26 February, 2006

Rules for Historical Fiction

Sarah Cuthbertson has been generously posting the Official Rules for Writing Historical Fiction set in various eras, of which the latest is The Official Rules for Writing Prehistoric Fiction

Now Susan Higginbotham has joined in the fun and contributed Ten More Rules for Writing Historical Fiction.

This is getting like an unusually interesting meme, except no-one gets tagged.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are joking right? ;-)

Carla said...

Yes, of course they are :-) I think it's great fun; though I have to admit to being slightly uneasy that it's possible to come up with so many rules. All the people who claim historical fiction is cliched are gaining ammo here. Mind, what sparked it was a post by Alex on Rules for Writing Fantasy Novels and I've seen Rules for Science Fiction, Rules for James Bond Spy Thrillers and Rules for Romance. Hence my cluttered brain drew the parallel with a meme - come up with Ten Rules for the Genre of Your Choice.

Kathryn Warner said...

Hi Carla, thanks for leaving a comment on my blog! It's great to find yours, too. I see I'm a bit late to be included in your survey of histfict, but I may well leave some comments soon, if that's OK!

http://edwardthesecond.blogspot.com/

Carla said...

Alianore, do please leave your comments! You'd get me into double figures!

Kathryn Warner said...

Will do, very soon. In the meantime, you might like to read my own take on 'The Rules'....
http://edwardthesecond.blogspot.com/2006/02/rules-for-historical-fact-and-fiction.html

Sarah Cuthbertson said...

I'm delighted the Official Rules have caught on! The credit for generosity, however, must go to the authors who wrote them for Solander and kindly allowed me post them on my blog -- Vivien Tyler, Elizabeth Chadwick, Alan Fisk, India Edghill and Sarah Johnson.

I'm off to read the new ones now!

Carla said...

Quite true, Sarah, thank you. I meant, it was generous of you to take the trouble to ask permission and post the rules for us all to read, but I didn't say that very clearly.

Gabriele Campbell said...

Yes, thank you everyone for sharing the rules and their sequels.

I don't think I can come up with 10+, but I may yet find some 5-6 rules for writing Scottish Romances. Gimme a wee moment. :-)