A Guide to Writing Historical Fiction

The Outline

An outline is the most important part of a story, especially a historical fiction story. Take it from someone who spent five years winging stories, you need an outline. A historical fiction outline not only organizes the events of your plot, but it also helps organize the events of the time. 

There are several ways to outline a historical fiction novel, it's all about finding what works best for you. The method that resonates most with me is starting with the factual events. This simply means creating a timeline for the years your story takes place. For example:

1955

January 22nd: the United States announces their plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nukes. 

January 28th: Congress authorizes President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use force to defend Taiwan against China. 

February 8th: The last Vietminh troops leave South Vietnam due to The Geneva Accords (1954)

February 12th: Eisenhower sends the first American military advisors to South Vietnam to train an army under Ngo Dinh Diem

And so on through your chosen time periods. Now that we have factual historic events, it's time to add the plotline:

1955

January 22nd: The United States announces their plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nukes. Characters A, B, and C read about it in the news. Character C is terrified of a bomb dropping on them. Character A tries to comfort them as Character B preaches revolution to stop the bombs. 

January 23rd: Characters A, B, and C are in school when they have a bomb drill. All students are required to get under their desks for a designated amount of time and are told where the nearest bomb shelter is. 

January 28th: Congress authorizes President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use force to defend Taiwan against China. Character A has a heated debate with their Father about the ethics of this event. The father is for it, the character is not. Creates conflict within the home.

February 1st: Character A rants about their father to Characters B and C. They have a talk, analyzing the political events, expressing their opinions, etc. 

February 8th: The last Vietminh troops leave South Vietnam due to The Geneva Accords (1954)

February 10th: Character B learns that their older brother has enlisted and is due to be shipped out in two days. They are terrified he will never come back and voice their fears to Characters A and C. A and C comfort them. 

February 12th: Eisenhower sends the first American military advisors to South Vietnam to train an army under Ngo Dinh Diem. Character B's brother ships out. They go to the train station to bid him farewell. 

More likely than not, your outline will change constantly as you write the story. You'll come up with new ideas and trash some of the old ones. This is perfectly fine, I can't tell you how many outlines I went through for the stories published on my page. 

You can also do this backward, starting with your story's plotline and then adding the factual events. You can also create two different outlines; one for the story and for the historical events. Outlines only work if you can understand them, whatever method works for you is the best to go with. Even if what works for you is writing down the historical events as you go along. The above method is what works best from me. 

Your timeline needs to cover your entire story. You need a designated slot of time (say 1955 to 1957) in order to know what events to cover. You don't have to list every single historical event that happened in that time frame, only those that resonate with your story. Say, for example, if your character lives in England, they won't care when and how President Dwight D. Eisenhower got elected. The events shown in your novel all depend on the characters, the plot, and the location.