Period Piece

[MohanSingh]

I am writing a period piece at the moment and would appreciate any ideas on how best this can be executed. Thanks in advance.

 

[NotWise]

I am writing a period piece at the moment and would appreciate any ideas on how best this can be executed. Thanks in advance.

Um, a period piece? Like about a woman's period?

If you mean about an historical period, then I'd suggest a lot of research, and if you want to ask questions about it, then you need to be more specific about the setting. WAY more specific.

 

[RetroFan]

Agree with NotWise, whether you want to write a fetish piece about menstruation, or you want to set a story in the past (which I presume you want to do) we would need more details to advise you effectively.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Research or prior knowledge, pure and simple, if you want historical accuracy. Or a vivid imagination if veracity doesn't matter.

I'd have thought you'd have to have half a clue of your period already, though, to even start on a historical piece. Folk will quickly spot it when you get details wrong.

 

[Handley_Page]

I am writing a period piece at the moment and would appreciate any ideas on how best this can be executed. Thanks in advance.

Which period of whose history have you in mind ?

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Generally speaking, historical accuracy of setting and peoples is of paramount importance, because the readers are looking for that exact thing.

Until it gets in the way of your story. I had a fight and musket battle break out in the Louvre and got Cardinal Richelieu kicked in the nuts. And while the battle was historically VERY unlikely, someone kicking Richelieu in the dick isn't, he was an asshole.

Sorry, back on track. The people who read period pieces are hoping to imagine a story that rings true for the most part. I'm not saying they're all pedants, but there's more than a few who would fit the bill. Of course there's readers with a more 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure' approach to history, they just want to be entertained.

But for a story to be praised, accuracy is key. Just don't get bogged down in so many details that it stalls or is mired in overly technical terms.

And for the love of Sanguinius, remember to match dates with social mores. I wrote a chapter of Time Rider that took place in Imperial Rome and a few scenes featured the Baths of Trajan. Based on the year I wrote it for, gender-mixed bathing and such m socializing was actually happening at the baths, whereas a mere two decades earlier, the Romans were in a repressed and angsty phase that precluded such interaction. I actually included a mention to that effect in my Author's Notes to deter the 'Well, actually...' crowd.

Victorian society in England was not COMPLETELY repressed, although the general feel of propriety and subsequent repression made their outlets and kinks rather unsettling. Balance between accuracy and telling your story can be a fine line, depending on when you're writing about.

I wish you well, and I'll be looking out for your story. I love period pieces.

 

[oggbashan]

I suggest you do not overdo historic language. If you are accurate a modern reader might find it difficult and it is very difficult to be accurate more than 50 years ago.

In my story:

https://www.literotica.com/beta/s/men-at-arms


I start with an Author's Note:

Conversations are assumed to be in the English and French of the 14th century retold in modern English.

 

[dp4shelly]

Why one or the other

Um, a period piece? Like about a woman's period?

If you mean about an historical period, then I'd suggest a lot of research, and if you want to ask questions about it, then you need to be more specific about the setting. WAY more specific.

It could be both. It could be about a woman's period and a historical period. For example, you could write about Cleopatra with PMS.

A serious answer would be easier if we knew which time period you are thinking about. I also think that for a time period to be interesting it should be historically accurate but told from an unlikely vantage point of the time. Someone on the fringe of society rather than the typical famous people of the period.

 

[gordo12]

I am writing a period piece at the moment and would appreciate any ideas on how best this can be executed. Thanks in advance.

Research, research, research! You need to research almost everything. For instance I used the expression "love em and leave em." I had to go research that last night and it turned out to be a real bitch. CLUE: Google & Bing are NOT GOOD for historical research on minor things.

I was finally able to get two references in books, one of which put it within 10 years of my date as a common expression. The second reference put it 40 years later. Now I have to wonder if I want the inevitable comments, that didn't arise till...

I got into an argument over bras. Women have been binding their breasts during activities for thousands of years. There are even Egyptian hieroglyphics showing women with bra like clothing while working. But no, two commenters insist that bras weren't invented till they were PATENTED in 1889 something (I think) despite the fact there were earlier references to them in newspaper articles. I was working with 1870 or so.

I have a hell of a problem with using historical slang for genitals and sex. Many of the words used back then will NOT show up in a Google search unless you add sex or some other defining term. Even then they seldom pop.

I like westerns. But do you write them in today's English or try to put a historical spin on it. I've seen authors do both ways. I can't make up my mind which is better. I just finished a 26,000 word Western and I keep changing the wording cause I can't settle on the variations.

So be accurate and research EVERYTHING no matter how innocuous you think it is. Did it exist back then. Language morphs and common words and expressions now may have no basis in the past.

 

[jehoram]

My only advice, for what it's worth, is to acquaint yourself with the literature of that era, if possible. That way, you'll get a grasp not only on the language of that day but the mind-set of the people who lived then. For my money, having your characters think in modern terms is as dangerous as having them use modern slang.

I can't help you with vocabulary, but I read another writer's recommendation (on another forum) that seemed to make sense to me: try not to use words which would have been unfamiliar to people living two or three hundred years ago. That's far away enough to avoid modern-ness, but near enough that modern readers would understand it.

 

[Handley_Page]

I wondered, with some affection, about Cleopatra with PMS.
Recall, I pray, the wonderful riot in Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" (the same actress in both cases).
She was a very good and pretty actress, was Taylor. . . .

 

[handysr]

Sorry, back on track. The people who read period pieces are hoping to imagine a story that rings true for the most part. I'm not saying they're all pedants, but there's more than a few who would fit the bill. Of course there's readers with a more 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure' approach to history, they just want to be entertained.

This made me LMAO...

OP: I don't have much to add to this other than a question others have had. Which time period?

Yes, research is needed. Here at Lit would be considered part of that. There are smart people here that could be of help mixing a timeframe and sexy bits.

 

[MohanSingh]

Thanks for the help. My current story is set in the mid 80's. Heading may have been slightly misleading. I want to try a real historical piece at some point if my writing ever gets to that level.

But still a lot to consider even for the 80's as most issues can now be solved with a mobile phone.

 

[ElectricBlue]

But still a lot to consider even for the 80's as most issues can now be solved with a mobile phone.

My memory is accurate for the eighties - the only research I'd need to do would be song or movie releases, to check which year they came out. That's nostalgia for me, not a period piece .

 

[Handley_Page]

I got into an argument over bras. Women have been binding their breasts during activities for thousands of years. There are even Egyptian hieroglyphics showing women with bra like clothing while working. But no, two commenters insist that bras weren't invented till they were PATENTED in 1889 something (I think) despite the fact there were earlier references to them in newspaper articles. I was working with 1870 or so.


So be accurate and research EVERYTHING no matter how innocuous you think it is.
Did it exist back then.

A year or two since, a German museum showed the remains of a breast covering which was remarkably similar to a modern bra in style and shape. It had been found in an old cellar beneath a huge castle.
It was dated from the 14th century.

 

[oggbashan]

Thanks for the help. My current story is set in the mid 80's. Heading may have been slightly misleading. I want to try a real historical piece at some point if my writing ever gets to that level.

But still a lot to consider even for the 80's as most issues can now be solved with a mobile phone.

I wrote a story set in the 1960s. I was wrongly castigated for facts I knew were right because I was a Lit-legal adult active in London then e.g. the word 'pussy' (used in British English since the 16th century) and shaven pudenda that came with very short miniskirts. I had intimate contact with shaven pussies at the time.

But I also included a DVD - totally anachronistic like the striking clock in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar! I have now edited the DVD out.

 

[Athalia]

Thanks for the help. My current story is set in the mid 80's. Heading may have been slightly misleading. I want to try a real historical piece at some point if my writing ever gets to that level.

But still a lot to consider even for the 80's as most issues can now be solved with a mobile phone.

The 80s were not that long ago, but many of the things we take for granted ... the internet, mobile phones, personal computers in every home, laptops ... were either not there yet or were so cumbersome or scarce that they made not a ripple in popular culture.

And if you use any reference to the popular arts ... films, television, pop music, even the comic strips of the day ... you must be sure to check each and every reference, because some things that seem to have been around forever are actually newcomers to the scene.It may seem trivial, but there's a guy or girl out there who knows more about it than you do, and will take an error as an excuse to stop reading.

 

[gordo12]

I wonder? When does something pass the nostalgia era and turn into historical. Or recent history to historical. Are there any firm limits there? (Once again Google is just babbling)

The 80's were forty years ago. I was there. Got my first cell phone then. Still have it for that matter.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I wonder? When does something pass the nostalgia era and turn into historical. Or recent history to historical. Are there any firm limits there? (Once again Google is just babbling)

The 80's were forty years ago. I was there. Got my first cell phone then. Still have it for that matter.

Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be, true.

 

[Rustyoznail]

The way I figure it, if it happened before you were born, it's history.

My 18 yo niece and 21 yo nephew love listening to classical music - Queen, Devo, Duran Duran...

 

[NotWise]

The way I figure it, if it happened before you were born, it's history.

My 18 yo niece and 21 yo nephew love listening to classical music - Queen, Devo, Duran Duran...

You know they're just doing that to coddle the fragile old folks, right?

 

[Rustyoznail]

You know they're just doing that to coddle the fragile old folks, right?

Partly - except on NYE my nephew conned his mates into watching a period drama.

"You can't stop the music."

Weird child.

 

[NotWise]

Partly - except on NYE my nephew conned his mates into watching a period drama.

"You can't stop the music."

Weird child.

Village People? Do any of those mates still admit to knowing him?

 

[NotWise]

One thing I remember from the 1980's is that American cars were garbage. They were trying to push the price down, but their technology was outdated and their standards were horrible. Probably all of the worst cars I've ever driven were 1980's-vintage American cars.

 

[litfan10]

Thanks for the help. My current story is set in the mid 80's. Heading may have been slightly misleading. I want to try a real historical piece at some point if my writing ever gets to that level.

But still a lot to consider even for the 80's as most issues can now be solved with a mobile phone.

'80s ?!?!?!?!?!?!?
not 1880s, but 1980s?
okay - now I really feel old.