Barbara Eberhard's Blog - Posts Tagged "computers"
Timelines and Fiction
As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I write contemporary fiction. My books are usually set in the same timeline as me, with occasional deviations into the past and, in one case, into the future.
So you'd think that would be easy, right? I mean, I'm living in today's America. My books are set in today's America. Easy.
And yet, I spend a remarkable amount of time Googling things.
For example, my current fictional biography is currently happening in New York City. That's where my female protagonist, whose a famous, yet anonymous, author lives. Because, of course she does.
But I don't really know New York. I've been there, of course. But not often. Certainly not often enough to know neighborhoods and where a famous, yet anonymous, author might live. I didn't want her to be living the high life in NYC. She's trying to be anonymous by using a pseudonym for her writing. But she's still got money, so she's not living in squalor either.
She's 35 when the book takes place. Which makes her born in 1986. Her mother is a teenager when she's born. Which makes her mother having been born when?
And this is why I have a spreadsheet of years and characters. It starts with Anna's mother and the year in which she was born, which is 1969. An interesting time in America to have been born. I'm sure that will come into play at some point.
Jennifer, Anna's mother, graduates from high school and then college, bringing along her infant daughter - with help from family. When she graduates, she goes to work...
What year is that? Doing what? She's going to end up on a ranch in Colorado. That's key to the plot. But where in Colorado? Where is ranching in Colorado? Are there still cattle ranches in Colorado?
This is what Google helps with. And people who publish the history of the Great Plains, so I can understand when and how cattle ranching started in Colorado, since the ranch will have been around for generations, of course.
Jennifer graduates in 1991. Do you know what else happened in 1991? Apple put out their first laptops for regular people, the PowerBook, at the cost of $2k+. I remember 1991. I remember how early it was in the world of IT. This should be a fun thing to incorporate into the story.
Just like the history of the Great Plains.
Spreadsheets and Google. An author's friends.
So you'd think that would be easy, right? I mean, I'm living in today's America. My books are set in today's America. Easy.
And yet, I spend a remarkable amount of time Googling things.
For example, my current fictional biography is currently happening in New York City. That's where my female protagonist, whose a famous, yet anonymous, author lives. Because, of course she does.
But I don't really know New York. I've been there, of course. But not often. Certainly not often enough to know neighborhoods and where a famous, yet anonymous, author might live. I didn't want her to be living the high life in NYC. She's trying to be anonymous by using a pseudonym for her writing. But she's still got money, so she's not living in squalor either.
She's 35 when the book takes place. Which makes her born in 1986. Her mother is a teenager when she's born. Which makes her mother having been born when?
And this is why I have a spreadsheet of years and characters. It starts with Anna's mother and the year in which she was born, which is 1969. An interesting time in America to have been born. I'm sure that will come into play at some point.
Jennifer, Anna's mother, graduates from high school and then college, bringing along her infant daughter - with help from family. When she graduates, she goes to work...
What year is that? Doing what? She's going to end up on a ranch in Colorado. That's key to the plot. But where in Colorado? Where is ranching in Colorado? Are there still cattle ranches in Colorado?
This is what Google helps with. And people who publish the history of the Great Plains, so I can understand when and how cattle ranching started in Colorado, since the ranch will have been around for generations, of course.
Jennifer graduates in 1991. Do you know what else happened in 1991? Apple put out their first laptops for regular people, the PowerBook, at the cost of $2k+. I remember 1991. I remember how early it was in the world of IT. This should be a fun thing to incorporate into the story.
Just like the history of the Great Plains.
Spreadsheets and Google. An author's friends.
