Make your fiction — and your non-fiction — come alive by incorporating gripping facts about what the world was really like when your story takes place!
During the first four sessions, this class will cover and answer participants’ questions about (1) how to perform research at many of the DC area’s unique resources, including the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the Federal Records Center, and the Martin Luther King Library, and (2) use other valuable information sources such as Federal and DC court records and the Washington Post’s archives. During the last two sessions, each member of the class will present their area of intended research and hear everyone else’s suggestions about the best ways of conducting it and telling their stories. Note: No meeting October 14.
In-person class: This workshop will take place at The Writer’s Center, 4508 Walsh St, Bethesda MD.
In this workshop you’ll learn how to:
- How to gain access to each research center’s books and records
- How to identify what records are available at each institution, online and in person
- Practice accessing each facility’s records during the class
- Use different writing techniques to most effectively mingle the fiction of your story with the facts of the times.
Time requirements
- Each participant should expect to spend 1-2 hours preparing for each of the research sessions and the session where other participants present their work, and 2-4 hours preparing for the session that he or she presents his or her own work.
Materials
- No additional materials required.
Who should take this workshop?
- This workshop will benefit anyone interested in writing historical fiction or non-fiction in a way that convinces readers that the author has done his homework and is giving them a true picture of the lives and times of the people he or she is writing about.
If you need an accommodation for this workshop, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.
