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Young Writers Society


Hey, writing about a time-period.



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Mon Dec 04, 2017 8:44 pm
shima says...



I would just like to know - how does one start writing about a time period that happened before they were born? I mean, how does one make it as realistic as possible? Right now I am writing a story set in the 1990's and I would like to make as realistic as possible, without falling into the typical, repetitive cliches everyone has about that time-frame (I think you know which ones I mean.). So, basically, how do I start that? Anyone got any advice? Maybe text I can read or interviews? Should I just use the Day-Lewis method (doesn't matter that it only applies to acting) and completely surround me with that time-frame? Should I watch documentaries or something similar? Read books?
  





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Fri Dec 08, 2017 12:16 am
Holysocks says...



Hey Shima! My only advice for you is to ask people who lived through that time period. I was born 1997 so I don't really remember the 90's all that much, but there's probably lots of thirty-something year olds that would probably love to talk about it. We don't have many people in that age range on YWS, though.

Other then that, just look up youtube videos on the 90's, read articles, ect!
100% autistic
  





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Fri Dec 08, 2017 2:23 pm
Lightsong says...



There are so many resources you can find about the time period. If you prefer to read, then historical fiction novels are fine. As someone who loves fantasy novel, I can reassure you spending a lot of time reading those kind of novels make you think automatically about what does the setting in the time period looks like. Especially since you need to learn to understand what does a word mean and how it's described.

Watching shows and movies concerning the time period also helps; they give you strong visual information and prepares your mind when it's needed to describe the time period's setting. It also gives you firsthand information on how people generally talk at that time, what kind of music's in trend, and such.

Good luck with your project, and hope this helps! :D
"Writing, though, belongs first to the writer, and then to the reader, to the world.

The subject is a catalyst, a character, but our responsibility is, has to be, to the work."

- David L. Ulin
  





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Wed Dec 13, 2017 3:55 am
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Aley says...



I'm not sure if you still need advice, but I have some too!

If neither one of those appeal to you, try watching things from that timeframe. You can look up local news broadcasts or newspapers from the 90s and get a good sense of what sort of stuff was going on back then, and what people were talking about.

If you go to old 90s shows and watch them, you'll also get a feel for what sort of thing was around and what wasn't. Just make sure it isn't a 90s show set in some other time frame. You want a show that's supposed to be "modern" for when it was created like "Boy Meets World" or "Home Improvement" sort of thing. This can really help for the sorts of biases and habits that were around, as well as the fashion sense.

If you're curious about how they got there, watch shows that develop INTO the time frame if they're available. For instance, I'm watching Dr. Who from season 1 and I'm learning a lot about how far we've come in women's rights because of the types of female characters there used to be, and comparing that to how we have female characters today. You can see the same thing when other discriminated groups are on shows or decidedly NOT on shows.

Reading gossip magazines from the time frame might also be a good idea for the same reason. They would show you what was and was not socially acceptable based on what they complain about or fail to notice.
  





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Mon Dec 25, 2017 12:48 am
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Rosendorn says...



More pieces of advice I haven't seen mentioned:

1- Consider when the characters were born and stretch your research back to what events they would remember and would have shaped them.

Characters are shaped by their pasts, so when you're writing a period piece, you have to consider not just the present setting but also the past events that built them up to be who they are.

Somebody who was old enough to remember the Cold War— which ended in the early 90s— would see the world much, much more differently than somebody who doesn't remember it. And somebody who remembers the early 80s recession (or the fallout of it) will see the world differently than somebody who doesn't get impacted.

2- Find the pieces of the past you can relate to. Chances are, you lived through the great recession— well there was a recession in the early 90s, too. Chances are, you remember the War on Terror starting— well there was the Cold War in the 60s to early 90s, so any character who was a teenager in the 90s would've lived through it.

These historical parallels might not be exact, and they really shouldn't be treated as exact, but they are what they are: similarities.

So often we treat history as a distant relic where everything was different, but people are people. People haven't changed in a few millennia (look up the graffiti in Pompeii to see for yourself), so the human experience, reactions, and general emotions are going to be the same.

Your focus should be on figuring out what the Things of history were. Not figure out what the human emotions were at the time. The human emotions always existed.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  





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Wed Feb 28, 2018 10:36 am
DianaEliz says...



Research is always a good idea when writing about anything really. With writing in a particular time, the most important tool you have is to use descriptive imagery to paint a picture to your readers so they get a clear idea of the time and place. Writing in the 1990's, you have an advantage since that time period isn't too far into the past so there are people you can talk to and interview to get a real-life experience of the 90's. The best way to make your story read as "real" is to have to be "human," meaning that it is related to real human experiences (in some way, doesn't have to be exact, just loosely based and inspired by) and your characters read as human. If you want examples, read novels in the historical fiction genre to get an idea of how the author uses imagery and details to throw the readers into the time.
  





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Wed Jul 11, 2018 2:00 am
SilenceofTheBees says...



Websites and videos about the 90s are helpful, but I'd also highly recommend primary sources like journals and letters by people of that era who have something in common with the characters or situations you're depicting. A lot of things have distinct similarities to things we have today which make them easier to connect to while other things are surprisingly different in a way that means including them could add an extra element of realness to your story. I never wrote about the 90s until after i found a box of old letters, flyers, journals and photos my mum had kept from when she was a teenager/young adult in the late 80s/early 90s. People tended to act the same but there were some surprising things which you wouldn't see today, like her boyfriend asking her to check her school library for books about art since he'd gone through all the art books at his school and local library and it was one of the only ways to find out about old artists back then. I'd also recommend watching shows from the time that weren't fully scripted for extra realism, as scripted shows aren't exactly accurate to the era usually (can you imagine people in the future basing their view of the 2010s off of, for example, Modern Family?). I'd recommend sketch comedy and satire shows etc because they tend to show current events and how people reacted to them at the time as well as how they interacted with each other. My go-tos include the Australian Late Show because it's very laid back and some of the topics which are presented as universal of the era are completely alien now. Hope this helps!
  








"While we may come from different places and speak in different tongues, our hearts beat as one."
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