Researching Micro-History: The Convincing Details of Daily Life
with author Jennifer Hallock
How do you write authentic characters who are nothing like you? Through lots of research, of course. But beware—flat descriptions from encyclopedias won’t cut it because they reflect only the most common experience. The best characters are the outliers—our unusual, precocious, and maybe even dangerous heroes and heroines. Learn how to find inspiration from free sources online, such as books, memoirs, documents, newspapers, magazines, advertisements, maps, photographs, clothing, artifacts, personal papers, and videos. This workshop’s emphasis will be on historical research, especially the 18th through early 20th centuries, but it will include tips and tricks for all genres and time periods.
Bio: Jennifer Hallock spends her days teaching history and her nights writing historical happily-ever-afters for the Sugar Sun series, set in the American colonial Philippines. Before the internet made it easy, Jen worked as a fact-checker for several academic publications, and now she teaches generations of students how to write research papers.