Writing Historical and Public Domain Characters

How do you breathe life and detail into historical characters? If you're doing alternate history, time travel, or historical fantasy, chances are you will need to include not only famous historical figures, but also populate your fictional landscape with characters of your own creation. How do you make them both realistic and engaging?

Similarly, how do you play with characters from the public domain? Jasper Fforde's "Eyre Affair" was a lovely alternate universe piece that had Jane Eyre kidnapped away from her own novel. Jane Austen's Darcy has been, variously: a pirate, a vampire, a zombie killer, a detective, a time-traveler and has had literally hundreds of alternate Pride & Prejudice stories told about him.

Both require research, creativity and daring. Do you have these in you? Come join us and find out.