Hello Mr. Cornwell,
Firstly, as so many have undoubtlessly done, I would like to sing high praise for your novels as they are without a doubt, the finest pieces of historical fiction I have read to date. Secondly, I would like to apologise for the lengthy title which fails to convey the actual subject of this message.
I (or how I consider myself) am a newly starting author with little more than a just started word document and high hopes. Due to this inexperience, I have a few questions for a writer of your calibre. Fear not, these are not about ideas or other such content that defies your guidelines but merely questions that are pertinent to me.
I would consider my novel to be set in an alternative world in which I am writing a relevant timeline and history for, what does a well read historical researcher like yourself find to be a failing in other worlds of similar fashions? (Tropes or cliches that would never have happened in actual history)
As a second question, I ask. As you create history of your own and meld it with actual history (e.g The Scot invasion in 917 or moving Ubba's death forward a year), what do you try to avoid doing in order to make characters and situations realistic despite their falsehoods?
The third and perhaps most important question is not to do with creation or the task of writing the book but rather do agents or publishers consider age when reading manuscripts? As I am at an age in between 14-18, this question lies heavily on my mind and I apologise if you have no experience with the matter and I have wasted your time.
Once again, thank you for your gifts to the literary world and I wish you well,
Barnard
I’m not sure quite how to answer . . . I think your first duty in making an alternative world is the same as writing about the ‘real’ world, which is to make it believable! It probably helps (I’m guessing because I’ve never done it) to anchor your invented world in some kind of reality; for Tolkein it was Anglo-Saxon England, for George Martin it’s medieval England. Quite how you do that, what to put in, what to leave out, what to invent out of nothing, is up to you! I think readers will follow you anywhere so long as the background is consistent and fully realized . . . the devil, of course, is in the details.
Sort out their motivations! You can make a character do anything (more or less) so long as the reader believes that whatever they do is the choice the character would have made in that situation. Sometimes that takes a deal of re-writing. But you can’t have Romeo suddenly saying, ‘oh, screw it, Juliet is too much trouble, I’ll marry Jessica instead,’ unless Juliet (or Jessica) has provided some motivation.
They certainly would if you’re between 14 and 18! I’d submit it without saying how old you are. When they accept the Ms you can spring the surprise and they’ll be delighted.
Good luck!!