History itself is not bound to the conventions of stories. Thus, it offers opportunities for fresh material, inspiring stories like Les Miserables, Schindler's List, Rurouni Kenshin, Dunkirk, A Man for All Seasons, and Cyrano de Bergerac At the same time, writing historical fiction can be intimidating: there is a degree of historical fidelity that the writer must maintain, while not alienating readers through departures from story conventions.

How to Write Historical Fiction is a crash course that covers how to frame fiction within historical events, as well as dealing with questions on how historically faithful this genre must be.

Note: Participants of this workshop are highly encouraged to bring source material, whether primary or secondary, that they'd like to use as the basis for their story.

Our course creator

How to Write Historical Fiction was created by Filipino playwright and author, Dr. Joem Antonio. He has won eight Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards, including second prize for The Last Filipino, a full-length play on Apolinario Mabini, and first prize for The Floret Road, a full-length play on Jose Rizal. He has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from UP Diliman and teaches graduate students of the MA Humanities program at the University of Asia and the Pacific.