Research
I was recently asked on Twitter about how I do research, and since Twitter is a crap way to try to have any sort of intelligent conversation, I thought I would elaborate here.
The From the Ashes of Victory series takes place in Britain just after the end of WWI, so there's quite a bit of information I needed to convey that properly. I think I mostly succeeded, but I'm sure anyone who was around then would disagree. Then I pull the 'alternate universe' card and run.
First, I chose that time period not only because of its dramatic potential, but because I had an interest in it. Or maybe I saw the dramatic potential because I already had an interest. I don't know, creativity is weird. Anyway, the point it I already had a baseline to start from, and an active interest. Both of those things make a world of difference! You already have a 'feel' for it, and a place to start from, which makes it a lot easier, and more fun, since you might learn things you wanted to know anyway.
What to look for? This one is trickier, but it's usually as simple as answering 'I don't know' to something. I knew that airships were popular in this time period, and I knew they were big, but I didn't know how big. That was an easy answer to find, since it's just a number: 600 feet long. As for something like names? Also simple, I Googled 'Popular British baby names 1890s' and compared the lists I got. I would have never found Pretoria unless I went looking, since her name was only popular for one summer in 1900. Knowing that, I got her mixed feelings on it, too! It instantly dates her. There are no Pretorias (or very very few) born outside that window.
Russian naming conventions were a fun hole to dive into. It's wonderfully complicated, way more than I thought, and 'Yekaterina' in particular has between nine and fifty ways to shorten it, depending on who you trust. I'm going to save names for its own post, but I tried to look at sources written by actual Russians.
Is the asylum in Remember, November real? No. Did I look up Victorian mental asylums and pick one that had a layout I could remember? Yes. My imagination took over from there. Does Millie talk about her education? Not really, she mentions getting in fights, but that's it. I still had to look up the Scottish education system to know if she would have learned to read or not! Turns out, England and Scotland had different education systems at that time anyway! How common was electricity then? I learned enough so that Millie is not shocked by it (ha!), but she does lament the change when she goes into the pub in Book I. That one little thing helps lay the groundwork for one of the big themes of the entire series: change. I use these small things to inform big things. I honestly don't care how many buttons Victoria's shirts have, but I do care that having short hair makes her a rebel. Short hair was a giant middle finger to the status quo in the 1920s (which I already knew) so I used it to show how ahead of her time Victoria is.
Character. All of this stuff I do funnels down into character. There's a ton of stuff you the reader will never see directly, but do see indirectly through the characters and why they are the way they are. They, like us, are shaped by the times in which they live. I knew about the white feather girls before I started this series, but I used it to inform one particular character, and shape the course of her entire life with it. What you do with it matters as much as what you find!
But it's not all facts and numbers, it's also the feeling of the time, so yes, I took notes when watching Downton Abby (the white feather girls show up!). Visual stimulation helps me a lot, so silent movies and documentaries using footage from the time are also drips that fill up the jug that I draw these stories from. Inspiration comes from everywhere once you start researching, so be open to what you find and willing to change things when you do!
Don't let yourself get sucked into it too far though, and don't use it as an excuse not to write. Have a research 'time budget' and stick to it. Know what you want and find it, fall down the rabbit hole later. Your story isn't going to be told if you don't write it, and fixing that third act reveal is more important than what the salad forks are made of.
Also keep in mind that my series is an alternate universe with magic and real witches in it, so I'm not too much of a stickler for things. I try to be faithful to what happened and respectful of the people who went through it, but it's also a jumping-off point to something different a lot of the time, as well. I'm not the one to ask for hardcore historical novel research methods.
But overall, love what you're writing, and who you're writing, and you'll want to do find out as much as you can. Most importantly, start from the right place and have a passion for it.
Easy, digestible things for you:
A French documentary called 'Women at War, 1914-1918' uses restored color footage and has a ton of good information, and looks amazing! Makes that time feel real. (Bonus, the child care facilities Elise tells the Longs about came from this). I saw it on Netflix, but since I just said that, it's probably being taken down as I type.
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast did a six-part series on WWI called 'Blueprint for Armageddon' that is still free, but will go behind a paywall eventually. It's immersive (and long) but really helped to inform the tone of Book I especially. It's absolutely wonderful, and I cannot recommend it enough.
Anyway, I hope this was useful, or at least interesting!
Still doing some research for Book IV, but I can't tell you what it is without spoiling it, so... I won't.
Thank you for reading!
The From the Ashes of Victory series takes place in Britain just after the end of WWI, so there's quite a bit of information I needed to convey that properly. I think I mostly succeeded, but I'm sure anyone who was around then would disagree. Then I pull the 'alternate universe' card and run.
First, I chose that time period not only because of its dramatic potential, but because I had an interest in it. Or maybe I saw the dramatic potential because I already had an interest. I don't know, creativity is weird. Anyway, the point it I already had a baseline to start from, and an active interest. Both of those things make a world of difference! You already have a 'feel' for it, and a place to start from, which makes it a lot easier, and more fun, since you might learn things you wanted to know anyway.
What to look for? This one is trickier, but it's usually as simple as answering 'I don't know' to something. I knew that airships were popular in this time period, and I knew they were big, but I didn't know how big. That was an easy answer to find, since it's just a number: 600 feet long. As for something like names? Also simple, I Googled 'Popular British baby names 1890s' and compared the lists I got. I would have never found Pretoria unless I went looking, since her name was only popular for one summer in 1900. Knowing that, I got her mixed feelings on it, too! It instantly dates her. There are no Pretorias (or very very few) born outside that window.
Russian naming conventions were a fun hole to dive into. It's wonderfully complicated, way more than I thought, and 'Yekaterina' in particular has between nine and fifty ways to shorten it, depending on who you trust. I'm going to save names for its own post, but I tried to look at sources written by actual Russians.
Is the asylum in Remember, November real? No. Did I look up Victorian mental asylums and pick one that had a layout I could remember? Yes. My imagination took over from there. Does Millie talk about her education? Not really, she mentions getting in fights, but that's it. I still had to look up the Scottish education system to know if she would have learned to read or not! Turns out, England and Scotland had different education systems at that time anyway! How common was electricity then? I learned enough so that Millie is not shocked by it (ha!), but she does lament the change when she goes into the pub in Book I. That one little thing helps lay the groundwork for one of the big themes of the entire series: change. I use these small things to inform big things. I honestly don't care how many buttons Victoria's shirts have, but I do care that having short hair makes her a rebel. Short hair was a giant middle finger to the status quo in the 1920s (which I already knew) so I used it to show how ahead of her time Victoria is.
Character. All of this stuff I do funnels down into character. There's a ton of stuff you the reader will never see directly, but do see indirectly through the characters and why they are the way they are. They, like us, are shaped by the times in which they live. I knew about the white feather girls before I started this series, but I used it to inform one particular character, and shape the course of her entire life with it. What you do with it matters as much as what you find!
But it's not all facts and numbers, it's also the feeling of the time, so yes, I took notes when watching Downton Abby (the white feather girls show up!). Visual stimulation helps me a lot, so silent movies and documentaries using footage from the time are also drips that fill up the jug that I draw these stories from. Inspiration comes from everywhere once you start researching, so be open to what you find and willing to change things when you do!
Don't let yourself get sucked into it too far though, and don't use it as an excuse not to write. Have a research 'time budget' and stick to it. Know what you want and find it, fall down the rabbit hole later. Your story isn't going to be told if you don't write it, and fixing that third act reveal is more important than what the salad forks are made of.
Also keep in mind that my series is an alternate universe with magic and real witches in it, so I'm not too much of a stickler for things. I try to be faithful to what happened and respectful of the people who went through it, but it's also a jumping-off point to something different a lot of the time, as well. I'm not the one to ask for hardcore historical novel research methods.
But overall, love what you're writing, and who you're writing, and you'll want to do find out as much as you can. Most importantly, start from the right place and have a passion for it.
Easy, digestible things for you:
A French documentary called 'Women at War, 1914-1918' uses restored color footage and has a ton of good information, and looks amazing! Makes that time feel real. (Bonus, the child care facilities Elise tells the Longs about came from this). I saw it on Netflix, but since I just said that, it's probably being taken down as I type.
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast did a six-part series on WWI called 'Blueprint for Armageddon' that is still free, but will go behind a paywall eventually. It's immersive (and long) but really helped to inform the tone of Book I especially. It's absolutely wonderful, and I cannot recommend it enough.
Anyway, I hope this was useful, or at least interesting!
Still doing some research for Book IV, but I can't tell you what it is without spoiling it, so... I won't.
Thank you for reading!
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