in Nazi Germany,” Anne Berg (Univ. of Pennsylvania) investigates the use of carceral recycling—camp-based waste labor—in the Nazi regime. She traces connections between Nazi paranoia about resource limitations and ideas about cleanliness and order, and demonstrates how waste utilization lay at the heart of the system that exploited camp and prison labor in the service of racial purification and imperial expansion. Such framing, Berg argues, firmly grounds the Nazi system of plunder and murder in the trajectory of Western imperialism and its enlightened rationality.

The History Lab opens with a forum of 21 reviews of contemporary historical fiction, including novels, graphic narratives, films, and plays that take on historical issues across time and space. Instead of focusing on historical veracity, reviewers were asked to consider what historical fiction can tell us about the past that other works of history cannot, the innovative forms and voices through which these works engage with their readers, and what reviewers saw as the gains, and losses, of these fictionalized histories. Taken together, we hope these reviews will offer readers a kaleidoscopic perspective on the making of historical fiction today.

New histories of the American welfare state make up a second forum in the Lab that foregrounds the work of three early career scholars who met as National Fellows in the University of Virginia Jefferson Scholars Program: Salem Elzway (Univ. of Southern California), Salonee Bhaman (New-York Historical Society), and Bobby Cervantes (Harvard Univ.). Their doctoral research self-consciously explored what they saw as new approaches for understanding the operations of the welfare state, with Elzway examining the rise of artificial intelligence and the industrial robot, Bhaman the politics of care in the era of HIV/AIDS, and Cervantes the social lives of communities along the US-Mexico border that are among those experiencing the most extreme concentrations of poverty in the United States. Linda Gordon (New York Univ.), Alice O’Connor (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara), and Karen M. Tani (Univ. of Pennsylvania) offer commentary to situate these essays in the longer arc of welfare history.

Gabrielle Dean ’s (Johns Hopkins Univ.) “Ghost Records in the Archival Empire: Africana Cultural Heritage Stewardship at Historically White Institutions” returns the Lab to one of its central concerns, the connections between archives and libraries and the work we do as historians. Drawing on her expertise as a curator of rare books and manuscripts, she discusses how interrelated financial, epistemological, and cultural mechanisms contribute to persisting challenges for collecting African American rare books and archival materials in historically white institutions. Dean advocates for sustained and multifaceted collaborations with archivists at historically Black colleges and universities to support broad efforts to build more robust primary collections of Black history, along with collecting practices informed by community participatory archives programs.

What can historical fiction tell us about the past that works of history cannot?

The September Lab includes two new modules for the #AHRSyllabus. In “Good Question: Right-Sizing Inquiry with History Teachers,” AHA researchers Whitney E. Barringer , Scot McFarlane , and Nicholas Kryczka develop a set of guidelines for asking students questions about the past that reveal the motives of historical actors, address the interplay of structure and agency, and investigate the collision of long-run continuities and sudden contingencies. For their module, they trace curricular initiatives around “inquiry” from the late 19th century to the present to suggest practices for today’s classroom that allow, as they put it, “students to see what history can do for them, and what they must do for themselves.”

Sarah Jones Weicksel ’s (AHA) module, “A Case for Objects: Material Culture in the History Classroom,” provides an easy-to-use method and set of exercises for exploring history through objects. She provides an object analysis worksheet that can help students create a biography of a single object and ask historical questions about the object’s life cycle; a lesson plan that interweaves an array of objects, images, and texts as sources through which students can analyze Northern civilian encounters with the American Civil War; and a “found objects” activity, in which ordinary objects are used to introduce students to doing history through material culture.

Three History Unclassified articles close out this issue’s Lab. In “Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death,” Anthony David (independent scholar) draws on his experiences writing a biography of a German Benedictine monk to reflect on how historians can unwittingly propagate inaccuracies. A central figure in the monk’s life, he came to believe, was a Nazi war criminal. But while working on this book, David encountered new evidence that suggested that might not be so, which led him to reassess his work and challenge his own underlying beliefs. Melani McAlister ’s (George Washington Univ.) “Promises, Then the Storm” crosscuts between observations about the first months of the Gaza war in the fall and winter of 2023 and her ongoing work on the history of Palestinian and Third World solidarity movements in the United States during the 1980s, particularly the place of music and art in them. In “My Brother’s Story,” Nico Slate (Carnegie Mellon Univ.) draws on his experiences as a white historian writing a memoir on the life and death of his mixed-race older brother, along with the work of other memoirists and historians, to discuss the challenges of writing about race, memory, guilt, and gratitude.

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