NCTCA 2015 WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION ©Lois Donovan 2015
SETTING CHART - Time Travel Scene of The Journal
Sight
Sound
Senses
NEWSPAPER
ARTICLE
TIME
TRAVEL
Snow
spread its
soft
white
mantle
over the
ground
Words
blurred
together
Every blood
vessel in my
head pulsed
Pounding
drum beat
Colourful
quilt, narrow
dresser,
silver brush
and comb set
Voices
outside the
door.
Voices grew
louder
Sparkling
chandelier
Laugh
tinkling like
crystal
Shiny satin
gowns
Smell
Rubbing my
eyes
Kaleidoscope
of whirling
colours
Blue fog
Taste
Frost put a
tang in the
air
Shrieking of
whistles.
Clanging of
bells
Coloured
specks
Smeared my
vision
THE
HOUSE/PAR
TY
Touch/
Feel
Living room
buzzed
Scrunched
quilt
between my
fingers
Stinky,
smoky smell
drifted into
the room
Panic
clenched my
stomach
Smoke grew
stronger
Tiredness
pulled at my
body
No smoke
lingered
NCTCA 2015 WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION ©Lois Donovan 2015
SENSES
WEATHER
TERRAIN/
Environment
CLOTHING
fashion
TRANSPORT
ATION
HOUSING/
buildings
MOOD
atmosphere
Sight
1.
Sound
Touch
Taste
Smell
NCTCA 2015 WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION ©Lois Donovan 2015
CREATE A FACEBOOK PAGE
For a historical character
Make a faux Facebook page for a historical person from a significant
historical event.
Here are some ideas about what to include:
Photos
Friends – Who were his contemporaries? Create a list of people who
may want to be “friends” on Facebook.
Timeline – Write 5 entries on the timeline. Each by a different person.
Include responses by your character and also by others to each entry.
What else was happening at this time in the world? Remember people
can post on this site from anywhere in the world.
About – jobs, education, where he lives, family
Groups – Was he a member of some interesting groups?
More – dropdown menu under “more” on the Facebook page lists lots
of categories. Use the ones that fit your historical character.
NCTCA 2015 WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION ©Lois Donovan 2015
Eyewitness Account
Have you ever been witness to a situation and been asked to explain
what happened? Was your retelling the same as other people’s? Here
is an activity to test your student’s observation skills as they
participate in this “Eye Witness” event.
Plan ahead to have someone come into your class. We’ll call this
person Sam.
Give students an assignment (or quiet reading) to do at their desks.
When Sam comes into the room he needs to do several things, such
as:
Put a book on the teacher’s desk
Take a stapler from a table and put it in a bag
Put a magazine on the ledge of the whiteboard
Tack a notice to the bulletin board
Talk to someone
After Sam leaves the room, have the students write down all the
things that happened. Once everyone has finished writing, find out
what everyone remembers and what they did not.
What details do they remember? What did Sam wear? How long was
Sam in the room? What book did Sam take? Who did Sam talk to? Etc.
Compare how everyone's memory was the same and different.
To make it more challenging, wait until later in the day to get the
students to answer the questions. Or ask leading questions to
influence the answers, such as What style of jacket did Sam wear (if
Sam was not wearing a jacket.)
ASSIGNMENTS:
1. After comparing the various answers, have students write an eye
witness account of a particular historic event from the point of view of
two different characters.
2. Read a newspaper article to the class. Students imagine they are
a bystander or an eyewitness at the event. Have them describe the
scene using all of their senses, then tell what happened, exactly as
they remember it. Then have them write about the same event from
the perspective of the opposite sex, or an adult and a child. Does it
make a difference to what they noticed?
NCTCA 2015 WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION ©Lois Donovan 2015
HISTORICAL FICTION WRITING IDEAS
 Play the What-If game with students. Students imagine, what-if a
particular historical figure made a different decision? What impact
would that have on the historical event? What would the result be
for the present. What if Governor Lawrence had not deported the
Acadians? What if Emily Murphy had not challenged the Supreme
Court of Canada’s ruling about the rights of women? What if the
provinces had not become one country?
Once students have discussed possible outcomes, have them write
a scene from the alternate reality.
 Have students write a particular scene from a historical fiction novel
from a different point of view.
 Write a dialogue between two historic characters.
 Create a radio broadcast about an historic event (regardless of
whether or not radio was invented yet!)
 Write a newspaper or magazine article about an historic event.
ARTEFACT STORY PROMPT

Each student brings an artifact from home. It should be small
enough to carry in one hand and have some significance to the
owner (e.g. gift, treasure, souvenir, symbol etc.)

Students share their artifact with the group, telling about its
significance.

Each student brings an artefact from home. It should be small
enough to carry in one hand and ideally, have some significance
NCTCA 2015 WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION ©Lois Donovan 2015
to the family (something that has been in the family for years or
something that the student will pass down to future generarions
because of its significance.) A photo would also work if the
artefact is too valuable to bring to school.

Students share their artefact with a small group, telling about its
significance.

Each student draws a picture of the artefact in the centre of a
piece of paper, and then brainstorms words describing the
artefact, which they add to the page. After a couple of minutes,
have students hand their page to the person on their right.

Each student then adds descriptive words on his neighbours
artefact page, moving the pages to the right every couple of
minutes until all the pages have been passed around the
group.**

Turn the page over and rotate papers around the group again for
the ROLE the artefact might play in a story, or USES for the
artefact.

Students write a historical fiction story in which the artefact
plays a significant role. This will include a historical setting. For
example, my Mi’kmaq quill box will involve the Mi’kmaq people
pre-confederation rather than the story of how the quill box
came to me, although that too would make an intriguing story. A
special coin will fit into the coin’s time period. Or maybe it is a
glass from the ’88 Olympics.
**The beauty of this approach is that after only a few minutes, every student has a
page with several descriptive words/ideas on it.