The CLiC blog showcases research and impact activities from the AHRC-funded CLiC Dickens project. We write posts summarising our research output, reporting on impact events and explaining new features of the CLiC web app.
Theadora Jean is a Gothic scholar and writer. Her novella The Westenra House, a 21st century adaptation of Dracula stripped of the supernatural, based on found text and social media, formed part of her critical-creative PhD from Royal Holloway. She writes melancholy, southeast-London Gothic fiction and non-fiction under the name T.S.J. Harling, her print chapbook, … Continue reading “‘Nothing but a Mass of Typewriting’: Dracula as Palimpsest”
In our latest #CLiCCreative video, we invite you to embark on a journey through time as we unveil the wonders of the CLiC Web App. This powerful tool harnesses the latest in computer-assisted analysis to delve into historical texts, uncovering patterns, frequencies, and structures that will breathe life into your stories. Are you an aspiring … Continue reading “Venture into the Past with #CLiCCreative: A New Frontier in Historical Fiction Writing”
#CLiCCreative demonstrates how the CLiC Web App can serve as both a creative resource and an innovative research tool for writers of historical fiction. You can find out more about the overarching project here. In this blog post, we’ve provided a keywords guide to our George Eliot Corpus for aspiring writers of historical fiction who … Continue reading “#CLiCCreative George Eliot Keywords Guide”
What can historical fiction do for today’s society? The award-winning actor Paterson Joseph’s The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho tells the story of Charles Ignatius Sancho writer, composer, respected ‘man of letters’ and the first known Black person to have voted in a British election. As Paterson writes in the opening pages of his … Continue reading “#CLiCCreative Lessons from Paterson Joseph on the Writing of History as Performance”
Sauntering through London’s nocturnal neighbourhoods fuelled Charles Dickens’ imagination and provided him with ample material to people his fictional worlds. What can we learn from his immersive exploration of real-world urban landscapes? In the following activities we’ll take a step back in time using the CLiC Web App to journey through Victorian London via Dicken’s oeuvre. … Continue reading “Nightwalking by Magic Lantern, Finding Your Inner Flaneur with Charles Dickens”
#CLiCCreative demonstrates how the CLiC Web App can serve as both a creative resource and an innovative research tool for writers of historical fiction. You can find out more about the overarching project here. In this blog post, we’ve provided a keywords guide to our Jane Austen Corpus for aspiring writers of Regency fiction who … Continue reading “#CLiCCreative Jane Austen Keywords Guide”
The research stage of novel writing can be time-consuming and challenging, but is essential if you want to write a believable and immersive historical story. This stage of the writing process doesn’t have to be daunting! Take a break from conventional fact-finding methods, and take a look at these digital resources that can help you … Continue reading “#CLiCCreative Digital Research Resources for Writers of Neo-Victorian Historical Fiction”
Whether by rail, on foot, via stagecoach, in a carriage, or aboard a ship, journeys play a pivotal role in novels of the long-nineteenth century. What can we learn about what it was like to travel in another time? In this research activity we’ll be using the CLiC Web App to learn about modes of … Continue reading “Using CLiC as a Creative Research Tool: Journey to the Past”
Ventriloquy is the art of speaking in such a way that one’s voice appears to come from another source. When it comes to writing believable dialogue, writers of historical fiction are a bit like ventriloquists. How can modern writers give the impression that their characters are conversing in the past? What research methods can we … Continue reading “Using CLiC as a Creative Research Tool: Historical Ventriloquism”
