… And helps with historical treatment.
I hated history in my youth. But now? I love research. It takes my mind to places that existed long before and can exist again in a historical novel.
The Library of Congress – Historical Newspapers – can take you back to the late 1800’s. I needed 1901 so I found myself in good shape (except I spent hours upon hours finding interesting articles that had nothing to do with my MS, The Last Bordello.) Once I focused, ALL these articles played a pivotal role in my plot line. (I had many more, these are just a few.)
Let’s start with the secondary, still-important, characters and work our way down to Madam Fannie Porter.
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union:
Now, for a sense of place:
The politicians, Mayor Hicks, former Mayor Bryan Callaghan, Captain James Van Riper:
The “then” never solved murder of Helen Madarasz.
The outlaws:
Now, Madam Fannie Porter:
After reading this article, I found a writer’s connection to the man Madam Fannie may have married, and the location that was plausible for meeting Butch Cassidy for the first time.
If you are writing historical fiction, The Library of Congress is a great place to start!
Keep writing,
Carolyn
Author Perfectly Flawed 
Totally agree, but the problem I have with the Library of Congress newspapers is that they only go up to 1922. I use Newspaperarchives.com primarily, but the Library of Congress site has a couple newspaper titles that Newspaperarchives doesn’t have.
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Reblogged this on Time Will Tell and commented:
Research can be addictive.
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You’re so right about Library of Congress. I’ve used newspaper archive.com for my first novel set in 1930’s-40’s and now again for my WIP set in 1928. Thanks again for the reblog!!!!
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I know what you mean about how it all comes together as soon as you manage to focus and distill your research into a manageable set of goals. It’s something I struggled with for a long time, and I used research as a procrastination tool. As long as I was “busy” researching, I could avoid confronting the underlying problems: lack of confidence, a weak story outline, etc. Luckily I got my act together, and now I make research-oriented planners for writers and teach people how to laser-focus their research strategies 🙂
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That’s wonderful, Abria!
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