So I want to make it obvious that my story is taking place in the year 1993, but I'm struggling to find a way of doing this naturally. My options are: 1. Just tell the reader. Eg: CHAPTER ONE 1993 It lurched out of the shadows blah blah blah... But I'm not keen on the format. I can't figure out the best way of laying this out (if I do it after "CHAPTER ONE" then I feel like I have to do it after EVERY chapter title, if I do it before it just looks off somehow). 2. Give hints. I can try and slide in a few pointers in the actual text - obviously there's going to be things littered about the book that show when it's set, but I want to do it straightaway so the reader isn't confused. My story opens in the forest, so technically I can't really do a whole lot there. But in the next scene we've got a family in the car. We could have a song playing on the radio from that year, or a mention of Jurassic Park or something (I tried throwing this into the dialogue "...he'll be terrified! Remember when we took him to see that dinosaur film and he pissed himself?" but somehow that didn't quite seem to work). Is this a problem many people seem to have? Any advice? Thank you! Piper
Depending on where your story is set, you could include some news relevant to the country, or some major international incident from that time. The family could discuss that, or it could come on the radio. Just had a peek, Bill Clinton became prez in '93 What happens in the forest, other than lurching?
Does the exact year matter? If you casually mention that Bill Clinton has just taken the presidency I'll get the idea of when we are. I honestly had no idea what year Jurassic Park came out, I would have assumed it was later 90s. Other cultural markers can help you imply the year. For example, every rock station was playing "I'd do anything for love" because Meat Loaf had just released Bat out of Hell 2. Al-Qaeda had just bombed the world trade centers, most people remember seeing that on the news if they were old enough (I actually don't.) I definitely remember seeing Waco on the news. But again, none of those things scream 1993 to me, they just all happened to happen in that year. I'd view them all in just an "early 90's" category. The inauguration of Clinton is something specific that has an unambiguous date: Jan 20, 1993. I don't even have to look that up, it's always the same date every 4 years. I much much prefer you organically tell me when the story take place than just flat out saying it. For example, Stephen King's The Stand took place in 1984. I'm not sure that's ever explicitly said, but I can derive that from the fact that there is a short scene in a movie theatre and A Nightmare on Elm Street is on screen. The exact year of the story also has no affect on the story itself.
In a couple of her later novels which alternated between past and present, Sue Grafton followed the Chapter number with the date. In her last novel, "Y is for Yesterday", she marked chapters with a date, and chapters that took place in the "past"* with a title as well: In "S is for Silence", she only labeled the excursions into the past with the Chapter number and the POV character's name: * ALL of the novels are set in the past, the 1970s through 1980s. Several of the later ones also include glimpses into decades before the story's present.
Thanks to you both - I thought about the Clinton thing, wasn't sure how to incorporate it since my story takes place in the UK but I suppose something like that would be easy enough to get into a conversation if I think hard enough about it. Same with the WTC attack - I decided against using something like that since I feel without being too specific a lot of readers would be more likely to picture the 2001 attack than the lorry crash of 93. In terms of music/films, I feel like this would be a whole lot easier, I could simply have a song (I'd Do Anything would be perfect, if I'm honest) but the problem I have with anything like that is I know it can be pretty complicated in terms of copyright etc, I don't know how exactly it works but I'm loathe to name-drop a song just in case. @Harmonices the first scene is literally just a deer running through the forest from a creature and then onto the road. At this point the car comes into play.
My novel has scenes that take place in 1974 and 1980. While the references in the book are clear to the years, I use the city and date for each chapter so the reader doesn't have to make a guessing game out of it. (Edited because I meant date, not year. ) ETA: I was alive in 1993 and listened to the radio constantly as a kid and have no idea what this song is. Readers will struggle with that, especially because what's popular in one country in a given year may not be popular in another. The closest thing I could come up with to your song from memory is "Anything Anything" by Dramarama. Is that what you meant? Readers aren't going to put down the book to Google.
Do you need it in the actual book? Could you just have it as part of the blurb: ‘in the year 1993, ....’?
@Shenanigator "I'd Do Anything" was just my attempt at abbreviating the Meat Loaf song, but despite the cknfusicothere you definitely have a valid point, not everybody will have listened to the same songs and I don't know how many people would remember when a certain song came out. I mean, little hints like song titles, major world events, etc etc, if they could be seamlessly written into the story, would be the best way for me to do this I feel. But the thing is they don't, as you've said, work for everyone - and not only is there the copyright to worry about, buy it's hard to insert those kind of references without it seeming forced. And yes absolutely I could mention the year in a blurb/synopsis and never call back to it again, at least not in a big way. Tells the reader no-no sense this is the year, end of. And this is probably what I'll have to end up doing, it just feels like I'm cheating by telling that to the reader outside of the story, if that makes sense.
The novel(la) I'm writing, as you're aware, is one of time travel. And people in the past "flash back" to events that happen in the future. In those cases, I call out the date in a segment header: ... Celeste peered at Marko, giving him a dubious look and sniffed slightly. “I suppose so, given an appropriate light.” Marko, thankfully, stayed silent. “May I have your name for our registry?” the girl asked Celeste. December, 2274 “You must know your family history, Cele. You are a Foscari, and your family was very prominent in this area as many as a thousand years ago.” “Oh, Zia,” the girl said to her godmother, “how do you know so much about history? You are old, but I don’t think you’re a thousand!” Celeste Horvat smiled at the girl. “Yes, Cele, I am old, and no, I am not yet a thousand years and probably never will be. But I have studied history because it helps me know people. And knowing people is more important than knowing anything else.” With echoes of her godmother’s advice ringing in her ears, Celeste squared herself in front of the girl and said with a definitive tone with just a touch of authority, “My name is Celestine Maria Foscari,” emphasizing each element with clear enunciation. ... That may or may not be workable for you. Also, consider the byline format: May 18, 1993 -- The trees loomed large around the small party of adventurers... Good luck. Cheers. JD
Ah, Meatloaf. Now I know the song. Thank you. The fiction I write always has a specific time period. The one I'm writing now is the Cold War period of 1974 and 1980. The rock and roll trilogy I'm working on is 1989, and my next novel takes place in the 1920's. Not an expert, but here's my approach: I think of the term "historical setting" regardless of the year I'm writing. The year is as much part of the setting as the city. It's not a separate thing, it's an integral part of the setting that could not be replicated at any other time and place.... ... Just as, for example, wherever you are sitting reading this post right now, in 2019, is tied together as your own personal setting. Your setting right now, at this moment, is different than mine, because of our different localities. Then there are the commonalities, because of the larger world around us. Find the personalized setting that works for your characters at both the local and larger world levels, and weave the details into it, rather than as something outside of it, and you've nailed it.
Why is the year important? And why don't you like just having 1993 written under "Chapter One"? Like, what's wrong with it? Simple is usually best. There's no reason to avoid doing something simply and quickly. If the year is that important, you don't want to risk readers not getting the hint. And if it's not that important and the story makes perfect sense without the reader knowing the year, then why bother with it at all? Why would you go to lengths to incorporate something that's not important to the story? Alternatively, you could have your character read the news or some other thing that has a date on it. Still another way may be just to mention a historic event. For example, "Sarah looked through the space where the Two Towers used to stand" would immediately place the timeline of the story post 9/11. I'm not aware of any historic event that happened in 1993 though...
I wouldn't do it that way unless the year is going to change during the novel. If the whole thing takes place in 1993, I as a reader want to know right from the start. If there is a narrator then have them state it. If the characters do all the talking then have one of them say it in dialouge (on page one).
You can do it with the title too. Have you ever read Summer of '42? Which was also a great movie. The book does it with the title and the first paragraph. First paragraph ends with the sentence: "And it was as true in 1970 as it had been in 1942". Obviously the MC is telling the story of what happened to him in 1942 while it was 1970.
I'd suggest viewing a movie that came out in 1993, and noting what the background scenes are like -- cars, phones, styles, etc. I lived through the 60s and 70s but my mind keeps updating things, until I see a movie filmed back then and I think, "oh, I guess those were olden times." No cellphones but actual phone booths, big old American cars, cigarette billboards, etc. And there are lots of sources for timelines that would list major events by year.
Or mention John Major as PM. Or James Bulger's murder. Or England only beating San Marino 7-1 and so failing to qualify for the World Cup. Heck, have the story start on New Year's Eve and have somebody mentioned that they hope things work out well for them in 1993. A film at the cinema would work. The problem with songs or television is that they only put a lower bound on when things can be set.
First of all, (and please know I'm just giving you a hard time. This is not actually important.) that is not a rock song! It's better remembered by rock fans as the most hated and overplayed song of the era, replaced in 1997 by the Celine Dion Titanic song. It never played on a rock station once! 1993 was a huge year for alternative rock. All the rock stations were playing Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, Primus, Nine inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine and way too much Aerosmith, but no Meat Loaf! (There. I got it out of my system. Sorry.) It's still a good way to establish date. Stephen King always tells you whats on the radio. If you're going with music though, make it appropriate to what the characters would listen to, at least if they're the ones controlling the dial. Also, watch out for late release dates, and sleeper hits if you care about nitpicky anachronisms at all. You can't go by a list of songs or albums dated 1993. Bat Out of Hell II, for instance, was released halfway through September. That song was ubiquitous that fall and pretty much strait through 1994, but if the story were to take place in the Summer of '93, no one under the age of thirty should be able to name even one Meat Loaf song. (Apparently it was a comeback? We didn't know who he was though.) Other stuff isn't popular the second it comes out. Smashing Pumpkins released Siamese Dream in July, but most people didn't know about them until the Today video premiered on MTV in September, and the album didn't peak in popularity until after Disarm debuted the following March. Billboard charts are going to be more useful than a list of release dates, or just find a music nerd like me who was thirteen and obsessed with MTV and Rolling Stone in 1993. I'll be your 90's music fact check guy any time. Actually, that goes for everyone here and includes almost anything recorded in the last century, but especially the last thirty years or so. You're totally safe mentioning titles. You can even quote things. It's all fair use, so long as it's clear you're referencing someone else's work and not plagiarizing it. ETA: I also don't think there's anything wrong with throwing the date right into the narration. I mentioned Stephen King? He references music and food fads and everything else, but he also outright says, "In 1955..."
