Books I Read While Writing All The Future Holds

Welcome back to A Real Writer’s Life! Today is day four of release week for All The Future Holds. So far, you’ve read a sample of the book, celebrated its release by reading the synopsis, and read about the year 1917. Today, I wanted to write a post detailing the things that I read, and in some cases watched, to get inspiration for this book. It probably seems pretty obvious that when writing a historical novel, you have to do a lot of research. But, I don’t think a writer truly realizes this until they get pretty deep into the writing process. Since the First World War takes place at the time I set this book, as well as the women’s suffrage movement, I wanted to read books about those subjects for research as well as inspiration.

The Books I Read

Women’s Suffrage: A Short History of a Great Movement by Millicent Fawcett

Though this book was written by a British author and features more facts that took place in Europe, I did find it helpful as well as interesting.

How Women Got the Vote:  The Story of Women’s Suffrage in America by Ida Husted Harper

This was a short read, but helpful to the writing process of All The Future Holds.

America’s First World War by Henry Castor

The Many Faces of World War I by Irving Werstein

When it came to writing about WWI, I definitely needed to check out some books because I knew so little about this war before I wrote this book. I found the books mentioned above at our library and rented them both. While these books focus more on the actual war, and the weapons used therein, I was able to find some things in these pages that touched on how people lived back then, such as their clothing, activities, and the price of everyday items. I found these facts to be the most useful for the book I was writing. Dates pertaining to the war were very helpful to me, as well.

I also read Jane Eyre for the first time while writing this book. It wasn’t for research; it was simply for-fun, but this quote from the book really jumped out at me and I knew I wanted to feature it as the opening quote in All The Future Holds.

"Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint; too absolute a stagnation, precisely as man would suffer; and it is narrow minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex."

-Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

What I Watched

Now I know it may sound silly to some people, but I did want to mention that I re-watched season 2 of Downton Abbey while I was writing this book. Of course, I knew to take a lot of it with a grain of salt because it is television, and I in no way relied upon the show for information, but it was inspiring and it was just neat to watch this show as it journeyed through WWI while I was writing a book that takes place in 1917. I also visualized Lady Sybil when I wrote about a nurse in the book, who turned out to be one of my favorite new characters in The Abi Hensley Series.

Sometimes doing research for historical fiction can be hard, but you ultimately find out some pretty interesting facts. When all is said and done, it is definitely worth it.

Thank you all for stopping by today! Come back tomorrow for a post about the message of All The Future Holds.

All The Future Holds is now available on Amazon! Download it on your Kindle or order your paperback today!

-Miranda Atchley