Wrapping my head around the world of a period piece

As some attentive people may already know, I'm in the middle of writing an urban fantasy period piece set in an alternate version of late Prohibition-era America (link's in my sig). Of course it's still very early on in its life and there's a lot of room to improve, but one thing that's really been bugging me since day one is that... I don't really feel like I know the twenties and the thirties. I'm not confident I can represent that place and period in time in anything other than broad strokes.

Since then I've compiled minor compendiums of slang, websites with collections of black and white photos from Old New York, various articles about organized crime and WW 1, and other odds and ends like that. And while I feel like I know a bit more about that world, I don't feel intimate with it. I feel like I'm missing some critical perspective that I can't gain just by watching Boardwalk Empire and the Godfather movies while perusing collections of old photos and listening to smooth jazz. And that eats at me.

So does anyone have any advice for doing research (adequate research) for a period piece while at the same time not spending so much time on it that it swallows the story? I need to flesh out this world in my mind if I want it to seem as colorful on paper, but I also don't want to lose the importance of what's actually going on in the story. And, from a real life perspective, I often don't have time to devote myself to copious amounts of research since writing this is just a hobby.

Any suggestions? Everything helps, guys.

edited 5th Sep '14 9:44:23 PM by KSPAM

You don't live in that time period, so it's impossible for you to have the kind of "intimate" knowledge you want. It's not because you aren't a good writer or researcher but because you live in the here-and-now rather than the there-and-then. You may imagine other people have an "intimate" knowledge of a time period but they can't have that unless they experienced it personally. So, you might as well go with The Godfather, because no amount of research will yield the results you're looking for.

Making your period piece believable is far more important than making it strictly accurate. How can you capture the spirit of a time you didn't live in?

(Not trying to be a bitch or anything.)

That. Your goal isnt to do so much research that your story is convincing to an expert on the subject, your goal is to do just enough research that your story is convincing to the general public, who know very little about the time period. Reading other well researched stories set in the time period will do you more good than trying to read a bunch of history textbooks. That said, reading a few newspapers from the time would not hurt either.

Read literature written in the time period. Not set in it but written later, written then. Libraries will have collections of old magazines, many of which included short stories. The authors of those pieces were writing about the world they lived in, for people who also lived int that world to read.

A starting list is at this site. Also use Wikipedia's list of Literature of the 1920's and Literature of the 1930's.

What everyone else said. But I'm also reminding you to include people of color in your cast, if you haven't already. Media tends toward some level of whitewashing, sometimes especially when you're looking at media created in a specific time period.

edited 11th Sep '14 7:37:14 PM by Leradny

It's very educational reading fiction written in the different eras. You learn a lot about language and social mores and values for a start.

Not just the differences in language (like the meanings of awful, use and so on) but the similarities as well (Robinson Crusoe thought that one of his attempts at something was "pretty good").

You definitely pick up a lot of what they thought was appropriate or inappropriate behaviour at the time.

I would recommend letters from the time period if you can find them, preferably from many areas and social classes. (Or one area if you're setting it in a particular place.) That at least for me has gotten me closest to what I feel the "pulse" is.