Quotes by James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction

Explore a curated collection of 10 quotes by James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction. Discover timeless wisdom, insightful thoughts, and memorable words that have inspired readers around the world. Browse through the gallery below and click on any quote to read more.

you come to understand that history might be, as Thomas Carlyle put it, “a distillation of rumor,” or, as Napoleon said, — James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction
A novel, or so-called “fiction,” if deeply researched and conscientiously written, might well contain as much truth as a — James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction
my own definition of bad historical fiction hits these points:It fails to transport the reader to a former time.It fails — James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction
Before you're ready to tell that story well, you might have to study and learn the equivalent of an entire specialized c — James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction
Mortmain is an old French word that should be tattooed on the inside of any historical novelist's skull. This wonderful — James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction
If you don't know what those old occupations were, how they were done, and how they interacted with the passersby, you'r — James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction
Some writers don't believe they're ready to begin writing the story until they've finished all the research they can thi — James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction
Lucia Robson's facts can be trusted if, say, you're a teacher assigning her novels as supplemental reading in a history — James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction
Most historical accounts were written by fallible scholars, using incomplete or biased resource materials; written throu — James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction
In my long career in this historical fiction business, though, I've found that the most effective storytelling concept i — James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction: Researching and Writing Historical Fiction