Need help telling when a story takes place? Here are some tips to help.
Sometimes it’s hard to know when a story takes place. Of course it isn’t always necessary to know an exact time period because when it’s just a story and not an historical fiction, you don’t have to know. But at times just a general idea of the era helps. Here are 10 tips that I’ve found helpful.
1. Technology. Are they using computers? Do they send telegrams? The technology or lack of it, can be a big help in determining when a story happens. Though it might not give you an exact date, it will help you narrow the time down.
2. Communication. Do they talk to each other on phones? Cell phones? Send texts or emails? If they do either of the latter things, it’s a good chance it’s a modern story. However, if they are writing letters, there’s a good chance it takes place some time ago before the age of cell phones and computers.
3. Travel. How do they get around? Car? Horse and buggy or wagon? Model-T? Jeep? These are all indications of time periods. Train travel is a little more difficult to pinpoint unless the story mentions the smoke from the engine or the train’s fireman.
4. Dress. Are clothes mentioned? Do the ladies wear hoop-skirts or cotton dresses? I’m terrible at describing clothes! So, sorry, you won’t get much help here in my books. But other books are great at it. Perhaps a girl wraps a cloak tightly around her, there’s your clue that it isn’t modern.
5. Education. What sort of schools do the children attend? Or are they home-schooled? In my Triple Creek Ranch books the children go off to attend school because home-school wasn’t a thing back then. However, in Through the Tunnel, I have a home-school family. If the children do go to school, what is the school like? How activities do they participate in?
6. Current Events. What’s going on in the news? Perhaps you’ve never heard about something, but a quick search will often tell you when that event took place. For example, my first Graham Quartet book has Communist propaganda being found. Now days no one would think twice about it. But back in the 1950s, during the Cold War, it was a huge deal. Communists were considered almost as bad as modern day terrorist and promoting such things was basically acts of treason. Other stories are more obvious such as Little Women with the talk of the Civil War.
7. Language. How do they characters talk? Is it old English? Modern slang? If they have an accent you might get a feel for where they live or where they are from. This one can be tricky because some modern authors don’t pay attention to when some words or phrases came into use and have people saying them when they wouldn’t have even heard of them. But sometimes it can help.
8. Kitchens. Do they cook over an open fire? Do they use a stove? Did you know that they didn’t used to have counters in kitchens? If they use crock-pots, or go out to eat at Pizza Hut, you can be pretty sure it’s fairly modern. Do they use measuring utensils? Those things weren’t always around, you know.
9. Activities. How do they keep busy? Do the kids play baseball? Do they hang out at coffee shops? Did they work on the farm, or in the garden? There is a lot more free time for children now than there used to be. But even a long time ago during the summer when school was out the children spent time doing things. Perhaps building a raft for the lake? Camping? Playing marbles in the dusty streets?
10. Conversation. How do they talk to each other? Are the children respectful of their elders? Do young people tease each other and kid around? Do they use slang in their speech? You may not think these are very important, but they are. Boys and girls didn’t act the same way they do now around each other in the 1800s or even the 1930s. Ladies were treated with respect, men took off their hats in the house, and children were, for the most part, respectful of adults. Sometimes paying attention to what topics are talked about will give you hits for when the story takes place.
Good tips! I do like knowing when a story takes place; it helps me sort of fill in the background and picture the characters better, especially if there’s not a lot of description. (For the record, I’m not that good at describing clothes either! Or appearances…) But I like to get a picture in my head of the way things should look in general.
One area I have a hard time with is if the characters live in a more rural setting, especially if it’s a farm or a ranch–it can be hard to tell whether it’s an older setting or just an old-fashioned modern family. 🙂 Also, the distinction between more recent “historical” settings (say 1950s-70s) vs. present-day can be difficult unless there are specific details that make it obvious.
I think the biggest problem I have is when the setting isn’t clear at the beginning of a story but then becomes more apparent in later chapters. For example, if I’ve spent several chapters with a family riding horses, doing ranch chores, and sitting around a wood-burning stove, then they suddenly get in the truck to go to church. Or if I’ve assumed a modern setting from the existence of cars and telephones, and then later get a reference to a historical “current event” or an office with a typewriter. At that point, I pretty much have to drag all the characters into new costumes, re-do their hair, redecorate their living room…it’s exhausting! (Well, okay, it’s mentally exhausting!) I think it’s really helpful to have those details as early as possible, especially the ones that narrow the field significantly, as opposed to, say, the existence of cars. 😀 But on the other hand, I know as an author that it can be difficult to work those kind of details in without seeming forced. (Or, you know, beginning with “It was a bright June morning in 1948…” :P)
Yes, it is exhausting when you have to move the characters in your mind to a different era! 😉
And rural settings can be a challenge unless something is clear near the beginning to give you a feel for the when.
Thank you for the tips. I pay attention to dialogue and mannerisms in books. I have a fond appreciation of quality literature from bygone days. I dislike the laxity of the current generation. Of course, not everyone is that way, thankfully.
I agree! Sometimes the dialogue and mannerisms in modern “historical fiction” drives me crazy because the characters act like it’s the 21st century!