A Path to Mapping a Story Setting




 

 

In our last instalment of setting and social history, we talked about how setting can be a key component in our stories especially when we view it as a character in our family history stories.

Today, we will look at mapping our setting.  We will look at the purpose of a map as a tool in writing our family history stories. I’ll show you how I created my own setting map for guiding my writing. There are three features I like to keep in mind when creating my setting map; the main setting, beyond the central location and the activities and occupation that provide the movement throughout the setting. Let’s get started by looking at each one of these key elements.

 

Your Main Setting

In most cases, the primary setting of your story will take place in a city, town or village. However, your story could be on a ship or any other of many locations.  Regardless of where your setting is taking place, we need to include all the internal buildings and places within the setting. For example your ancestor’s home, his place of work, where he worships and where he gathers with other towns people to visit.

 

Beyond the Central Location

You’ll also want to consider what is beyond the central location. For example,  if your story takes places in a small town is it surrounded by lakes, forests, swamps or is it a city surrounded by industry or a ship surrounded by water.

 

Activities and Occupation

If your ancestor was a farmer, (we have a lot of those in our research), then details of how he performed his job and how he moved about in his day to day activities is very much a part of your story setting. Describing the physical characteristics of a farm, the land, the buildings and so on is one aspect of the setting. Explaining how to fix a broken wagon or harvest the crops in the field is also an element of your story setting.  How did your ancestor move about to school, church, and get the groceries? Where were these places located in relationship to your ancestor’s home?

 

The Purpose of a Setting Map

Creating setting map can be very helpful when writing your family history stories and dealing with the location and activities of your ancestor. They can aid your writing in many ways.

Maps can enable the tracking of your ancestor’s location throughout the story.                                      

As your ancestor moves about, from his job to home and church or the grocery store, it’s important to know where each of these locations is located in the story setting. Place them on your map as a visual tool.

Your map can help to reflect on your ancestor’s awareness of their surroundings.

As you move your ancestor through their activities, your map can help you develop an awareness of your ancestor’s surroundings.

A setting map can act as a tool for measuring your ancestor’s movement from point a to point b.

As you write your ancestor’s tale, he’ll have to move from one location to the next physically. Your map can help you with that. What’s the distance, does he walk, ride a horse, take a boat. This might lead to some further research to answer these questions.

A setting map can help you describe your ancestor’s journey and the world to your reader. 

Your setting map will allow you to consider what your ancestor is doing at the place he is on the map and what do the surroundings look like? How is he interacting with his surroundings? Whether it is a short journey to the neighbour’s house or a long journey across the ocean, a map can guide you through writing those details into your stories.

A setting map can help you to visualise the scene and the proximity of your ancestor to other characters and places.

With the movement of your ancestors, they will come in contact with other characters in the story and other locations. Your setting map will make it easier to know when they are within the proximity of greeting another character or hearing the church bells ring.

 

How to Create a Map

First, you have to take the time to get to know your story setting through research and then as you are discovering the setting or after you’ve completed your research you can create a map of the setting. I like to create the map while I’m researching.

Here’s an example from my research. The town of Stratford is the setting for the story I’m currently investigating. It’s important for me to understand where some key places are located as my main character/ancestor makes his way about town.

As I went about doing my research this summer, I created a map.   I uncovered clues and mentions of various places that allowed me to put them on the map. Keep in mind my story is set in 1847, so I need to research and understand what Stratford looked like during this time.

The local museum had a map that is from the period of my story. They allowed me to take a digital picture of the map. I then uploaded the picture to Evernote. This is where it got fun.

This summer, as I worked through my setting and social history research each time I uncovered the location of an important place I marked it on the map. I did this right inside Evernote.  In Evernote, I used the annotate feature and created a key with coloured dots, so I have an easy reference to where various places are within the setting. Once I start to write, as I move my ancestor through the story, I can quickly reference where he is on the map and what the surroundings look like and how he might be interacting with those surroundings.

 

Also in this Evernote note, I created internal links to the information and pictures that I have for each location making it very easy to not only find the place on the map but to find my description notes within my research notebook.

Of course, this is only one of many ways to create a setting map. You certainly can sketch a map out if you like or use mind map programs, you are only limited by your imagination. Here’s an example of a setting map done with Prezi for The Great Gatsby.

Regardless of how you build your map or your map’s purpose, I hope you’ll consider including a map among your writing tools as a means to keeping your family history story on the right path.

 

Related Post

World BuildingWorld Building

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about my ancestor’s world as of late as I  prepare to write the story of my 4th great grandfather.  John Phelan immigrated from Kilkenny, Ireland to Stratford, Ontario in 1833.  I’m not going to give away the plot, but I will tell you that it takes place in Stratford, Ontario in 1847. It revolves around 2-3 days and involves many of the local townspeople. Before I sit down to write I need to have a clear picture of what Stratford looked like in 1847, I want to understand the personality of this community and its people. I want my readers to experience Stratford in 1847, I want it to be as authentic as possible.  So, in a few weeks time, I’m heading to Stratford for a little local and social history research. I’ll keep you posted. But let’s take a look at some of setting elements I’m going investigate while in Stratford to help build my ancestor’s world.

If you’re writing your family history stories, then you’re probably aware of the importance setting plays in writing stories.  By giving great detail and description to the setting we bring that world to life for the reader, drawing them deeper into a different place and time and making the ancestor’s life and the event we are recreating on the page come to life for the reader.

Too often we rely on the old standbys to create story setting, reliables like landscape, architecture,  rooms, furniture, and the climate is predictable in a story setting.

Unfortunately, too many writers stop there when there is likely a lot more detail and description that we might be able to include to paint a clearer more realistic and accurate picture of our ancestor’s life.

Let’s push beyond the obvious and consider some other aspects of our ancestor’s world that could help bring the setting to the page for the reader.

 8 of My Favourite World Building Details

  1. Food – I love to use food where possible because it can be a great sensory experience, allowing us to use a good majority of our senses when we describe it, hear, feel, see, smell and touch. Look for the types of food you’re your ancestor would have cooked, the everyday dishes, special occasion food, what was the local agriculture to the area and how did they prepare and cook their meals.

 

  1. Government and Politics – We often underestimate how much the world and local politics affected our ancestors. Who rules? Kings? Queens? Presidents? Dictators? How did government affect our ancestor’s lives? Consider taxes, for instance, local taxes could put a strain on a family and that could easily be reflected in their surroundings, what they could afford and their opinions and dialogue. Sometimes it even caused them to pick up and move.

 

  1. Health – Our ancestor got sick, even died. How does healthcare work into the time of your ancestor? How did society treat sick people? How did they perceive medicine? Doctors? What were the practices of the time? What medications were available, doctors visits, general health practices?

 

  1. Communication – How did your ancestor communicate with others in the town, with their neighbours or families far away. Even in one town, there could be a variety cultures and therefore languages, there also might be a variety of dialects, slang words and accents.

 

  1. Currency – What was the currency of the day? Did your ancestor use paper money or coins? Did the local shopkeeper manage accounts for the townspeople or was bartering a common occurrence.

 

  1. Religion – You don’t have to be religious to understand that religion had a great influence on how our ancestors behaved. It influenced their movements, thoughts and behaviours.  It is impossible not to have religion in your ancestor’s town. Religion is a foundational element to all cultures. They affect the way people eat, sleep and relate to others. There may be multiple religions in your ancestor’s village. Learn about the local religions, their moral codes, beliefs and history so you can better understand the make-up of your ancestor’s village.

 

  1. Races – Did your ancestor live in a multi-cultural community? How did this affect their behaviour, their exposure to different foods, clothing and beliefs? How did they view others races? Did racism exist in their community? Did your ancestor live in a liberal community that embraced diversity?

 

  1. Recreation – What did your ancestor do for fun? Did they play sports or other activities that were part of their daily life? Did they read? Play board games? Tell stories? How they spent their free time reflects their cultures and enriches your world building.

 

Where to Find World Building Details

A little research into the local and social history of your ancestor’s part of the world can help to reveal how some of these elements were a part of their world. Now by now means is this a complete list. You can find a much more extensive list in Authentic Ancestors. But it is a great representation that can help us push beyond the standard description of their surroundings, dig a little deeper to truly understand the world they were living in and build that world with confidence for your reader. Look at your library, online libraries, historical societies, genealogical centres, newspapers, letter and diaries and city directories to help you flesh out the setting and social history details.

Recently I spent some time on Amazon looking for local and social history books for my upcoming writing project.  I found some great resources, but they shouldn’t take the place of visiting the archives and museums of the local areas that your ancestor lived. Don’t just use one resource but a variety to build your ancestor’s world.

Here are some of my recent discoveries on Amazon.

These first two are going to help me out a great deal with my upcoming project.

The Canadian Settler’s Guide

The Backwoods of Canada, (download to Kindle for .99)

I also stumbled upon this a series of books called A Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life, each book addresses a different time period.  I thought they might come in handy for some of you.

Everyday Life in Colonial America

Everyday Life in the Middle Ages

Everyday Life in the 1800’s

Everyday Life in the Wild West

Everyday Life During the Civil War

Everyday Life in the 1800’s

Everyday Life from Prohibition through to World War II

Everyday Life in Renaissance England

( I do receive a small compensation from Amazon if you purchase through one of these links.)

Now, we’ve offered up lots of ideas. Of course, we don’t want to overdo it. We might have to pick and choose which details and descriptions best suit our story. It’s up to you to decide what will ultimately serve your story and reader. We can’t include it all, but it’s nice to know we have options.  Take some time before you write to research and learn what setting options are available to you so that you can build your ancestor’s world with authenticity.

Watch for future instalments of  My Summer of Setting and Social History. Come along with me on my travel and writing journey. Next: Creating a Setting and Social History Research List.

A Setting and Social History Research Trip – The Do’s and Don’t’sA Setting and Social History Research Trip – The Do’s and Don’t’s

Now that we have our social history and setting research list ready to go it’s time to head out for our to archives to begin our setting and social history research. I’ve gathered together some advice that has helped me in my archives visits and making the most of my time and staying focused and productive.

Do Email the Archives Ahead of Time – It only takes a minute and will go along way in making the most of your time when you arrive. It gives the researchers at the archives an opportunity to source out what they have for you. Sean at Stratford Perth Archives was very accommodating. He asked for the list of books that I had sourced out to see how many of them they had. When I arrived, Sean knew who I was, and we were able to dive right in.

Stratford Perth Archives

Don’t Assume all Archives are the Same – On your first trip take some time to get acquainted with the Archives. Sean was outstanding in giving me a tour. He laid out their policies very clearly in advance so I knew what I could and couldn’t do. Every archive is a little bit different, for instance, some allow pictures others do not. Make sure you know the policies before you begin.

Do Ask Questions – Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Not all archives are as forthcoming with information as the Stratford Perth Archives. Ask questions if you’re unsure of their policies. If you don’t know where to find something or how to load that darn microfilm reader. No one expects you to come into a new archive and know everything they have or even the history of the area. The researchers are there to help you, make the most of their knowledge.

Do Create a Notetaking System – Decide in advance how you plan to take notes while at the archives. Stick to that plan. Nothing is more confusing than using one method one visit and something different the next. I grab my iPad and make notes right into Evernote. I create a new note for each topic on my list.

Don’t Forget to Record the Book Details – Make sure to each note you record all the necessary details to create a citation or bibliography later. It only takes a minute. Make it a habit each time you pick up a book.

Do Check out the Bibliography – Check out the bibliography and references in each book you consult for further resources you may not have on your list. I keep a note pad beside me and I jot down anything that comes across that might suggest another book or resource look at or a new topic I may need to add to my to-do research list.

Don’t Expect to Get it all Done in One Trip – Pace yourself and set up a schedule for subsequent visits. I’m visiting the Perth Stratford Archives every Tuesday for the summer until I feel I have exhausted their resources.

Don’t be Afraid to Research and Write at the Same Time – I mentioned how important it is to plan your story out before you begin your research. It will help you build your checklist. Don’t be afraid to start writing even while you are still researching. You may not have all the details that you need, but you can certainly leave a marker in your text where more details are needed. If you haven’t already identified that detail on your research list, then you can add it now. You will identify more items as you write. It is good to know you can add them to your list and pick them up on the next visit.

Perth Stratford Museum

Do Take Breaks – Pack yourself a lunch and drinks and take breaks. Keep in mind you can’t eat or drink in the Archives. Some may provide a room for you but if you’re researching in the summer take advantage of the beautiful weather and step outside to get refreshed and re-focused. You’ll be much more productive if you keep your energy up. Step outside get some sunshine take in some energy and go back at it refreshed and focused. I find after a few hours of research my mind begins to wander. On my first visit, I checked out the Perth Archives Museum which offered me some good information. One my second trip, I took a drive to where my ancestor’s land would have been and next week I’m going to visit the tourist office to seek out some walking tours.

Do Start with General History of the Area – I like to start my first visit with the general history of the area. What is the town’s history? How did the town originate? While the city history may or may not become part of your story, it is like any good character you need to understand its backstory, its history to portray it accurately in your story. (Psst. Next week’s post how to research your setting like a character in your story.)

Do Evaluate What Needs to Be Done at the Archives and What Can Be Done From Home. As you work through your list, it might become apparent that some books are available online or for purchase or in a library. This allows you to do some of your social history and setting research from home.

Do Check the Index of Each Book for Items on Your Research List – Before I put a book back on the shelf, I check the index for anything else in the book that maybe on my checklist, like places, names, events, etc. I don’t want to keep revisiting these books, so I prefer to pull a book from the shelf start with the general history and then look for the specifics, of names, places and events, etc. that are on my list.

Do Re-evaluate Your List After Each Research Trip – After each trip, I re-evaluate my list. Did I accomplish anything on the list? Do I have enough research on it that I can check it off the list? What is my game plan for my next visit? I then create a smaller to-do list for my next trip. I like to do this immediately following my day either that evening when I get home or even before I leave while it’s all still fresh in my mind.

 

Be sure to read the other posts in this series:

My Summer of Setting and Social history – World Building

8 Tips to a Social History Plan