Letting short story research take you down the rabbit hole
I recently wrote a 2000-word story in a matter of days which is unprecedented for me.
I decided to set the story in Paris, 1950. Plenty of cultural richness to tap into there. I probably didn’t do it justice.
I ended up working in something about George Orwell because I knew he had bummed around Paris at some point. I checked the dates to make sure my characters would be referencing things accurately.
I checked when Orwell had been in Paris and where he’d lived. I make reference to the road name. I also checked when he died because that ended up being worked into my story too.
I even made a little reference to “big brother” in a completely different context and I’m wondering if anyone will connect the dots. I love playing around with words and references like this, weaving a web of delicious ironies and cheeky distractions.
What else did I end up researching?
Factories in Paris during the Second World War. Why? I had decided that my main character worked at a factory and I wanted to get my geography and history right.
I learned about an area of Paris that had been heavily bombed during the war. I learned that many factories had been destroyed. I decided that my main character worked in one of the surviving factories.
I also stumbled across the fantastic story of some factories in France being disguised during the war with fake rooftop towns. Yep, they built full scale model towns on top of aircraft hangers and factories.
Just look:
Apparently, some companies even hired actors to hang out on these rooftop towns, mowing fake grass, trimming fake trees, hanging out fake washing.
None of this stuff actually made it into my story because it simply didn’t have a place. But boy, I’m sure there’s a whole other story in there waiting to be written!
Embrace your short story research. It could take you anywhere and everywhere.
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