Writing Tools: How History Can Inspire

As my one of my favorite TV shows, Battlestar Galactica stated, “All of this has happened before and will happen again.” Many people have stated you need to study history so that it will not repeat itself. History can teach us so much and if you look at the past you can see how things have a pattern. As writers, we can use these patterns or even the historical events for plots or background. We can even use the historical people as an archetype for creating your characters. It doesn’t matter what genre that you write you can use history to enhance your writing in so many different ways. Even if it is only an idea of where your world is going to be set in. There are so many different histories that you can learn from.

Some great books that have been written all on the writer’s guide to everyday life during different times throughout, history (there are 9 books in this series). These are great to use during your research of different specific times. There is so much information that is helpful in reading these books. I started collecting these back when I was in high school, they helped me not only with my writing but also with my history papers.

For myself I love learning about history it’s something that my father taught me about through books and playing games. Currently, I am writing an urban fantasy that involves time travel and historical events so I have to do research. Some of these events actually help in moving my writing along as I know what happened historically, which makes writing much easier.

What do you know about history? Is there something from the past that is helping shape the world you are writing about? I guess the real question is how is history helping you in your own writing? Does knowing future events help you in writing about the past? Tell me your thoughts on the subject, I’d love to know.