[ SECRET POST #5154 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5154 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 38 secrets from Secret Submission Post #738.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Writing thread

[(Anonymous)]

I'm trying to write a fic where the first arc takes place in Pennsylvania in 1989-1990. The main character is 14-15. This is a bit of a long shot, but does anyone have any suggestions of where I could find depictions of high school (or life in general) in that general area in that general time period? I don't need to be absolutely exacting about details, I just want to avoid any really screamingly obvious mistakes.

Re: Writing thread

[(Anonymous)]

Where in Pennsylvania? Like Philly? Or Pittsburgh? Or more in the boonies?

Are they from Pennsylvania? What's their background?

I only ask because despite there possibly being a "general" experience, there's a lot of factors that inform what normal will mean. Sorry :( like Pittsburgh was a steel town (now a pretty big biotech/STEM city), and in other parts of Pennsylvania you have different industry.

Re: Writing thread

[(Anonymous)]

I was thinking the same thing - I'm not from PA and haven't spent much time in PA, mostly just driven through, but I mean... normally I take the turnpike, and that takes you past a good chunk of different areas of PA, and I thought that gave me a pretty good overview of PA.

Then last year there was a huge accident with like 60 cars involved on the day I was supposed to go that way, and I took back roads through the mountains to get around it... and realized that PA is WAY more different depending on your precise location within the state than I'd already thought it was. No doubt growing up in the areas I drove through would've been completely different than growing up in Philly.

Re: Writing thread

[(Anonymous)]

For the moment I've got it pencilled in as starting in Jefferson Hills, in Allegheny County, so... Not terribly far from Pittsburgh, but not exactly the middle of nowhere.
Main character is a foster kid who's lived in a few places previously, but he's been in the same place for a few years by the start of the story.
I picked Jefferson because it's middle class but has low population density, so he can practice magic in the back yard and it's at least plausible that no-one will see. Plus I looked on Google streetview and it looks kinda pretty.

Re: Writing thread

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

Full disclosure, like the anon who replied below me, I'm not from PA, but I've driven through/visited friends and family over there (both city and country/suburbs?).
1. It is too large a state lol

2. While not Jeffersonville,

https://digitalarchives.powerlibrary.org/papd/islandora/object/papd%3Apmonr-acy

This might be helpful, it's the archives for the yearbooks at a highschool in a town in Allegheny County, and you might find some more information through newspaper clippings, or student bulletins. It's a digital archive. I hope it's helpful.

And maybe in your googling you're being too specific? Maybe just look up Allegheny county 1989 high school or something similar, and hopefully you can find other library or digital archive sites that include promotions for things going on during those years for the youth? If not the exact town, then an approximation?

Good luck!

Re: Writing thread

[(Anonymous)]

SA

Also, maybe check out what was going on in major cities (practicing magic in the back is cool and all, but as a teenager, maybe your character wanted to go visit the city, unless he'd been there -- you mentioned he was a foster kid-- anyway, just some tidbits).

Re: Writing thread

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks! A more complete picture of the state will also be handy, when I get to the "running away from home cosmic horrors" bit of the story ^_^