Today, writers, we're going to make you work.

Stop groaning.

Certain people are always kvetching about research. I kvetch because people don't do it. Other people whinge about the necessity for it. This time, we're going to take a couple of simple tools, and see what we can make out of them. Don't fuss. It's going to be fun.

Assignment: Broadway, Here We Come

Everybody likes a Broadway show, right? Just think of the possibilities for stories.

• A whodunit involving murder in the theatre.
• A scam-artist heist caper involving actors.
• A heartfelt romance with the ingénue and her beaux.
• A light-hearted comedy, complete with pratfalls and feuding prima donnas.

You get the idea. This time, though, we're going to throw in the historical angle. Your product will vary, depending on:

1. Your use, misuse, or disuse of research.
2. Your decision as to whether time-travel is involved.

Here's the assignment:

1. Look at today's 'Oddity of the Week'. See that Broadway poster? That's your setting. No, not the alley with the drunk and policeman in. The theatre. You're going to make up a story – short or long, depends on you – about the glorious one-week run of Around the Clock. In January, 1908.
2. Look up Around the Clock in that invaluable resource, the Internet Broadway Database (IBDB). Note that, by clicking on the links, you can get background on the actors, writers, composers, etc. You can also find a picture of the theatre. Cool, eh?
3. Now use Wikipedia to find out what happened around that time. Notice a few interesting things. First, the New Year's ball was dropped for the first time that month. Do you want to use that some way? Second, there was a fire in an opera house in Pennsylvania. It led to fire safety concerns in theatres. Hm…maybe… Third, a couple of weeks after the closing of this blockbuster, New York City made it illegal for women to smoke in public – but the ordinance was vetoed by the mayor. Could you do something with that? Who was the mayor, anyway?
4. Aha! The mayor of New York was George B McClellan, and he was a firecracker. First, when the first subway line opened in 1904, they asked him to drive it a short distance. He had so much fun at the controls, he refused to stop driving the train, and went all the way to 103rd Street. Now, on Christmas Eve, 1908, at the end of our target year, McClellan closed every movie house in New York City. Why? Because those movies were bad for public morals, and besides, celluloid film was a fire hazard.
5. Now, you have some decisions to make.

Take a coffee break from all that googling, and reflect.

Questions, Questions, Questions

1. What kind of story are you going to write?
2. What kinds of characters are you going to need? Are you going to change their names? Get to work on your cast list.
3. What are the dramatic/thrilling/comedic possibilities of the events of January,1908, in New York City? How will you use them?
4. Do I need more research?

Stop groaning, and finish your coffee. But while you do, ask yourself one more question. Are you stuck with the timeline? Is it permissible to shuffle events around a bit? Let me show you what I mean.

Suppose you want to use the ball dropping in Times Square. Why not move the play's run to December, 1907? Will anybody care? Okay, you'll get a nasty email from some anorak at the New York Public Library. But other than that…

On the other hand, the whole fire safety thing might be important to you. You could juggle that fire in Pennsylvania, which really happened a couple of days after closing. It's called 'poetic licence' for a reason. Or you could play around with the chronology of McClellan's opposition to cinemas, or his support of publicly-smoking women. Your choice.

You probably don't want to move the inauguration of the New York Subway, though. That's a bit like saying the Empire State Buildings was built in the wrong decade, or sinking the Titanic in May. See what I mean? Too many people will remember.

Of course, one way to fiddle dates is to use the Tardis Option. Rogue time-travellers could easily mess up the timeline, no harm, no foul.

Got all this? Get cracking! I expect to read some good copy, here. Meanwhile, if you find any more good sources, be sure to share them with us.

Writing Right with Dmitri Archive

Dmitri Gheorgheni

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