Thread by @SableAradia

Joining @Catrambo's awesome class on Writing Weird Westen & Steampunk! I'll be livetweeting the highlights as we go! Yeehaw!

SteamPUNK needs to hit on the "punk" aspect. WEIRD Western needs to hit on the "weird"! Otherwise, it's not true to the genre.

What is "steampunk"?
It's a sub-genre of science fiction - "science fantasy"
Incorporates steam technology
Aesthetics based on Victorian/Edwardian-era steam-powered machines
Secondary world & post-apocalyptic also good

H.G. Wells, Jules Verne feel

Tropes:
Clockwork
Airships
Goggles
Genius inventors
No miniaturization

Takes ugliness of Industrial Revolution, beautifies it

Weird Western is a sub-genre of fantasy - mashup of fantasy elements, New Weird, to classical western

Features heavily romanticized version of Western frontier
Often focus on cowboy or gunslinger
Melodramatic novels
Stark, harsh landscape

Solomon Kane, The Dark Tower, Jonah Hex, Joe R. Lansdale

Pulls on New Weird - not the "pretty" aspects of fantasy - the gross, flesh-eating fairies instead of the pretty ones

TV Tropes has some great articles on Weird West, Wild West
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.…
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.…

Time period is full of philosophical movements, religious cults, exploration, changes in fashion & culture, exploration of the sciences

Stories of narration provides a narrative structure for you!

Local history in North America can provide sources of inspiration & story fuel - the story will change as you learn more details about the period

Steampunk & Problematic History:
Victorian era marked by the Age of Empires. Colonial efforts invade lands already inhabited, often populated by civilizations older than the European powers. History is marked by brutality, oppression, removal of legitimate gov'ts.

Check @NisiShawl's Everfair for good example

Women struggling to get vote, sexuality repressed, homosexuality illegal, Indigenous peoples oppressed - hard to be Other

Weird Western has its own problems in America

Americans are colonial too
Battles, massacres, oppression, horrible violence
Indian Wars went on and on and ON

Wild West version we're given in media is really whitewashed - be aware - 1st cowboys were vaqueros - laws oppressed them
One fourth of all cowboys were BLACK
Bass Reeves, inspiration for Lone Ranger, was black
One fourth of population was black too - slavery alive and well

Chinatowns were big on West Coast - Chinese immigrants came to work on railroad, banded together for protection
Communities were less than 5% female, often due to restrictive immigration

We're doing a writing exercise now, writing about someone who is "Other" coming into a frontier town. What do they see, hear, smell? Do they find anyone else who is like them?

Economics:
Scarcity & abundance matter because they drive choices & day-to-day existence
Technology's ability to affect society depends on its COST
Is steampower cheap?
-Who has access, who controls it?

Technology requires infrastructure
Transportation driven by cost - expense is dictated by access (things more expensive in Wild West because of transporting it)
Trends & fads - egret feathers, beaver caps, etc.- changes landscape

What is your character's economic situation? This will dictate how they interact with their world.
Good writing exercise - Think about character's relationship with money - first memory of spending money, earning money - raising money quickly - gifting

What puts the PUNK in steampunk?
Seed by way of cyberpunk is punk rock movement - loud, aggressive, outside of mainstream, aimed at making ugly beautiful, acceptance of the way things are, not what we think they should be, flaunting social norms

Punk is a criticism of power structures rather than a celebration of them
It's hopeful - colouring outside the lines leads you to challenge the way things are and find a better way

Putting the WEIRD in Weird Western:
Taking the tropes of fantasy and making you feel uncomfortable & uneasy
Plays on horror, esp. body horror
Writing exercise - imagine a weapon character uses, change it to something that is organic or extension of own body

How do things make you feel?
-stickiness of spiderwebs
-is magic painful? draining? soothing?
-contacting spirit world - is it clammy? cold? hot? electric?

Anthology - The New Weird
Good examples of how to do this
tachyonpublications.com/product/the-ne…

Writing Dialogue:
Want it to have a historical flavour, but don't want them to speak like Victorian fiction because it's long, elaborate, uses polysyllabic words that confuse people
Real conversation is not like dialogue - it's meandering and confusing

Curse words and brand names can provide flavour
Historical texture is important
Go to museums that show daily life objects of the time, provide physical sensation by figuring out the tools
Check old journals & newspapers
Don't go to someone else's modern interpretation

Had to go to music hall for music, or church, or you sang together in the parlour
There were songs everyone knew
Good way for young ladies to show off their talents
Phonograph in its infancy
Saloons - often someone playing music

There was a whole language of flowers - could mean you were jealous, or in love, or wanted friendship

Sports - baseball was a thing, early versions of games

To write steampunk, you must understand how a steam engine works!

Look at some steam machines, go to museums, check out steam-powered trains if possible
Henry Ford museum in Detroit has good examples, early fire engines that are steam-powered, etc.

To write Weird Western, you must understand how a gun works!

Go to a range, load and fire a rifle, different types of guns - difference between rifle, pistol, shotgun
Sometimes people shot each other over trivial things - that's a problem when everyone has a gun

Important to look at a timeline about how firearms technology has changed
-Civil War was changed by Remington repeating rifle
-go to Civil War reenactment to get the *smell* of gunpowder

Resources:

Project Gutenberg - scans in old books that are public domain
-Daniel Hawthorne, Dickens, Brontes, Austin good sources of info
-reading about Indigenous history, residential schools

History provides all kinds of story fuel on its own!
-P.T. Barnum, Victoria Woodhall, Sojourner Truth

Another resource: British Newspaper Archive - pricey but handy if you're doing that sort of thing! ($18 per month)

Sears & Roebuck catalogue was very important to people of colour - they didn't have to go into stores to deal with prejudice that way, so lots of things got done through S&R

A few notable historical details provides a feel of realism and deep research that helps immerse your reader in your world!

Women in Old World had people to teach them how to keep house but this wasn't necessarily true in the Wild West - so there were a plethora of housekeeping manuals for young women created
History of food is fascinating point of detail - there were different types of ovens