Writing every day?
Some writers say you have to write every day to be a successful writer. I do not agree. There are going to be days when the train was late, your kid is sick, you argue with your spouse about the dishes or you just have a g*ddamned headache. Skip these days and do not feel bad.

What I propose is that you should (barring extreme circumstances) INTERACT with your work every day. If you can actually write on it, great! If you just can’t summon up any creative juice, do something else connected with your project. Some things I do are:

• Reread over what I’ve already written. Sometimes it inspires me to start writing, even if it is only a paragraph or two. Sometimes I see editorial flaws and fix them. Sometimes I just enjoy the story I have written and feel good about having written it.
• Read for my project. I have on my work table a stack of books for research purposes and when I cannot write, I make notes, flag pages I want to copy and peruse the bibliography.
• Enter my research into my binder. Punch the holes, work on spreadsheets of noble families, add to my glossaries.
• Work on the peripheral materials that will eventually be necessary for publication, such as query letter, synopsis and outline. Some would argue against doing this till the work is finished. I’ve found it actually encourages me to write to have a great query letter all ready to go.

When to add facts?
Sometimes, when you’re writing along and the story is flowing, you run into a place when a historical detail is necessary. (“Is Shrewsbury on a river?”) You can’t recall it at the moment. Do you interrupt your flow to look it up or leave it alone and continue writing?

My tendency is to look it up if I know it’s a fact I have somewhere and I know where to get it easily. If it’s something I know I need to research, I’ll make a note of it and continue writing. Many writers will say they merely plunge along and leave out the details but this is another instance of personal preference. If you do leave them out, mark them in some way so that you remember to fill them in later.

Infodump
This refers to the overload of historical fact that writers sometimes insert into an otherwise decent narrative. Like, you’re constructing a scene in which your hero is looking out over the wharves, foreshadowing his being pressed into the navy. You have him musing about his youth near the sea and how tall the warships are, when all of a sudden you insert a two-page history of the dreadnought, its construction, use and role in the British empire.

Of course your reader needs to know this stuff. It wouldn’t be very good historical fiction without historical details. And you did a lot of research! Dreadnoughts are fascinating! But it is jarring and often downright boring to read straight facts. There are much better ways of integrating this information.

Perhaps your hero meets a salty old sea dog who shows him the ropes (literally!) Perhaps your pressed hero works as a cabin boy and overhears two captains reminiscing over brandy. Less is more! History is part of the setting; it should blend into the background. You are not writing a textbook. Yours is still meant to be a good story above all else.