how to chose an era?

What do you want the story to be?

In my experience, the setting is at least somewhat dictated by the kind of story you want to tell.

Or maybe for you it will be other way around Just trying to narrow the field of options...

Go with your passion. It would be difficult to stay interested in a story set in a time I wasn't passionate about, or at least deeply interested.

cerissa said:

im leaning more towards Vikings, but im kinda stuck between them and native americans. I guess ill just research both and see which one pulls me more.

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I think that's the best way to go about it. Often research will give me ideas for plots, because a certain aspect of the culture or an historical event will make me think 'but what if...?'

I've often thought about writing a native American novel as well, but I know it would be one of those crappy colonial era abduction romances, because that's the kind of pap I grew up on (when I was about 10 and used to sneak library books from my mum's bedside table). Still, I guess one day I'll just have to get it out of my system

Go with your gut, whatever's begging you to write it.

cerissa said:

im leaning more towards Vikings, but im kinda stuck between them and native americans. I guess ill just research both and see which one pulls me more.

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Not trying to influence you or anything (shifty eyes) but being Swedish, and having hardly ever come across a realistic book set in Viking era Scandinavia, I vote Vikings. Set around the Lake Mälar (disclosure: where I incidentally live, ahem, ahem), which was where Birka, possibly the biggest city in Viking era Scandinavia and a major trading place, was situated. Right on the crossroads between Western Europe and eastern trade with Russia, Byzantium and even Arabia. I go to the site at least once every summer (because I have a sister who has a degree in archeology and loves Viking era stuff) and I blogged about it here: http://theragsoftime.blogspot.se/2014/08/vikings-sheep-and-archeologists-visit.html

But seriously, have you watched Icelandic movies When the Raven Flies (Hrafninn flýgur) and Shadow of the Raven (Í skugga hrafnsins)? Not so much daily life perhaps but fairly OK for bringing the feel of Icelandic sagas to the screen (if you don't mind a lot of hardboiled violence).

Do you live on the East Coast? The Longship Company just pulled their 40 foot ship out of the water in southern Maryland; but they'll launch it again in the spring. Voyages are free.

Also, Vikings is one of my Things. PM or create a thread of you have questions.

Two of my four manuscripts are about Vikings.

How do you pick? Like Buz said, it starts with some idea about what kind of story you want to tell. So I always start with some sort of idea of the story -- the conflict, the character, something. Then I hit the research. And, honestly, I start with Wikipedia and lots of Googling. Then I get out some academic, era-overview type books from the library. At that point, a specific time and place will start becoming more interesting, so I will start honing my research and building my story around that.

The other method I would strongly recommend is to read a diversity of historical novels. Read some Viking books. Read some Native American books. Read some Tudor books. Read some US Civil War books. Whatever catches your interest. Just read widely.

Flicka, Thanks for the link your blog! I bookmarked it. I was lucky enough to see the Vikings exhibition at the British Museum this past summer and I was so fascinated by all the information about Scandinavian trade with the Middle East. (And I'm super into that documentary on the Ulfberht swords.)

cerissa said:

thanks guys, I appreciate it the advice, I guess since I know nothing about Vikings, except watching how to train a dragon but somehow I don't think that works lol. so maybe after I get up tomorrow, since I work nights and sleep during the day, that I will go to the library and read a few books, and do some googling today.

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If you are completely new to the era, I highly recommend going to YouTube and searching for Viking Documentaries. I do this for my university work, my next module is on Ancient Egypt and apart from a child obsession, I am clueless about the period.

My ideas usually come with a time period built in. Like, I have this one concept for a time-traveler who gets stuck in WWII and falls in love with a nurse. That's just the idea that came to me, and it wouldn't really work in any other time period. I don't know a lot about that era, so I'll have to do a lot of research to get the details right.

Whatever you pick, make sure you do TONS of research! Every little detail must be accurate, right down to the kind of undergarments your main character wears (or doesn't wear). Nothing will zap me out of a story faster than anachronisms that five minutes of research would have prevented. Like a woman in the 1900s wearing a hoop skirt. Or the woman in Victorian England who wore panties. (That author got some hate mail!)

Something like whether or not panties existed in the 1880s may seem like an insignificant detail, but it's all about illusion. The illusion is, "This story is real." So, if you include details that aren't accurate, it will make the reader wonder how many other details you got wrong. They can't trust you anymore, which means they can't believe your story is real. The illusion is broken, along with any trust the reader may have originally put in you.

Whatever speaks to you, but also whatever you have a plot for. It's all fine and dandy to love an era. It's another thing altogether to get so into it so deeply that you can write a fully-fledged novel about it with an authentic setting, believable characters, and credible events. I like Tudor England but haven't gotten the enthusiasm to do all the necessary research or come up with a suitable plot.

For me, choosing an era (or eras; I've written in a few) was not a simple this-then-that occurrence. I read books about the era because I was interested; that gave me story ideas; I went back to the books for research; as I read, I became more enthusiastic about the era; and I got more ideas . . . . It's kind of cyclical. The more I write, the deeper I get into the time period, and the deeper I get the more I want to write.

Most eras had seismic events that you can ground your story in but it helps if you already have an interest or knowledge of the period, it just makes the research less onerous

Given that you love the researching part, I would suggest that you take the route of the eras you personally like. If that doesn't work out, start out with eras that you're not that familiar with and find a niche that you can research in depth.

Form your ideas and start from there.

cerissa said:

I found this website for early life in America, if anyone is interested, i didn't want to start a whole new thread just for this site, but its pretty cool and a lot of history, well it looks like it in my quick glance around it.

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If you PM me the link (or give it here), I can include it in the pinned reference link post I am supposedly responsible for. Same goes for any other sites and/or literature any of you think may be useful to more people. PM meeeee!!!11!!

gothicangel said:

If you are completely new to the era, I highly recommend going to YouTube and searching for Viking Documentaries. I do this for my university work, my next module is on Ancient Egypt and apart from a child obsession, I am clueless about the period.

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Ooooh, my favourite, yay! Although I have to point out that 'ancient Egypt' is not a period - there are millenia of ancient Egyptian history, from the building of the pyramids down to Cleopatra. However, when you say Ancient Egypt, most people think of the new Kingdom - Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen, Ramesses - but even within that 'period' you've got 3 dynasties, and some of the biggest military conquests and cultural evolutions in Egyptian history. Do you know specifically which period you're studying?

Pick a specific place and a specific year as soon as possible. It will help you focus your research. It helps to pick a year and a place that's well-covered by historians, so there's plenty of info to be gathered. There are lots of frustrating blind spots in history, and you don't want to run into one (unless you're knowledgeable enough to fill it with educated guesses).

Always go with your passion, but this bothers me greatly: I want to write an epic fantasy, but I want to get one crappy novel out of the way before writing the epic. :

Why write a "crappy" novel. That won't help you write the next one. Unless you take this novel as seriously as your "epic", unless you put the same level of work, research, and effort into it, it's just wasting time, and stopping you from writing the novel you really want to write.

And there really is no such thing as an "epic" novel. "Epic is only a marketing word that's used for promotion. Marketing will, or won't, apply it, but a novel is a novel is a novel, whatever its length or content.

Write the novel you most want to write. Writing anything else is usually just a way of procrastinating, a way of shying away from a big project the writer really wants to write, but thinks will be hard to handle.