Takeaways From The 2025 Historical Novel Society Conference
I’ve attended all but one of the HNS-NA (North America) conferences, and each one has offered inspiration, friendship, and a wealth of information on the craft of writing, the importance of research, the subgenres of historical fiction, and the business of marketing and publishing. The 2025 event was no different—despite the fact that I seriously loathe Las Vegas. From the blinking lights and sounds of the casino to the “replicas” of ancient statues, Caesar’s Palace gave me a headache. But the conference itself was divine, even if the surroundings were not. Of course, no one can attend every session in person so I’m looking forward to watching the recorded versions of the sessions I missed. Until then, I’ve summarized some of my key takeaways from sessions I was able to attend or in which I participated.
The REAL David in all its glory in Florence, Italy. Photo taken in 2023.
Key Takeaways:
Every story is about love. Whether it’s parental love, romantic love, friendship love, community love, patriotic love, etc., the desire for it, the loss of it, the fulfillment of it, and the fight for it, etc., are drivers of human behavior.
When writing suspense, you need to S L O W things down so the reader is living the moment with the character. The action might be moving at a blistering pace in a fight scene, chase scene, or in the midst of battle, but if you give your character a moment to experience and reflect on the action, the reader is better able to get into the character’s head and go through what they’re going through. This is what my husband—Jason, also a writer as you may already know—calls “explode-a-moment."
For fight or battle scenes, remembering that people have walked these paths before can help give the writer, the character, and the reader insightful human and historical context. Allowing the hero to feel, think, and experience the pain and emotions they’re experiencing in the moment in both mental and physical terms, makes it more real. There are recordings of veterans recounting their experiences in battle that can be a great resource to ensure authenticity.
Use all the senses to enhance the situation, the scene, and the setting. Senses, especially smell, can evoke memories in the character and the reader and make the text “come alive” to the reader. Using our senses—sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch—we experience the world in real life, and so writers who make effective use of all five senses can make the reading experience more immersive and real. Keep in mind characters should notice different things. One may notice a scent immediately and remembers their grandmother’s cookies, while another feels the rain on their skin and remembers being in a downpour with a lover. These differences reveal character.
Voice is critical and should be unique to each author and each character. When thinking about Voice, think word choice, symbolism, cadence and rhythm, length of sentences, metaphor, tense, POV, accents, and more. With effective use of Voice, writers can reduce the number of dialogue tags because it will be clear to the reader who is speaking or acting.
World building isn’t a matter of explaining how things work or where things are. Just create the details and place your character in context. To the characters in your story, they are in the world as it exists. Providing a lengthy “As you know, Bob…” explanation of how things work interrupts the action and flow and will pull the reader out of the story.
There’s no correct way to write. Some are plotters and some are pantsers and some are planters, (or whatever you want to call them). While one panelists advises writers to “Find your big moments, connect the dots, and then leave bread crumbs so your readers can follow the clues,” another panelist says “Write organically and let the story unfold and surprise you.”
Sometimes there is no reason for something happening. Silvia Moreno-Garcia told us about a story in which a man breaks up with his girlfriend by letter instead of in person by writing that he can’t be with her because rabbits come out of his mouth when he talks. No explanation is given. It just is.
Magic is power. Magic gives the magician power and throughout history, women have been called witches because they become powerful within their context—whether in the family, village, community, or in the halls of government. Women who wield power must be able to do it by unnatural means. We know better, of course, but within a story context, magic can be a powerful way to address issues of oppression and revolution.
Magic is healing. What we know as science today was considered magical in the past. This includes medicine and it’s why many healers were considered unnatural or were seen as practicing witchcraft.
Magic is permission. While an author should not use magic as a deus ex machina to get characters out of a sticky situation, it can be used as a powerful tool to introduce dark and “forbidden” subjects. It can give a little breathing space around difficult topics.
Historical romance is subversive or even revolutionary because women and minorities win despite the odds and the struggles. Don’t let anyone denigrate romance because these are stories that represent female empowerment.
Use Mood and Atmosphere to create lush settings. Examples include using an old house to create a spooky character for historical gothic; using inner dialogue to create a unique monologue voice for historical romance; linger in the moment with sensory descriptions for literary historical; and use dissonance to make events or actions pop in historical fantasy. Remember, you can always add/enhance mood and atmosphere during revisions.
Write short stories if you want to dip your toe into science fiction. The short story market is thriving.
Tips for doing historical research:
Think like a tourist. Read travel guides from your period and find old photos or paintings that reflect what period tourists experienced.
Think like a genealogist uncovering relationships and secrets from the past.
Think outside the box and make connections others may have missed.
Think about little details that could describe what the characters felt in the moment. (For instance, the weather on a particular day was hot, so sweat beaded on her lip…)
Think like an adventurer and dive into books written in the period or about the period.
Trust your readers.