Research, research and more research
Dec. 20th, 2009 12:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anthimeriaFirst: The Novel has not yet returned to my hands. I hope it gets back to me relatively soon--that would be a great Christmas present.
In Skywatch news, after a break wherein I poked at my short stories and ransacked several public libraries, I've spent the last few days learning about the histories of Egypt, India, China, France, England and the Netherlands during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Did you know that Napoleon landed in Alexandria in 1798--the same year that the English East India Company took over Bengal? And, in an extremely odd twist of fate (or remnants of my history minor), the year I randomly picked for Launch because the numbers look pretty together?
After stuffing my head full of history and rearranging my outline so it makes sense in the world (or as much as steampunk that's already throwing physics out the window needs to make sense), I've been researching clothing. After dipping my toes in steampunk fashion at WindyCon, I went back to basics--what people were wearing in Europe and abroad in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Do you have any idea how hard it is to track down what people wore in Egypt in 1800? India and China aren't as bad, but dang, still not easy, especially compared to how hard it is to avoid learning about English fashion in the same eras. There is an awesome book called "Worldwide History of Dress" that is very useful in the non-Western-world areas.
Tomorrow I shall continue to research clothing, and perhaps start to put together outfits that are uniquely City fashion--conbinations of all the origin cultures of the people in the City, plus alterations of eighty years of their own development and necessary changes due to being in midair (like, no top hats--they'd fly right off in the wind).
Of course, tomorrow might also get usurped by the family. I should have known better than to devote December to worldbuilding.
This is that weird stage where I'm all despondant because my memory of history I learned in high school, that I did my initial planning around, is too fuzzy to fit well. I'm also giddy because I'm learning new things and applying them in new ways and discovering things about my characters that I never knew.
ETA: The English East India Company did not take over Bengal in 1798, it was 1757.
In Skywatch news, after a break wherein I poked at my short stories and ransacked several public libraries, I've spent the last few days learning about the histories of Egypt, India, China, France, England and the Netherlands during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Did you know that Napoleon landed in Alexandria in 1798--the same year that the English East India Company took over Bengal? And, in an extremely odd twist of fate (or remnants of my history minor), the year I randomly picked for Launch because the numbers look pretty together?
After stuffing my head full of history and rearranging my outline so it makes sense in the world (or as much as steampunk that's already throwing physics out the window needs to make sense), I've been researching clothing. After dipping my toes in steampunk fashion at WindyCon, I went back to basics--what people were wearing in Europe and abroad in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Do you have any idea how hard it is to track down what people wore in Egypt in 1800? India and China aren't as bad, but dang, still not easy, especially compared to how hard it is to avoid learning about English fashion in the same eras. There is an awesome book called "Worldwide History of Dress" that is very useful in the non-Western-world areas.
Tomorrow I shall continue to research clothing, and perhaps start to put together outfits that are uniquely City fashion--conbinations of all the origin cultures of the people in the City, plus alterations of eighty years of their own development and necessary changes due to being in midair (like, no top hats--they'd fly right off in the wind).
Of course, tomorrow might also get usurped by the family. I should have known better than to devote December to worldbuilding.
This is that weird stage where I'm all despondant because my memory of history I learned in high school, that I did my initial planning around, is too fuzzy to fit well. I'm also giddy because I'm learning new things and applying them in new ways and discovering things about my characters that I never knew.
ETA: The English East India Company did not take over Bengal in 1798, it was 1757.