How to Succeed as a Nineteenth-Century Novelist
Write like Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, and other Victorian pros
Are you dreaming of syndicated fame between the pages of a closely printed literary magazine? Is your handwriting stellar, your imagination limitless, and your mental health somewhat suspect? Congratulations — you might have what it takes to succeed as a Victorian novelist. Here are some tips to grace the nineteenth century with purple prose.
More is more
Future scholars may claim you were paid by the word, but ignore them. Whether you’re making bank on it or not, your responsibility is to be as verbose as possible. Dig out that dictionary and search for as many ways to say the same thing as you possibly can. Don’t be afraid to be redundant. Repeat that repetition. Then do it again.
Use ALL the characters
Your stories need to be peppered with people, rife with relatives, fruitful with folks who pop in for one scene and then are never heard from again. And we’ll need those one-timers’ entire backstory, please. Remember, you’re getting paid by the word.
Make your heroes brooding
Master the art of the sulking, hulking dreamboat. Can your main man’s general…
