How to Write Historical Novels

There is more to the historical novel than romance placed in the past. A historical novel is not a romance. The historical romance, and the historical novel, are fundamentally different. The novels have different structures, different premise, different character arcs. If you want to learn how to write a good romance then study North and South. It has everthing that defines the genre.


John Jakes' "North and South"

I have read the book of John Jakes "North and South". This is a historical novel writing at its best. When the book was published, there was so much ado about the book. The novel became a real bestseller, one of the greatest novels in American History. The New York Times wrote about the book: 'On the history of the U.S. book publishing, there has never been such a success story quite like that of John Jakes.'

Bravo! Fantastic! Superb! As a bonus for the hours that it takes to complete such a monumental book, you will gain a first-hand knowledge of life at West Point in the early and mid-1800s… a peak at the Texas frontier, a vacation in a posh cottage at Newport, experience the savagery of war in Mexico, suffer the suspense of both the Charleston Battery and beleaguered Fort Sumter before the mortal fire that launched a war… It has been a long time since I enjoyed the book so much.

The book starts with a brief prologue Two Fortunes. The first one is the Charcoal Burner's Boy. It happened in Ireland in 1686 when a sixteen-year-old boy Joseph killed in a fight his stepfather, who constantly abused his mother and Joseph. He didn't want to let the boy study who was at the same time working at the charcoal burner. The boy was very eager to study; he had a great success at work where he learnt a lot about iron. He already realized that iron was very important for the future of a mankind and he would be able to make a lot of money if he had only known how to produce it. After he had accidentally murdered his stepfather and his mother died (she was killed by the drunkard), Joseph had to run away. He ran away on a ship that was sailing to the New World – America. He signed a contract that he would be slave worker for the first seven years, but after he would be able to develop his life on his own. Joseph takes another last name – Hazard.

There was another story in France. The aristocrat Charles de Main, who had to escape to the New World because of his religion – Protestant – which had been proclaimed wrong in France. As he didn't want to change his religious and political views he had to run away otherwise his family would have been put into a jail. He runs away to the South America and settles in South Carolina, where there had been a lot of Indian slaves. The Americans were at war with Indians, and the captured ones they turned into their slaves. Charles wanted to start a new business – growing rice on plantations – but it was a very hard work, which had to be done in water and almost unbearable conditions. There was the only nation that could do this kind of job and which was used to it, they were the Negroes from Africa. Thus it was the beginning of slavery on the South.

The next chapter starts with the events of spring of 1842. There are two young boys of sixteen years old, Orry Main form the southern state South Carolina and Charles Hazard from the northern state of Pennsylvania. They became the cadets of the Military Academy, West Point, which was considered to be the best for that time in the United States. The boys became very close friends as they had gone through the trials of four year studying at the academy. There was another man in the Academy who was a year older than the mentioned characters and became their first and only enemy. It was Bent who was very fat and considered himself to be superior. They became real rivals, the enemies till the end of their lives.

Orry's family lived on the South, had rice plantations and owned slaves. Niggers, as they called them. Charles' family from the North had iron producing business, and lots of iron plants. Of course there were no slaves, only hired workers. There have never been any argues between the two friends until the following events.

The first war started right after their graduation from the academy. The war was with the Mexicans for the new state of Texas, which Americans wanted to have as theirs. It was the first boys' experience of the real battles. At first they were so eager and excited to go to war and struggle for the country, but after they had seen the horror of war they became scared. This war was quickly finished and won by the Americans. During one of the battles in which Orry, Charles and Bent took part; Orry saved Bent from being murdered by the Indians who were on the Mexican part. In this battle Orry lost his left hand. He stayed crippled for the rest of his life. Yes, he saved Bent's life that had started feeling even more outrageous hatred to the friends. As Orry lost his hand he could not continue his service in the army any more. He went to South Carolina to take care of family business, growing rice. Charles as well dismissed himself from the army and came back to his mother state to run the iron producing business.

The article was produced by the writer of masterpapers.com.Sharon White is a senior writer and writers' consultant in Write dissertation writing