Painting the Past is a resource and tutorial guide for writers interested in writing historial fiction developed and presented by Meredith Allard. Due out 16th Feb 2021 from Copperfield Press, it's 175 pages (print edition) and will be available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats.
This reminds me in all the best ways of a *good* writing workshop with concrete, logically prepared, and well presented useful advice for the craft of writing, aimed at writers who wish to concentrate on historical fiction. The author/instructor/facilitator makes a case for the appeals and benefits of writing historical fiction, defining (and refining) period and scope, research (yes, you have to do it, obviously), writing, sources, self-editing, traveling for research, finding inspiration, utilizing resources (why everyone loves librarians), and much muuuuch more. There are good writing prompts throughout the book which I strongly recommend actually doing during the reading of this guide.
Five stars. This was really information dense, fun to read, and very useful. It reminds me a lot of a well run writing workshop with a particularly effective teacher. I would recommend it to beginning writers (there are good takeaways here for all genres, not just historical fiction). It would also be useful for more structured group workshops or classroom education.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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