To make historical fiction compelling, you have to make it more immediate. One way of doing this is to use the first person. The first person is always more palatable. In my Pagan books, I not only used a first person narrative — I even used the present tense. You can't get more immediate than that.
Another technique of immediacy is to ask direct questions. I've often started first-person chapters with questions: 'Ladies, I appeal to you — what makes a man?' This was a trick I learned from my years as a corporate communicator. If you ask a question, the reader will at least hang around long enough to find out the answer.
Most of all, if you want to convey excitement and immediacy, you have to feel at home. If you've immersed yourself in the period you're covering, there won't be a sense of distance when you write about it. That's the demanding side of historical fiction, though in many ways it's no more demanding than the mastery of any other subject. It's simply a matter of knowing your stuff. Like any good communicator.
'Advice for Business Writers From a Master Storyteller' (The Business Writer Compilation No.1) [date unspecified]
Use the link below to visit the website of Australian novelist and historian CATHERINE JINKS:
http://catherinejinks.com/
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