this is an archive filled with writing tips, prompts, inspiration and resources.
"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it" - Toni Morrison
Ancient Rome was an Italic civilization that began on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants (roughly 20% of the world’s population) and covering 6.5 million square kilometers (2.5 million sq mi) during its height between the first and second centuries AD.
In its approximately 12 centuries of existence, Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy to a classical republic to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate Southern and Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa, and parts of Northern and Eastern Europe, Rome was preponderant throughout the Mediterranean region and was one of the most powerful entities of the ancient world. It is often grouped into “Classical Antiquity” together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. [x]
Hughes, Kristina - Everyday Life in Regency and Victorian England
Jackson, Lee - Daily Life in Victorian London
Mayhew, Henry et al - The London Underworld in the Victorian Period
Mitchell, Sally - Daily Life In Victorian England
Pool, Daniel - What Jane Austin Ate and Charles Dickens Knew
Stevens, Mark - Life in the Victorian Assylum
E V E R Y D A Y L I F E
Popular Names in the Victorian Era
Cassel’s Household Guide (1869) - basically an instruction manual from 1869 telling you how to do everything from making tea to picking a job.
Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management: A Guide to Cookery In All Branches (1907) - Lots of period recipes, plus information for the Mistress, Housekeeper, Cook, Kitchen-maid, Butler, Footman, Coachman, Valet, Upper and under house-maids, Lady’s-maid, Maid-of-all-work, Laundry-maid, Nurse and nurse-maid, Monthly, wet, and sick nurses, etc.
The Victorian Era-Society
Appendix D: English Society in the 1840s
Class Structure of Victorian England
Victorian England Social Hierarchy
Social Restrictions in the Victorian Era
(Excerpts From) Promises Broken: Courtship, Class, and Gender in Victorian England (Regarding Broken Engagements and Premarital Sex)
Five Filthy Things About Victorian England
1841: A window on Victorian Britain
The Demography of Victorian England and Wales
What was life like for children in Victorian London?
Historical Essays: The Victorian Child
The Life of Infants and Children in Victorian London
The Inequality Between Genders During the Victorian Era in England
Women as “the Sex” During the Victorian Era
Writers Dreamtools - Decades - 1840
Victorianisms – Adventures in Victorian Slang
56 Delightful Victorian Slang Terms You Should Be Using
A Dictionary of modern slang, cant and vulgar words (1859)
Victorian slang - a guide to sexual Victorian terms
A Glossary of Provincial and Local Words Used in England: To which is Now First Incorporated the Supplement, by Samuel Pegge (1839)
Anecdotes of the English Language: Chiefly Regarding the Local Dialect of London and Its Environs (1844)
British Slang - Lower Class and Underworld
Lee Jackson - Dictionary of Victorian London
Domestic Violence in Victorian England
The Victorian wife-beating epidemic
How to Survive and Thrive in the Victorian Era
19th-century Radiators and Heating Systems
The Picture of Dorian Gray; a mirror of the Victorian Era, era of Hypocrisy
The Victorian Supernatural
Politics of Victorian England
Dualism & Dualities - The Victorian Age
Black Victorians: History we’ve been taught claims we’ve only ever been slaves
Video: Mini-lecture - London’s Black history
Flowers - Victorian Bazaar (The Language Of Flowers)
Victorian Funeral Customs and Superstitions
Racism and Anti-Irish Prejudice in Victorian England
M E D I C I N E & I L L N E S S
Victorian Health
Medical Developments In Britain During The Nineteenth Century
Hospitals
The Entire Case Records from a Victorian Asylum Are Now Online
Victorian psychiatric patients’ grim fate in hellish 1800s hospitals
Locating Convalescence in Victorian England
Sanitation and Disease in Rich and Poor
19th Century Diseases
Death & Childhood in Victorian England
Health and hygiene in the 19th century
Disease in the Victorian city: extended version
Musing on Illness in the Victorian Era
Female hysteria / Vapours
Sent to the asylum: The Victorian women locked up because they were suffering from stress, post natal depression and anxiety
The History of Women’s Mental Illness
Anorexia: It’s Not A New Disease
Rebel Girls: How Victorian Girls Used Anorexia to Conform and Revolt
Warburg’s tincture
Apothecaries and Medicine in the Victorian Era
The Creepy Factor in Victorian Medicine
Medical Advancements: Victorian Era Prosthetics
The Victorian Anti-Vaccination Movement
food poisoning in the Victorian era
Typhus (Gaol Fever)
L A W , G O V E R N M E N T & C R I M E
Crime in Victorian England
The 222 Victorian crimes that would get a man hanged
Juvenile crime in the 19th century
Victorian women criminals’ records show harsh justice of 19th century
Organised Crime in “The Mysteries of London” (1844)
Dickens and the ‘Criminal Class’
Victorian prisons and punishments
Victorian Prison Conditions
The Development of a Police Force
Life in Nineteenth-Century Prisons as a Context for Great Expectations
Gaols
Sentences and Punishments
Courtroom Experience in Victorian England at the time of Great Expectations
Courts of Justice - Victorian Crime and Punishment
Victorian Criminal Laws: Barbarism and Progress
Child prisoners in Victorian times and the heroes of change
Victorian Legislation: a Timeline
Women and the Law in Victorian England
The Corn Laws
The Corn Laws in Victorian England
The Anti-Corn-Law League
The Corn Laws and their Repeal 1815-1846
The Poor Laws During the Victorian Era
Private Property and Abuse of Rights in Victorian England
Bastardy and Baby Farming in Victorian England
Baby Farmers and Angelmakers: Childcare in 19th Century
C L I M A T E , W E A T H E R & E N V I R O N M E N T
The Climate of London (Luke Howard, 1810-1820 - PDF)
The Illustrated London Almanack 1847
Victorian London - Weather - Fog
F A S H I O N
Victorian Fashion Terms A-M
Victorian Fashion Terms N-Z
Early Victorian Undergarments; an introduction, and about silk
Victorian Violence, Part Four ~ Elegant Brutality for Ladies and Gentlemen of Discernment
10 Deadly Street Gangs Of The Victorian Era
Early Victorian Handguns; Part 1
Early Victorian Handguns; Part 2
Early Victorian Handguns; Part 3
Pistol Duelling during the Early Victorian Era
Cane Guns: Victorian Concealed Firearms of Gentlemen & Cads
M A N N E R S & E T T I Q U E T T E
Manners & Tone of Good Society (This is a Victorian book on manners, written by an unnamed ‘Member Of The Aristocracy,’ and is available in full to read and covers a ton of ground, everything from leaving cards and morning calls to introductions and titles, and etiquette for many different types of parties and events).
The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness: A Complete Hand Book for the Use of the Lady in Polite Society (1875)
Manners for the Victorian Gentleman
Victorian Dancing Etiquette
A Checklist of 19th Century Etiquette
Social Rituals During The Victorian Era
An Online Dating Guide to Courting in the Victorian Era
Calling Cards and the Etiquette of Paying Calls
Morning Calls and Formal Visits
A Time Traveller’s Guide to Victorian Era Tea Etiquette
Traveling Etiquette and Tips for Victorian Women
Equestrian Etiquette and Attire in the Victorian Era
Etiquette Faux Pas and Other Misconceptions About Afternoon Tea
Victorian Table Etiquette
Victorian London - Publications - Etiquette and Household Advice Manuals
Etiquette Rules for Dinner Parties from a Victorian Magazine
The Etiquette of Proper Introductions in Victorian Times
Forms Of Introductions And Salutations. Etiquette Of Introductions
Etiquette for the Victorian Child
Victorian and Edwardian Mourning Etiquette
Etiquette Of Carriage-Riding
Victorian Etiquette - Shopping
U P P E R C L A S S & N O B I L I T Y
Royalty, Nobility, Gentry, & Titles; A Matter of Victorian Ranks & Precedence
Order of Precedence in England and Wales
The Victorian Era - The Debutante Tradition
The Gentleman - The Victorian Web
“Coming Out” During the Early Victorian Era; about debutantes
The London Season
The London Season - The History Box
T H E M I D D L E C L A S S
The middle classes: etiquette and upward mobility
The Rise of the Victorian Middle Class
The Victorian Man and the Middle Class Household - Domesticity as an Ideal
Middle Class Life in the Late 19th Century
A Woman
’s World: How Afternoon Tea Defined
and Hindered Victorian Middle Class Women
Working Women in the Victorian Middle-Class
The ASBO teens of Victorian Britain: How middle-class children terrorized parks by shouting at old ladies, chasing sheep and vandalizing trees
“A Dangerous Kind:” Domestic Violence and The Victorian Middle Class [PDF]
Eligible Bachelors: Suitors and Courtship in the Lower Middle Class
T H E W O R K I N G C L A S S
The working classes and the poor
Poverty and the working classes (links to relevant articles)
Dirty Jobs of the Victorian Era …
The Working-Class Peace Movement
in Victorian England
Victorian Child Labor and the Conditions They Worked In
History of Working Class Mothers in Victorian England
Income vs Expenditure in Working-Class Victorian England
What about the Workers? - 1830s - 1840s
T H E S E R V A N T C L A S S
Household management and Servants of the Victorian Era
Victorian Domestic Servant Hierarchy and Wages
Domestic Servants
Serving the house: The cost of Victorian domestic servants
Domestic Servants and their Duties
Precedence in the Servants Hall
The Servant’s Quarters in 19th Century Country Houses Like Downton Abbey
The REAL story of Britain’s servant class
Servants: A life below stairs
The Green Baize Door: Dividing Line Between Servant and Master
The Victorian Domestic Servant by Trevor May: A Review
T H E U N D E R C L A S S (T H E P O O R)
The Underclass (or the Submerged Class)
Poverty in Victorian England: Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist
Down and Out in Victorian London
Poverty and the Poor | Dickens & the Victorian City
The Victorian Poorhouse
Poorhouses
Victorian Workhouses
Entering and Leaving the Workhouse
The Poor Law
The Poor Law Amendment Act
The New Poor Law - Victorian Crime and Punishment
London’s Ragamuffins
I N T E R S E C T I O N A L I T Y (Of Class, Gender, Race, and Ability)
Class, Gender, and the Asylum
The Impact of Social Class Divisions on the Women of Victorian England
The Daily Life of Disabled People in Victorian England
W O R K &
Early and Mid-Victorian Attitudes towards Victorian
Working-Class Prostitution, with a Special Focus on
London
Prostitution and the Nineteenth Century: In Search of the ‘Great Social Evil’
Attitudes toward sexuality and sexual identity
Victorian slang - a guide to sexual Victorian terms
O T H E R M A S T E R P O S T S
Writing Research - Victorian Era by ghostflowerdreams
How to Roleplay in the Victorian Era by keir-reviews
Legit’s Historical Fashion Masterpost by legit-writing-tips
Susanna Ives - Many Research Links (covers Regency Era - Victorian Era)
A villain (also known in film and literature as the “antagonist,” “baddie”, “bad guy”, “heavy” or “black hat”) is an “evil” character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist (though can be the protagonist), the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters. [x]
Villain: A cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; a wicked or malevolent person; the main evil character and antagonist to the hero
Obvious Villains. [If you’re having trouble with this, read the novels of Agatha Christie and other famous mystery writers to learn how to fool the readers while playing fairly. For an even better learning experience, try reading an Agatha Christie novel after finding out the identity of the killer. You’ll get great tips on how to conceal information right in front of the reader’s eyes.]
Clichéd Villains. [The conniving other woman, the evil mother-in-law, the wicked twin sister. Some villains have been used so often that they have become recognizable character types. These characters still have a lot of life left in them, but only if you flesh them out.]
Villains with Unbelievable Motivations. [Nobody wants to read an entire novel only to find out that the villain was plotting against the hero the whole time because the hero stole away his prom date 20 years ago. If your villain is scheming and planning and committing crimes, he needs a good reason to go to all this trouble.]
Unnecessary Villains. [Powerful main characters can create plenty of conflict on their own.]
Utterly Evil Villains. [Some villains are simply too evil. Not only does he make life miserable for the hero and heroine, he also beats and rapes the servants, kicks the dog, and on top of that, refuses to recycle. Not only is this unrealistic, it is often trite.]
Villains Who Talk Too Much. [This one is a classic cliché. The villain captures your main characters, but instead of getting them out of the way, he goes into a spiel about how bright he is because he outwitted them all.]
Weak Villains [Imagine this scenario. You’ve been reading an exciting, suspenseful novel, and you’re close to the end. The hero is confronting the villain. You’re expecting a big payoff. But instead, the villain turns out to be a huge wimp who caves in quickly.]
–Choose a model for your villain: an ordinary person, a celebrity, or a notorious criminal from the news; examine that person’s flaws and weaknesses. How have they wronged others? Discard their positive traits, magnify their negative traits, and write a brief character sketch. What’s the character’s name? What does he or she look like? What is going on in the character’s head that allows him or her to treat others with disregard?
–Give your villain a shady past: what terrible things has your villain done throughout his or her life? What terrible things were done to him or her? Some villains are just trouble makers; others are deranged psychopaths. How extreme is your villain?
–Identify the source: what happened to your villain to turn him or her so evil? Was your villain born that way? –The most interesting villains are not completely evil. They have a soft spot for puppies or they write cheesy love poems. Contrary personality traits add depth and realism to all characters. Describe your villain’s positive traits.
–Put your villain in a scene: make sure you include dialogue so you can work out how the character speaks. Give your villain a distinct voice. Is your villain disguised as a benevolent character? Does he or she spend every waking minute committing evil deeds?
A good villain must be ACTIVE: Writers often complain that they have trouble making the middle of their novel exciting. A villain who acts, instead of simply sitting around thinking evil thoughts, is the best possible cure for a sagging middle-book.
A good villain must be SMART. When the author has the villain do something stupid so the hero can defeat him, it not only makes the villain look stupid, it makes the hero look weak.
A good villain must be SENSIBLY MOTIVATED, AND NO WORSE THAN HE HAS TO BE TO ACHIEVE HIS GOAL. A credible villain can be motivated by anything from simple greed to self-preservation, from patriotism to revenge, from religious fervor to ambition to romantic love. In short, anything that can motivate any normal person can also motive your villain.
A great literary villain is not any one thing; some are moustache-twirlers or evil geniuses, some are darkly complex, tortured souls, while others are amoral crazies who act wholly on impulse. There are many ways to write a literary villain, but a unique characteristic often binds the truly memorable anti-heroes together: they are at least as complex as the heroes. [x]
Ok here is a compilation of all the software and useful tools I’ve come across whilst writing. Some of them I’ve reviewed on here already, more coming soon.
Got an idea? Well get planning! Here’s some useful outlining, brainstorming and mind- mapping software:
Middle Ages (or Medieval period), lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: Antiquity, Medieval period, and Modern period. The Medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, the High, and the Late Middle Ages. [1] [2]
