How do you get into time period?

[Kit the Human 758]

I think one of the hardest things about writing in a historical period is being able to imagine the sights, sounds and smells. Or being able to imagine your character as truly being embedded in the world and a product of it.

 

What kind of tricks do you have to get into time period?

 

For me, research is the obvious thing and detailed enough research that I have a clear picture of the minutiae. That's why I love the Sea Rover's Practice (Benerson Little). It has those little details. So I can mine it to help set scenes or plot out how my captain will try and take a ship.

 

Movies/tv shows of the time period is also a great help! In my case, I was inspired by a bunch of different games and a certain tv show, so returning to the source material helps.

 

Finally, working out what the character would eat also helps me! Oddly enough. Like my character just feels much more embedded in the world when I know what they're eating and tasting.

[Gothic 307]

Usually I watch a movie/tv show associated with it or I listen to music from the time period. 

 

Although I try to read something about it to get the muses flowing or try to think more about how my characters would interact. 

[Elena 546]

@Kit the Human, I am exactly like you. I research a lot, because if I cannot see in my mind the scene exactly, I cannot describe it in writing and I get writers block. I need to see cinematographically, what people eat, dance, how they work aboard the ship and what they do, how they fight...

[Kaycakes 78]

Umm. Well. 

 

Food is definitely one of them, especially if you're looking up the recipe to recreate it or if you go out to eat. Haha. There is an Indian place about 30 mins from here that my husband is taking me to for my birthday a few months down the road. Talk about immersiveness! There were about 5 South Indian dishes I recognised and want to taste!

 

Language. I seek out turns of phrases, idioms, etc that would be common to the time, region, and culture. I also love finding obscure words that existed in that time period that I would've never guessed. In narrative, I try to write character's thoughts and experiences in the way they'd write, so I pick up ideas of this from epistles, broadsheets, etc from that era. Speaking of language, I adopted the English way of writing in my forum descriptions and it stuck in a lot of my IC posts too. I'm just a little Southerner in USA with a long drawl and lazy speech, but my online conversational writing throws in English shit (s for c, ou for o, etc). I try to read literature from 18th c England, too.

 

Movies. When I watched some Bollywood, especially their take on some of their history, there were thought processes of their culture and the way they communicated to each other that was actually like poetry. Instead of I'm thinking of you, Indians will say I will carry thoughts of you with me. So I implemented that in some of my Natives' narratives and the way they perceived other people they interact with. Now, when I used to write pirates, I wrote mine with crude turns of thoughts and aggressive attitude I'd expect to survive among men and on sea. He still preserved a lot of his joy for life, but he was a filthy fucker, too. I loved him.

Materials. Clothing and fabric things were all handmade. Stitches weren't always even. Paper was thicker, crinklier, and didn't always preserve well (they were also usually referred to as sheaves, parchment, etc), plus they were expensive to get. I looked for stuff on what things would smell like, too. Whale oil, certain types of waxes, rosewater, etc. How some of the wax and wood would smoke a certain way (dark black smoke that leaves soot, lighter smoke that just leaves a scent in the air). 

 

Setting. I looked up weather, climate, terrain, types of water, etc. We have some gross water, clear water, and salt water along the way. Bad monsoons, heavy air, etc. I know what some of it feels like, but not all of the rest. Tennessee is known for humidity, so I can get that. We have some of the similar woods and I've even seen some bamboo get grown here, but South Asia is subtropical. 

 

Survivalism. LOL, bear with me here. The experience of hiking, camping, stitching my own clothes, pulling water from well, filtering and boiling water, bathing myself with sliver of soap and limited water, getting trapped with little food and no electricity while snowed in, building my own fire, hanging out in caves, discovering which rock is a flint rock, learning how to forage, etc. Those were all experiences that could be used in living with few means, especially in a time when you had to do most everything yourself or in teams without mass produced items. 

[Seahorse 79]

To get into the mood for a setting, I very much enjoy hitting that classic research line. Everything from people to events get me in the mood, but especially period figures in the area I am in these days. They led such fascinating, event filled lives!  It gives you an idea of what to do with your own characters who seem to fit those big story types.

Music is another one, and videos of local dancing. If I can get into the art scene of a place, I find that I can better describe it. I want to know the colors they painted with, what it was made from, how the steps went, what they looked like, instruments played on, and compositions. I want to know what music was played where for what purpose. How was poetry written or recited? How were important aspects of art culture taught? What was regarded as important to know, or what was regarded as pretty but "beneath someone" to actually do it? You can garner so much about attitudes from the arts! Personal character and scene playlists are a thing I have done for years. For a scene upcoming, I used to forward my members in my older groups playlists to set the mood. 

Poetry. I am a sucker for good period poetry. Sounds, tastes, etc become all the more real to me from reading the poetry.

Pictures on Pinterest provide good reference points as well as links to new places I might not have found in a general google search otherwise. You get those photographs of an area that just whisk you right to it!  It is also a dream for clothing, shoes, jewelry, leisure activities, etc.  
 

 

[Jacob 58]

Research is a vital undertaking for me.  I actually am a genealogist offline, so I've applied it to here.  Character names aren't simple; thus, I use real ones.  My template starts with a loosely inspired version of Charles Dickens's titular Oliver Twist.  Even though I'm now an adult, I prefer penning boys than men.  Watching Oliver Twist's 1985, 1999, and 2005 films sets the original's outline.  An adolescent girl from a genteel family gets pregnant outside of wedlock.  Given her father's reputation, she runs away and dies anonymously in a poorhouse just moments after her son enters.  His identity lies in a lavish locket stolen by the covetous nurse.  My character's fate is determined via administrator('s)(/s') mythos.  

 

I listen primarily to traditional music, which does provides me scenes I might parallel.  English vocalist Kate Rusby purchases tattered books containing folk ballads with often lost melodies.  She composes new tunes so they can be heard.  If my character's mum and dad love(d) each other, Andrew Lammie and "Matt" Hyland are great inspiration.  All God's Angels captures a woman abandoned by the married father of their unborn baby.  I visualize my applications and my threads like a movie.  Those raw emotions quickly kickstart it/them.

 

Studying historical artwork of all kinds gives off overall clothing imagery--the default attire.  My current project's is preferably akin to the garb of mezzo-soprano castrato Marc'Antonio "Pasqualino" Pasqualini (1614-3rd Jun. 1691) as painted by artist Andrea Sacchi (30th Nov. 1599-21st Jun. 1661).  The face claim I've chosen comes from Sweden, so I have imaginatively replaced leopard's pelt with wolf pelt; red tights with blue tights; brighter red laces with brighter blue laces on the sandals.  (He (a soprano castrato) has proven more complex than early drafts.)  Operatic costumes in Il Sant'Alessio (1631) by Stefano Landi (1587-28th Oct. 1639) and countless librettos I keep amassing resemble Italian clothing.

Edited March 23, 2018 by Jacob

[Guest LOVE ME AND DESPAIR]

Research.

 

So. Much. Research.

 

Whether it's reading stuff related to the setting and/or people within that setting, or picking up a movie/tv show based around there, or listening to music(making playlists, character or setting related, can be so enjoyable and help pull you in). . . I'm usually finding some way to wrap myself up in it. When we chose India as the setting for our historical, I went hardcore searching through everything I could find. It was a largely new thing for me to take part in a historical set outside of the UK or France. So yeah, it was a lot of needing to learn in a different way while also making sure to keep in mind the fact that I could still use some of those things I already knew given their impact on India in and around our chosen period.

 

Of course it isn't easy, but it is at least satisfying. Especially when you find good movies/tv or music to add to your playlist(s).