Author Kate Braithwaite and I were chatting via social media and emails – as people do these days – and discovered that we had both written historical fiction and contemporary fiction. How does that/will that play out? Here’s Kate on what that has meant for her writing.
Changing Genre, Changing Lanes by Kate Braithwaite
From The Scandalous Life of Nancy Randolph to The People Next Door.
There’s a lot of advice out there for authors. From write what you know, to plot-it or pants-it, to find your readers, to build your brand… I could go on…and sometimes the writer’s life can feel pretty overwhelming. There are so many decisions to be made, from the smallest punctuation choice, up through decisions about structure and point of view, characters, settings and in the case of historical fiction, time periods. When each book is finished, there are big picture questions about what to write next. More of the same? Or – and common wisdom may not support this question – something completely different?
Two years or so ago, I completed my fourth historical novel and decided to take yet another go at finding an agent. I haven’t done that with every book, but this wasn’t my first turn around the block. Without ever actually signing with an agent, I’ve come pretty close, and so I knew the process well and couldn’t ignore the fact that I was struggling to get much of a response to my queries. All around me, it seemed, people were saying historical fiction had become even more of a tough sell. That novel, The Scandalous Life of Nancy Randolph, the story of a real life scandal in post-colonial Virginia, was ultimately published in May 2024 by Lume Books – and I’m delighted with the resulting sales and reviews – but there was a time when it looked like the book would never make it out into the world.
My brand (for want of a better word!) of historical fiction leans toward the biographical. I love telling stories of actual events from interesting points of view and shedding light on neglected corners of history. Building characters to fit the known narrative, so that forgotten figures become real, rounded, believable people, is one of my favorite aspects of the ‘job’. It’s also an approach that I’ve found helpful because there is a factual framework to start with. When I set out to write a historical novel, the facts give me a foundation to build from. The bones of the story are dug up through research, and writing craft provides the flesh, turning a skeleton into a living, breathing tale. It’s a wonderful and rewarding process. It’s also time consuming.
As I battled through getting my Nancy Randolph novel out into the world with the right team behind it, I wondered if I had the energy to go through the process once again. All that research and thinking and dreaming is wonderful, but what if it was a road to nowhere? And what about that itch to keep writing, and creating? I wanted to be writing on a day-to-day basis, but the historical story I had in mind was still very much in the early stages.
For those reasons – maybe the best, but maybe not – I decided to try my hand at a psychological thriller, and here’s where I came across the first major difference: no framework of historical facts. For the first time I had an entirely blank canvas. The crutch of historical events was gone, and I had to lean into my own head and rely on my own thoughts as my source. Interesting! It helped that I’m very familiar with thrillers. Although my first love is historical fiction, thrillers are a close second. I read them voraciously and enjoy the intellectual aspect of trying to work out all the twists and surprises before everything is revealed on the page. Could I write a book like that? With a story entirely from my imagination? I was ready to try.
I’m a great believer in writing the book you want to read, and so I began with some features that I love in my favorite novels, and built from there. From the start, I knew I wanted to write a ‘then’ and ‘now’ story – a dual timeline where events in the past have a direct impact on the events in the present, and the reader learns new things about the same main characters in each timeline. I also wanted to write about sisters. The Scandalous Life of Nancy Randolph is very concerned with a pair of unhappy sisters, and I write a Substack publication, Sis-Stories, all about sisters in history and fiction, so I knew a missing sister story had wonderful potential for conflict and emotion. I also decided to lean into locations I know well. The modern day, ‘now’ storyline of The People Next Door, takes place in a suburban neighborhood, not too far from Philadelphia, uncannily like the one I moved into with my husband and three kids in 2010! And the other timeline, set twenty years in the past, takes place largely in Ithaca in upstate New York. Might I have a son attending college there, making research trips very easy to do? Yes, I might.
Once I had my own, self-created framework for the new novel, things became more familiar again. I had key events and challenges in mind for my protagonists. My main character – called Jen because when I first moved to this area, it seemed every other woman I met was named Jen – has some clear goals that she’s keeping secret from the people around her. When the novel opens Jen and her family move into a new neighborhood she’s there with an ulterior motive. Of course, there were minor characters and sub-plots to develop, as there are in a historical novel, and while I felt the new genre demanded more time-sensitive problems for my characters to face, I didn’t find it as different in the writing as I expected. The chapters are perhaps shorter. There might be a few more mic drop moments than in my other work, but in many ways, the process, once underway, was familiar and enjoyable.
It turned out that writing in the present or recent past still requires research. I spent quite a bit of time trying to find out if cell phones had passcodes back in the early 2000s, for example. And dealing with death in a modern novel is quite different from a historical story. The Scandalous Life of Nancy Randolph opens in the late 18th century. One character dies from TB, and another from a fever. There’s a whole question about the use of gum guaiacum to relieve colic, or perhaps to induce a miscarriage of an unwanted pregnancy – key to the drama that unfolds. In The People Next Door my concerns included the decomposition of a body in water, and a subsequent forensic investigation. There are also several modern medicine-based murder techniques employed as the drama unfolds, and they required research too.
Some fun changes included the ability to name all my characters, something I couldn’t do in past books based on real historical figures. Jen’s daughter, Nina, a smart ten-year-old, is named after a beloved family dog. One of my favorite characters, an older, grouchy woman with her own way of doing things, is named Jocelyn, after a woman I worked with many years ago. She came to mind the moment I started thinking up the character, although my Jocelyn is very different from the woman I knew way back when. In fact, I was wary, for the first time, of creating characters based on people I know in real-life, even unintentionally – but I did enjoy dropping plenty of little easter eggs in there for people who do know me and the local setting. There’s a trip to my beloved local library, for example, and an accident involving a car a good friend used to own, that we fondly called ‘the blue bomber.’ That was another research treat. When I needed to know, I could just text my friend and ask her what make the car was.
I was asked recently whether The People Next Door was easier to write than the historicals that came before it. In terms of research, the answer is clearly yes. For the same reason, it was also much less time-consuming, and I had a lot of fun in the process, which I think comes across in the story. But it wasn’t easier. Every book is its own mountain. Writing each one is a journey. There are still all the same stages of drafting and editing. A different genre might have different conventions and reader expectations, but all books need rounded, interesting characters, a believable world – whether past, present, or future – and all books need strong writing, and a satisfying blend of character arc and plot.
Will I do it again? Maybe. It’s a few weeks since release and I’m thrilled with the reviews. I feel like the book entertains, meets genre expectations, and readers are loving the ride. But right now I’m back writing a historical novel, set in 1828, in Edinburgh, the place where I grew up. The research has been a joy, and I’m in the thick of writing, enjoying my characters and building tension and conflict.
Whether changing lanes will be a good thing or bad thing for my writing career, remains to be seen. But when I think of all the writing advice out there about building loyal readers, developing my ‘brand,’ and all those big picture career-type issues, I find I’m not really focused on them, or on what happens next. I’m doing what I love and writing the book I want to read. I have a whole new mountain to climb, and I’m determined to enjoy the journey.
This is fabulous, Kate. And best wishes for the next step in your writing journey. Many thanks for sharing your story about multiple genres! Many of your points echoed for me. As for my own writing, I’ve just started a novel that spans the decades from 1940 to 2020.
The Scandalous Life of Nancy Randolph by Kate Braithwaite
Victim? Temptress? Murderer?
October 1792. At Glentivar Plantation, Virginia, enslaved workers find the body of a white baby hidden amongst logs.
Judy and Richard Randolph along with Nancy, Judy’s eighteen year old sister, are staying at the plantation. The Randolphs are one of America’s most wealthy and influential families.
Screams were heard coming from Nancy’s room during the night.
Gossip quickly spreads throughout Virginia society: Nancy Randolph had given birth to a child by Richard, people whisper. Together they murdered the child to protect their reputation.
Richard is tried for murder and the sensational trial shakes the new American nation to its core.
The events of that night ripple down the years.
Who was Nancy Randolph?
A calculating seductress and murderer? Or an unwilling victim, groomed and manipulated by her devious brother-in-law?
In this retelling of one of America’s greatest scandals, Kate Braithwaite brings Nancy Randolph’s extraordinary story to vivid and memorable life.
The People Next Door by Kate Braithwaite
How well do you really know your neighbors?
Jen Silver has just moved to an affluent suburb in Pennsylvania with her partner, Dan, and their daughter. It’s a picture-perfect neighborhood where residents hang out on each other’s patios sipping margaritas on warm summer nights. Jen and her family blend effortlessly into the close-knit community.
But Jen isn’t who they think she is.
Twenty years ago, Jen’s sister vanished without a trace. She’s spent her life chasing the truth — and she didn’t choose this community for its safety or its excellent schools.
Jen moved here for answers.
She knows the truth is here but as Jen pieces together the events of twenty years ago, someone is determined to keep the facts from coming to light.
But secrets never stay hidden forever. And the most dangerous truths lie close to home . . .
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M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel THAT WAS THEN is a contemporary thriller. Mary’s other novels, THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook or on her website www.mktod.com.
