A Nostalgic Setting

For any one reading our regular writing springboards who is doubtful that this method produces results, take a look at ITV’s sublime television series, Home Fires.  Incidentally, if you want something that offers a nostalgic setting, edge of the seat conflict, skilled acting and is truthful and exquisitely tasteful, then this is for you.

Set in Cheshire during World War II, the main arena is the Women’s Institute and when I say the word arena, I mean it. Don’t be put off by the words ‘jam making’ because that is actually the water that binds all the other ingredients together. This superb drama is about war, domestic violence and the politics which rage in all communities and institutes.

Back to how historical information can be the perfect springboard. Home Fires was inspired by the book Jam Busters by Julie Summers. Summers’ research through archives and interviews investigates how the Women’s Institute helped rural Britain during World War II with all the jam that they made.  So if reading stuff like that produces such top rate television then you’d better get reading and writing. Some of the best women’s magazines also publish historical fiction so that is a good market to look into too.

So without any further ado, let’s springboard a truth.

If we go back to World War I many young men were killed and then to add insult to injury the Spanish Flu epidemic caused the death of so many others that there was actually a shortage of marriageable men at that time. Catching onto this fact, entrepreneurs believed that they could tell women that if they did not look good they would not get a man. Does this sound familiar?

Have you got a double chin

We only have to scour the ladies’ magazines for the first half of the 1920s to see how filled they were with advertisements for body treatments and face creams. At that time, colour illustrations were often only on the front cover of the magazine and so copy writers had to sell their booty by painting pictures with words. The adverts were basically an aggressive attack on women to undermine their confidence. Women would open a magazine to see ‘have you got a double chin?’ looming out at them.

In those days, they did not seem to offer make-up to conceal and enhance the best features of a woman instead they suggested prevention or in some cases what can only be described as physical pain. For instance, you would put moisturiser on your face and then attach the Ganesh chin strap to your head and sleep in it – no wonder we no longer hear of this method of keeping wrinkles at bay.

Could you create a character that uses these methods to add flavour to your story?  Whatever you come up with – happy writing.