{"id":9754,"date":"2022-05-10T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9754"},"modified":"2022-05-12T07:57:17","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T11:57:17","slug":"where-story-ideas-come-from-picking-a-time-period","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9754","title":{"rendered":"Where Story Ideas Come From: Picking a Time Period"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Sherlock<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Knowing how much research I have to do to write a story in the near-present, the thought of writing historical fiction overwhelms me. Ditto, science fiction set in the future. I can\u2019t imagine how much cross-disciplinary science a provocative author like Neal Stephenson knows, in order to construct a plausible future to frame his compelling plots. My head spins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing in the current time also has challenges, of course. When cell phones first became ubiquitous, some authors tried to ignore this massive social change and offered plots that could easily have been resolved and tragedies averted with a quick phone call. We seem to be beyond that problem. A few authors get around it by setting their stories in the past\u2014even the way past\u2014which accomplishes many things, one of which is making it harder and slower for characters to travel from one place to another and to communicate.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My novel Architect of Courage<\/em>, coming out June 4 (pre-order link here<\/a>), is set in the summer of 2011. The ten-year anniversary of 9\/11 was approaching, and my plot is tied to it. In real life, the authorities are on high alert when any significant anniversary is looming that might incite anti-government or anti-American actions: Ruby Ridge, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas, are examples. The biggest of all: 9\/11. This made it plausible for the Joint Terrorism Task Force members in the novel to be hypersensitive about the possibility of a terrorist infiltrating the architectural firm at the center of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though I cannot imagine tackling a whole historical novel, I have written three short stories that are Sherlock Holmes pastiches. These weren\u2019t the result of any special knowledge I have about the period (except as a reader of Conan Doyle), but in response to the publishers\u2019 solicitations. We know a lot about the late 1800s and the Victorian era, thanks to television and the movies. As a result, establishing a common understanding with readers is quite doable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For one of these stories, the research was actually rather simple (fun too). It\u2019s set in 1884, around the time Queen Victoria\u2019s adult son Leopold, who had hemophilia, died from the effects of that condition. I have several biographies of the Queen on my bookshelf, and was able to find out how much people of the era knew about the heritability of the disease. Potentially damaging rumors abounded as cases appeared among her descendants<\/a>. These were useful in the plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also easy to find old newspaper accounts of Leopold\u2019s funeral, which provided vivid detail. I had Dr. John Watson attend the ceremony, and some of these details appear as his observations. Even the 1880s were not free of the fear of terrorism, due to mounting pressure for Irish Home Rule\u2014another plot point. Again, the precise time chosen presented specific story opportunities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But going back further in time? I\u2019ll leave that to the excellent authors of historical fiction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Knowing how much research I have to do to write a story in the near-present, the thought of writing historical fiction overwhelms me. Ditto, science fiction set in the future. I can\u2019t imagine how much cross-disciplinary science a provocative author … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Picking the right time frame for a story opens plot possibilities and constraints. ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[174,266,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-draft-blog","category-history","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2xk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9755,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9754\/revisions\/9755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}