A WORDSLINGER 10-SHOT

How do you take more than 100 years of history, documents, photographs, handwritten notes, newspaper clippings, and real-life events—and turn all of it into ONE compelling novel?

In this Wordslinger 10-Shot, Kevin shares the process he’s using to research a new historical fiction project, including the most important decision he made early on: Don’t try to tell all the history. Find the human story that everything else can hang from.

Kevin talks about choosing the right character as the emotional center of a historical novel, deciding what research actually belongs in the story, and using AI as a research assistant to transcribe old documents, organize information, build timelines, and identify connections across more than a century of events.

AI can make research dramatically faster—but it doesn’t replace the writer. You still have to understand the material, verify the facts, make creative decisions, and ultimately turn all that information into a story readers actually care about.

If you’re writing historical fiction, creative nonfiction, researching a novel, or simply drowning in notes and wondering how any of it becomes a book, this episode is for you.

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TIMECODES

00:00 More than 100 years of history—and one novel
00:47 Finding the story inside all the research
01:44 Why writing the complete history doesn’t work
02:18 Finding the human character who carries the story
03:06 The first rule of writing historical fiction
04:16 How to turn enormous amounts of research into one story
05:21 Using AI to transcribe documents and build a timeline
06:22 Why writers still have to verify AI research
07:32 Where historical accuracy ends and fiction begins
08:57 The writer’s real job: conveying the emotion
09:50 Final thoughts on research, AI, and historical fiction

FIND KEVIN:

Find Kevin and his books:
https://kevintumlinson.com

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https://kevintumlinson.substack.com

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