Thinking prompt #23: ESSENTIAL HISTORY

Hi Everyone,

This post is your thinking prompt for today:

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to do research for the time period you’re writing about, even if it’s set in the present. The details of place, time, politics, and culture imbue our stories— fictional, or not—with a sense of authenticity. Readers feel they’re in good hands when authors know their history, and factual context often supports the most imaginative of leaps.

Even speculative fiction benefits from research—whether you’re writing about worsening climate change, space travel, a closed future society (there’a a lot of history on authoritarianism that might help with that!), or anything else.

Take a little time this week to figure out which books or documentaries might help you bolster the history(ies) of your story. How can you embroider more period details into your work in-progress?

Good luck with this!

Abrazos,

Cristina