Worldbuilding For a Historical - Gathering What You Need

by Stephanie Morrill

Stephanie writes young adult contemporary novels and is the creator of GoTeenWriters.com. Her novels include The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series (Revell) and the Ellie Sweet books (Playlist). You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and check out samples of her work on her author website including the free novella, Throwing Stones.

Writing a historical fiction book scared me.

I had tried it before when I had a wisp of an idea. I made it about a page in before giving up. The amount of questions I had overwhelmed me. It's not for me, I decided. I love reading historicals, but I'm not meant to write them.

A few months later, as I was putting away laundry in my daughter's room, I was struck by a story idea that I knew was good. But it was a historical.

Maybe it's not as good of an idea as I think, I told myself. Maybe I won't have to write it. I texted my husband. "Veronica Mars meets Downton Abbey. What do you think?" He replied a minute later: "Write it!"

But how? Hadn't I already proven that I couldn't? I pitched my idea, which had become more fleshed out since my text, to my writing friend, Roseanna White. We decided it was more Veronica Mars meets The Great Gatsby, and she told me it was a good idea. That I should write it.

For a while, I was able to hide behind a deadline. The Unlikely Debut of Ellie Sweet was coming out in a few months and final edits needed to be turned in. Then my life became a revolving door of ER visits as we struggled to get Connor's seizures under control. And all the while, the story churned inside me. I wanted to write it, but for the first time, I was feeling scared.

I say all that so you know that I'm not some expert in writing historicals. I've read quite a few, and I'm on the second draft of edits of my story, but I'm still learning how to do this. I learned because I had to. Because I had an idea that wouldn't let me go.

Jill has written a fabulous book on creating storyworlds for fantasy and sci-fi books. It's a must-read if you write in those genres. But realistic fiction—contemporary and historical alike—also involves worldbuilding. And worldbuilding in a historical translates into research. Lots of research.

Don't panic about that, though. You know what I found? When you love the story idea enough, the research isn't so bad.

Step 1: Figure out where and when this story takes place.

I was wisely advised by Roseanna that this was to be my first priority in figuring out my story. I knew vaguely where—Chicago, a nicer neighborhood, sometime in the 1920s. But I needed to get more specific. Not just a decade, but a year. Not just a year, but a season too.

I picked 1924 after some of my fashion research told me that cloche hats didn't really come into popularity until then, and I didn't want to write a 1920s book without cloche hats.  I went with spring because one of my characters is a baseball player, and I wanted him to be coming home from spring training. I leaned on some Chicago friends to help me find the right neighborhood, and then I roamed around on Google street view for a while.

Once I had those things figured out, it was much easier to figure out what else I needed to know.

Step 2: Get your bearings.

Instead of trying to learn everything there was to know about the 1920s, I decided that I would research enough to have a general understanding of what my character's day-to-day life looked like. 

I checked out several books from the library about the 1920s, and—once I knew I was actually going to do this thing—I bought myself several. Then I went about answering these questions: 

Where does my character live? 

What was her favorite toy as a child?

What is her favorite thing to wear?

How does she do her hair?

What are women “supposed” to look like in that time?

What does the house look like? How is it unique from other houses?

When she needs something—a brush, a new pair of shoes, etc.—how does she go about getting it?

What does she do for entertainment?

What does she order at a restaurant?

What is her favorite food at home?

What does she commonly eat for breakfast? Lunch? Dinner? Snack?

How does she get to school? What kind of classes does she take?

What is she expected to do after high school?

Does she go to church and where? What's the spiritual climate of her society?

What do her and her friends do when they’re together?

Who were the celebrities of the time?

What books/music/movies/plays were popular at the time?

Has she traveled much?

If she wants to talk to a friend, how does she get a hold of them?

This list is extremely basic, but it gave me enough to be able to move my character around decently well. At first that was all I needed.

Later, of course, there were very specific things that I needed to research to build my world. Like how the mafia operated. Society's view on flappers. How dead bodies were identified and how long that took. But I think it's easier to do that as you write rather than trying to learn it all up front. At first, you just need to get down the basics.

Next Monday we'll talk about how to work in the historical details without it feeling like an info dump or history lecture!