Definition
Historical fiction sets its stories in a past era, typically at least 50 years ago, using period-accurate detail to immerse readers in a time they can't visit. The best historical fiction doesn't just use history as wallpaper; it explores how the forces of a particular era shape the characters' choices and fates. The research demands are high, but the payoff is a story that feels lived-in.
Why It Matters
Historical fiction requires the deepest research of any genre, which makes it excellent training for detail-oriented worldbuilding in any setting. It also teaches you to write within constraints (you can't invent a technology or social norm that didn't exist yet), which paradoxically forces more creative solutions. Understanding the genre helps you decide when history serves your story and when it constrains it.
Famous Examples
Thomas Cromwell's rise in Henry VIII's court, written in immersive present tense that makes the 1530s feel immediate.
Medieval cathedral-building as the engine of a sweeping, multi-generational narrative.
Two half-sisters' descendants traced through centuries of African and American history, each chapter a different era.
Common Mistakes
Characters shouldn't explain their own era to each other. They live in it. Let period details emerge through action and setting, not lectures.
People in the past had different values, assumptions, and worldviews. A character who thinks like a 21st-century progressive in 1820 breaks immersion.
Try It Yourself
Pick a specific year and place in history. Write a scene of a character doing something mundane (eating breakfast, traveling to work, buying something). Research what exactly they would eat, how they would travel, what currency they'd use. Make every detail accurate without making the scene feel like a research paper.
Mapping real historical events against your fictional timeline, so your story stays anchored to actual history.
Does your historical timeline actually hold up?
Novelium's timeline tools let you track real historical events alongside your fictional plot, flagging anachronisms and keeping your period details consistent.