Sarah Webb, author of the just-published novel, The Bookshop Sisters, with some invaluable advice on writing historical fiction for children . . .
I’ve always loved children’s books set in the past, from Under the Hawthorne Tree by Marita Conlon-McKenna to Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder but it was writing a non-fiction history book called Blazing a Trail: Irish Women Who Changed the World, illustrated by Lauren O’Neill and published in 2018 that set me off on my own historical research journey.
Around the time I was researching that book, I visited Dublin’s brilliant tenement museum, 14 Henrietta Street. While walking through the rooms, I imagined what it must have been like to live in one of the well-furnished upper floor flats or in one of the damp, dark basement flats.
These families came alive in my mind and gave me the spark to write a novel about them, The Little Bee Charmer of Henrietta Street which was published by The O’Brien Press in 2021. The book was well received, especially by teachers who enjoyed using it in the classroom to talk about Dublin in the past, so I decided I’d write another one.
When I first heard the remarkable story of Maureen Flavin and the Blacksod D-Day weather reports while watching a television programme called Great Lighthouses of Ireland, I thought to myself, now there’s a story!
Maureen was just twenty-one when she gave the D-Day weather reports in 1944. In my book, The Weather Girls, I created a fictional Blacksod lighthouse family, the Devines, inspired by Maureen and her family.
The Bookshop Sisters
My latest book, The Bookshop Sisters, set in a Dublin bookshop in 1956 was inspired by the amazing women who have come before us, women like Mary Robinson and Nell McCafferty who were girls in the 1950s and went on to change Ireland for good (we hope!).
Here’s the blurb for The Bookshop Sisters:
When thirteen-year-old bookworm Rosy Heron and her big sister Martha are sent to Dublin to help their aunt Toto in her busy bookshop for the summer, their quiet lives change overnight.
The two sisters quickly become part of the Baggot Books team as junior booksellers and bicycle delivery girls. But the bookshop is also full of secrets. Where does their aunt disappear to at night, and what exactly is happening in the basement of the shop? Rosy is determined to solve the mystery, but she’s not the only one interested in the goings-on in Baggot Books …
Writing Historical Fiction
Here’s what I have learned over the past few years about writing historical fiction. I hope it’s helpful for your own writing.
1/ Pick a time in history that you are interested in researching. You don’t have to know anything at all about the time, you just need to be curious about the lives of people in the past and be willing to dedicate lots of time to careful research.
The times in history I have picked for my historical children’s novels are:
Dublin Tenements in 1911 (The Little Bee Charmer of Henrietta Street)
Blacksod Lighthouse, County Mayo in 1944 (The Weather Girls)
Baggot Street, Dublin in 1956 (The Bookshop Girls)
I’m particularly interested in Irish history and so are Irish publishers, so it’s not a bad place to start!
2/ Once you have picked a time in history, you can begin your research.
These are the kinds of things you will need to find out for a children’s novel:
Names that were popular at the time of your story and where your story is set. The census is invaluable for this!
Clothes – what did people wear? (I discovered when I was doing my research for The Weather Girls that most Irish girls and women only started wearing trousers in the 1970s!)
Schools – would your young characters have gone to school? School is so important in children’s lives – it’s important to get it right!
Homes and transport – did people have cars, electricity etc at the time you are writing about? What was daily life like at the time for children and young people?
Food – what kind of food did families eat? Young readers love food in a book and it’s important to get the details right.
Irish libraries are the most wonderful resource for writers. If you are lucky enough to live near one, do go and ask them for help with your research. In my experience they are always happy to help. Some libraries also have a local history librarian. These people are a treasure trove of information and a brilliant resource for any writer!
The Writing Process
Are you a planner or do you like to make it up as you go along? I’m a bit of both. Before I start writing, I like to know my characters well, what motivates them, who their friends are, and how they react to things. Are they hot headed or more level-headed? Are they impulsive or thoughtful?
I find this a good checklist for things you might like to know before you start writing:
Who
Who are the main characters? Who is telling the story? Give them a great name that suits the time and the place. Young readers like to read about children their own age or bit older. The Bookshop Sisters has two main characters, they are 13 and 17. I needed to make them old enough to travel to Dublin from West Cork one summer and work in their aunt’s bookshop.
In The Weather Girls the main characters, Grace and Sibby are 12 going on 13. My books tend to be read by children of age 9/10+ (which is sometimes called ‘middle grade’).
What
What’s the catalyst? What happens at the start of the story to change everything?
I like to start my stories just before something major changes for my main character. In The Weather Girls it’s a plane crash, in The Bookshop Sisters it’s moving to Dublin for the summer to work in a bookshop.
Where
Where is the book set? Make your descriptions full of period detail and as I always tell the young writers I teach, make them paint pictures on the page.
When
We’ve talked about this already – exactly when is the story set? I give myself an exact day – eg Wednesday 22nd May 1907.
Once you have some notes down, try writing your first scene and keep going, scene by scene until your story is finished. I find it helpful to have a possible ending in mind (although it sometimes changes as I write) so I have something to aim towards. For me, it’s like knowing where the finishing line of a marathon is.
Best of luck with your writing!
(c) Sarah Webb
Author photograph (c) Brian Meade
About The Bookshop Sisters:
A story of sisterhood, secrets and standing up for what you believe in from the award-winning author of The Little Bee Charmer of Henrietta Street and The Weather Girls.
It’s 1956. When thirteen-year-old bookworm Rosy Heron and her big sister Martha are sent to Dublin to help their aunt Toto in her busy bookshop for the summer, their quiet lives change overnight.
The two sisters quickly become part of the Baggot Books team as junior booksellers and bicycle delivery girls. But the bookshop is also full of secrets. Where does their aunt disappear to at night, and what exactly is happening in the basement of the shop? Rosy is determined to solve the mystery, but she’s not the only one interested in the goings-on in Baggot Books …
Order your copy online here.
