On Writing Solitary Walker: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft by N.J. Mastro
Writing a novel had been on my mind since high school, and that was a long time ago. So when I retired in 2017, I set out to write the kind of book I like to read: biographical novels about audacious women from the past. The question was, who would be my subject?
Biographical novels, or biofiction, as it’s often called these days, have a special allure. People like reading about other people’s lives. Biographies offer a wide lens into a famous person’s story, but as a genre, they lack emotional context or bore the reader by covering every excruciating detail in a person’s life. Biofiction, on the other hand, lands somewhere in between fact and fiction.
Historical fiction demands attention to historical details; biofiction requires looking closely at a person’s life. Because I knew I’d be spending a lot of time with my subject, I wanted to write about someone who would hold my interest throughout the research and the writing process.
I considered a range of women and initially thought I might like to write a novel about Mary Shelley. But many authors have already written about her. As I sifted through her triumphs and woes, however, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, captured my imagination. Wollstonecraft is the 18th-century British writer and philosopher widely considered the world’s first feminist. The more I delved into Wollstonecraft’s personal history, the more she fascinated me.
I had my gal.
I spent the next several years researching Wollstonecraft, poring over multiple biographies, her published writing, her personal letters, and an abundance of articles and essays about her. Wollstonecraft is a well-documented historical figure. Researching her was as much fun as writing about her. The amount of source material seemed infinite. Then as I began the drafting process, I engaged the services of a developmental editor along with joining two critique groups.
Things tooled along beautifully until I ran into a snag, as writers often do, and it was a big one. My initial draft was a whopping 200K words. Publishers want shorter novels these days, not long ones, especially from a debut author. Since I wanted to publish with a traditional publisher, I knew I had to cut the draft in half. Talk about killing your darlings! Despite my angst, I trimmed the manuscript to below the magic 100K words.
I queried agents next. What debut writer doesn’t? Unfortunately, during the five years I spent researching and writing about Mary Wollstonecraft, two established writers published novels about her. Agents who’d expressed serious interest in my story passed, saying they didn’t think they could sell it on the heels of two recent novels about her.
Channeling my protagonist, I refused to be disheartened and switched my focus to small traditional presses. Within months, I had multiple offers. Seven years after embarking on my writing journey, Black Rose Writing published Solitary Walker: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft in February 2025.
Writing biofiction has its challenges. While focusing on someone’s life that has all the elements of good storytelling—plot, character, conflict, theme, and setting—there’s the added burden of getting the history right. Biofiction novelists rely on fiction to convey their characters’ day-to-day conversations, internal thoughts, and feelings—the very things that create a compelling narrative. But how far to deviate from the facts is a topic of debate among biofiction writers. We all take a bit of literary license in service to the story, and in the absence of historical details, writers have even more latitude. Readers, however, tend to take fiction as fact.
Writing biofiction, I land on the side of using fiction to help interpret history, not rewrite it. I’m proud to say that every major event that happens to Mary Wollstonecraft in Solitary Walker is based in fact. To shape her voice, I turned to her letters. For her views and opinions, I pulled from her publications. In the end, I hope readers will learn enough about her to want to find out more on their own.
What are your thoughts about biofiction? Where should an author draw the line between fact and fiction? Under what circumstances is it okay to deviate wildly from the historical record? When is it not?
—
“A captivating work of historical fiction, intellectually stimulating and dramatically engrossing.” –Kirkus Reviews
England, 1787. Mary Wollstonecraft is an avowed spinster. At 28, she moves to London to live independently as a writer. With her publication of A Vindication for the Rights of Woman a few short years later, she emerges as a leading figure for women’s equality. But when a humiliating faux pas threatens her reputation, Mary travels to Paris to write about the French Revolution, where she unexpectedly falls in love with American adventurer Gilbert Imlay. Her ill-timed affair occurs just as the Reign of Terror begins, forcing Mary to decide whether to leave Paris—and Imlay. Her writing has branded her a revolutionary. If she stays, she is sure to face a trip to the guillotine. The choice Mary makes alters her life forever.
Readers of biographical fiction will embrace this carefully researched novel about the woman historians widely consider the world’s first feminist. Told against the backdrop of Wollstonecraft’s incredible rise as a writer, the French Revolution, and a solo journey along the remote shores of Scandinavia, Solitary Walker is the timeless story of women forging their own path.
Category: On Writing
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
