Ever since I have started writing stories on wattpad people have been asking for tips and tricks.

Coming from someone who writes fics of Mahabharat, Ramayan and scriptures, this will be great for beginners writers of historical genre.

1) Historical accuracy is very important in terms of background. So you need to accurately place the era or year that your story takes place.

And when you do that I'd advise you to also do research on the political, cultural and social status of that era, this will make the background of the story more interesting for it is now more accurate.

But why does accuracy of background matters when the story is set in the past anyway ?

Just because it is in the past that doesn't mean the Vikram Samvat era and Mughal era was same..... You won't say 1950s and 1990s were same then how come you say everything in 10,000+ years of ancient Indian history be same ?

And setting an accurate historical background will enhance the plot only. For example, you have a plot in mind and are setting it in Gupta era, but there are some contradicting problems arising and then you decide to place it in Mauryan era and everything seems to fall in place perfectly !

So accuracy of Historical background is very important.

2) Now that you have chosen the historically accurate background for the plot, you need to find a Kingdom or chiefdom where the story will take place.

In Mahabharat Fanfics, I always like to explore new kingdoms of ancient India, it's really fun actually. So take out the map of ancient India and start looking at the kingdoms.

And when you're selecting a place make sure you know whether it is a Kingdom, a chiefdom, a capital city or a provincial city. For example if you choose the setting as Ujjain, then you should keep in mind that Ujjain is not a Kingdom it was the capital city of Avanti Kingdom.

3) You should he aware about what were the cultural norms and practices of that era and kingdom.

Suppose if your story takes place before Islamic invasions, then you cannot show Ghoonghat or parda system because it didn't exist.

If it takes place before colonial era then you cannot show women and Shudras not having the right of education.

You should see who the main deities being worshipped in the Kingdom were. Like earlier I gave example of Ujjain, the main deity worshipped here would be Mahadev, if you take Vanga kingdom then the main deity being worshipped will be Mata Parvati/ Mata Durga.

You should also see what types of rituals were performed like the different types of yagyas.

You should also do research on what type of people were patronised by kings, like scholars, musicians, architects, artists or a specific sect of devotees etc.

4) Costumes and props. Let me give you some accurate terms for costumes so you can describe your character better.

Saree in ancient India was worn only by married women. Unmarried girls wore a three piece dress which consisted of Uttariya (shoulder-veil), Antariya (lower garment) and Stanapatta (blouse)

If the women is of royalty or is rich then she could also wear a Kayabandh which was a fancy cloth tied around waist.

And unmarried women were free to keep their hair open or dress however they wanted cause their Antariyas usually used to reach below or to the knees.

Now if the woman is married then she will have to wear saree. And if she is off the royalty or is rich then she can also wear a fancy Uttariya and Kayabandh. She would also need to wear an avagunthana (cloak veil) which used to be attached to the hair.

Draupadi's costume from star-plus Mahabharat is very accurate to what I am saying. You can see uttariya resting in her arms and she is wearing a fancy Kayabandh cloth. She is also wearing an avagunthana on head.

Now let's come to the costume of men. So the their costumes have always been simple 😂

Men would wear dhoti, the thread of Janeu and turban. And if he is of the royal or rich background then he can also wear a fancy Angvastra and royals will wear Mukut, while rich men will wear turban only but of an expensive cloth. Men of the south would wear Lungi instead of dhoti.

And in Vedic era people had started stitching clothes so men would also wear a Kurta.

For very long Kajal was applied by both men and women because it was healthy for the eyes. The Kajal of men was known as Surma.

Both of them used to come in a bottle like this -

In the image you can see it has a fancy head, this would come out in the form of a stick like thing which would be coated with Kajal.

This stick was used to apply Kajal or Surma in the eyes.

So if it's a historical fiction make sure both your male and female characters wear Kajal / Surma.

Women would also wear a cheek tint and lip tint made by flowers or minerals. Red lip has always been famous.

So that's it for today if you want to know more about writing historical Fanfics then feel free to come PM me.

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PRO TIP TO WRITE ANY STORY - Create a list of events that will take place in the story. Like this -

I have made the entire storyline of Harihareshwari series till Mahabharat. This makes it so easy to write, cause you have a list of things you need to include.

You hardly get writer's block because now you have a list of events to write.