WRITING YOUR HISTORICAL FICTION STORY

22 DECISION MAKING
In order to write your short historical fiction you will have
to make some decisions:
➢ Plan the basic details of the story.

(possible) Title of the Story:

Context

Setting (country, city/town, year):

Main Character (name, age, sex,

nationality, personality, beliefs … ):

Other Characters (name, age, sex,

nationality, personality, beliefs … ):

➢ Think how the protagonist is affected by the

historical event.
Look at the example:

Bruno makes friends with Shmuel, the Jewish boy who is

Link between the protagonist in the concentration camp near his home. Bruno is inside
and the main historical event: the concentration camp when the Nazis decide to kill the
Jews there using gas.

Basic consequences of the link: Bruno gets killed in the concentration camp.

Link between the protagonist

and the main historical event:

Basic consequences of the link:

 ➢ Write an outline of the story describing the main
facts.

Initial situation of
the story:

Conflict:

Attempt to resolve:

Resolution:

25 GETTING ATTENTION - OPENING LINES

➢ Use one of the following story-opening categories to
´hook´the reader:

1. Using dialogue

2. Starting ‘mid-action’

3. Making the reader think ‘Why did this happen?’

4. Physical description of character and setting

5. Using an unusual setting

6. Using a thought or a feeling

7. Immediately creating an interesting character

8. Using a sound effect

27 THE STORY HAS A STRUCTURE AND
CHRONOLOGY:

Structure

Conflict/Problem
The Beginning
Events
Setting Resolution
Problem
Characters The end.
Problem solving
Situatio
Results

Chronology: linear or normal, reverse and problem

solving.

29 PERSPECTIVE. WHO NARRATES?

Anyone can be the narrator of the story - the
protagonist, the protagonist's brother, a friend, a servant…

31 NARRATING: FIRST OR THIRD PERSON

First person is more subjective than third person and It's

characterized by allowing the narrator/character to tell the story from
their perspective.

While first-person writing offers intimacy and immediacy between

narrator and reader, third person narration offers objectivity and an
omniscient narrator; the story's narrator has complete understanding,
and insight into the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of some or all of
the characters in the story.
33 GOOD DIALOGUE
➢ How do we punctuate dialogue in a story?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeYwBnjV4YQ
 ➢ Dialogue ingredients:
- What is the context? Is the situation formal or
informal? The time period is particularly important.
- What is the mood? Are the people arguing, angry,
happy, sad or just normal? all these aspects must be
revealed if we want our dialogue to seem authentic.
- Who is speaking? A person's social class, their age,
their personality, their nationality… should be
considered.

34 SENSORY DETAILS: SOUND, SIGHTS AND SMELL

We can add many sensory details to make the readers feel and
imagine while they are reading. What do objects look like? What
color do they have? What sounds can be heard? What can you smell?
…
Use different types of sensory details, five senses.

Make the readers feel as if they were there, in that time and
place, in that historical period, at that moment!!!