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| Pamela S. Meyers |
Using Local Newspapers to
Make Your Historical Setting Come Alive, Part 3
By Pamela S. Meyers
Make Your Historical Setting Come Alive, Part 3
By Pamela S. Meyers
In my final installment about using local newspapers to make
your historical setting come alive, I want to discuss paying attention to the
details.
To make my story as authentic to exact months and year in
which it is set, I studied the weather reports, the events taking place in the
world outside of Lake Geneva, and what movies were playing at the time of my
story.
My heroine, Meg, and her best friend, Helen, love going to
movies and they see at least one movie a week when they can afford it. I didn’t
just have them see a movie that released in early 1933, from the microfilm, I
made note of the movies playing at the Geneva Theater at the exact time they
would be going to the “picture show” (as they called it) in my story. I even located
the movies to rent so I could see exactly what they were watching. What was
really fun was with one film, the movie heroine was struggling with a situation
similar to Meg’s struggle, and I was able to incorporate that into the
storyline.
Through research, I learned that back in 1933 the
inauguration of the President of the United States took place in March, not
January like it does now. I made sure to mention the newsreel was talking about
the inauguration during another time they were at the movies.
Oddly, most restaurants didn’t advertise in the paper at
that time. Perhaps that was because everyone knew where the restaurants were and
what their specialties were, so the restaurants didn’t need a large advertising
budget. I only found one small ad for an eatery called the Utopia Café. My
characters ate there a couple of times. I also had them eat at another
restaurant I found pictured a book. As for what kind of food they ordered, I
searched for restaurant menus in 1933 and found one from an establishment in
Milwaukee. From there, I could incorporate the offerings into my restaurant
scenes.
I hope I’ve been able to spark some ideas for your story
research. When I began this series of articles, I said I resisted writing
historicals because of all the extra research involved. What I learned is that
I really love research and making my stories authentic to the time. In fact,
right now I’m working on a new historical set even earlier than the 1930s—in
the nineteenth century.
Now if I can just remember that they ride in carriages
instead of cars.
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| Love Finds You in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin |
(e-book) (print)
