
pixel skylines
dirt enthusiast
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
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Stranger Things

Kaledo Art
Mike Driver
trying on a metaphor
tumblr dot com
Today's Document

oozey mess
we're not kids anymore.

#extradirty

Love Begins
Cosimo Galluzzi

JVL

if i look back, i am lost
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h

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@literamour
Torn Pants by Constanca Entrudo
Rami Kadi | Elementa
Source: arthurgoldheart
Word References for Historical Fiction
It's difficult to capture the milieu of an era you don't inhabit. Even capturing everything about the year 2025 - the memes, the slang, the influencers - is difficult because there isn't any single correct way to live in the current year or to feel about what's happening.
Fortunately, the internet is full of information that might never make it into the Encyclopedia Britannica. Or even Wikipedia.
When I write a story set in the past, I want to make my characters think and speak like a person of that era. I look up pictures of what people wore and how they styled their hair, and read what daily routines were like, what they might have talked about. I try to get the technology right by looking up the history of light switches and curling irons and indoor sanitation. I check to see what names were most popular for a man born in 1856 or a woman born in 1920. How many times a day was mail delivered in London in 1881? (Six.) How would people of different classes address one another in 1912? (complicated.) At what age did boys start wearing long trousers in the 1880s? (Thirteen.)
I'm not calling this research work. It's what I enjoy most about writing another period. And I love being able to drop historical trivia into conversations. (You might want to avoid being seated at the same table with me at dinner. I will talk about Victorian mourning customs.)
And it's difficult to even know what to ask yourself. There are so many things we take for granted, like the 5-day work week, compulsory education, standardized time. The best advice I can give is to read books written about a period, or (even better) read books written during that period.
One of the hardest things to get right in an historical story is how people talked. What would you call a secretary in 1920? Did that word even exist? Did it mean something different?
What about idioms? Did people say double down in 1895? Did English people say it, or only Americans? There are significant differences, even today, between the way an American uses the language and how other English speakers use the same words, even common ones. (E.g. "gotten" is American, not British.)
A dictionary/thesaurus has some information that can answer questions like these, but I'd like to share a couple resources you might not have used.
Note: there are many, many resources, and I do not claim to know about them all. These are just what I use often and find reliable.
Cavtat, Croatia
Edwardian convertible diamond and pearl tiara, ca. 1910
“The June moon, burning pure champagne.”
— Frederick Seidel, from “June,” The Cosmos Trilogy
John Galliano - Spring 1999 RTW