Over in a Twilight discussion thread on Absolute Write, it’s been brought up a lot that Meyer readily admits she’s too lazy to research and just wings things as she goes along . Of course, that has a tendency of creating tremendous plotholes in her writing, the most prominent (which isn’t saying much since a lot of the plotholes are prominent) being her own vampires. This also steps on the toes of researching within your own work, not just without. Yes, if you’re going to distort a creature, you need to have a basis of understanding about it before you can manipulate it. But once you manipulate it, it still needs to remain consistent within your own body of work. How Edward is supposed to be a walking piece of granite yet can still produce seminal fluid and venomous spit (while the women are completely sterile and can only hawk loogies of doom) is beyond me. But it leads me to ask, how do you research?
Me, I’m lazy as anything. I don’t like to research. But as a self-respecting author, I’m not going to let a manuscript that’s reflective of me go out into the world with fallacies the size of the Grand Canyon because I just couldn’t be bothered. No author that gives a damn about their work would. My methods of researching, though, vary from story to story.
For Diamond Crier, that’s mostly internal research and making sure my world’s consistent. Considering I don’t edit along my writing way, that’ll happen when I start the revision process. I do need to do some geographical research and see if the land I have mapped out will actually work but mostly it’s research within my own little world. Nothing prior to writing it.
Earth Shatterer, while that story idea was brewing for a while, I didn’t plan it out because I didn’t really know what I was going to have in it until I wrote it. It’s set in an area of California I’m familiar with so I’m done with that part. Then varying creatures of Fey decided to pop in while I was writing it. Again, since I much prefer to punch out the story first and foremost, I’m not going to dive into fairy lore until I start my revisions. I know very little about Fey simply because I was never that interested until now. I know what I want my Fey to do but I need to make sure I’m doing the distortions properly. On top of that I have internal research to do as well, what with the Other Side and all.
With Coney Island Psychic I started reading books on Coney Island prior to my starting writing it. I’m still reading Coney books and I’ll probably be reading Coney books while I write it (once I start it up again) and when I’m editing it. I’m trying to capture a particular feel and the history of Coney can play a huge role not only in that but the stories themselves so I need to know what’s going on. Considering I’m only a few hours away by train, I ddi visit the area, took pictures and experienced Coney (and its surrounding neighborhoods) first hand. That helped immensely. I think this work is unique in that I’ve been pretty constantly researching for the story. I haven’t done that with any of the others.
Well, maybe Under the Boardwalk but definitely not to that extent. I want to make sure I get the dynamics of a sleep away camp right before I even start writing so I’ve been researching that a little. This is another story that’s set in my familiar area of California so I got the area down. This is the only one of the four that doesn’t have anything beyond a short summary about it written and it’s also the only one with a burgeoning soundtrack. I like the feel of those beach songs of the 50s and 60s, all light and airy as a mask but what’s going on underneath is far from it. I’ve started collecting songs in my Project Playlist account. This is another one that’ll have a bunch of Fey and ghouls and such in it and considering I’ll be doing research on that soon, I’ll be able to carry the information over and pick up the pieces with the rest of it.
I research because I give a damn about my work. I want it to be the best it can be and accurately represent me as a writer. I don’t want to be known as lazy or uncaring about the words I put on the page. I am human, I do make mistakes and I’m sure my works will have them (it’s inevitable) but I can do what I need to do to minimize their presence. And I know there are plenty of writers out there that feel the same way I do.
I know it kind of gives me a twitch to know that a writer like Meyer wears her lazy factor on her sleeve like a badge of honor and instead of remedying that fatal flaw, she lives it up and (I’m assuming) believes that “it’s just fiction,” she’s above such serf work as research (or just learning how to write) and can continue writing as she pleases because she has the sales numbers that “prove” how good of a writer she is. No one can tell the cash cow that she needs to work on her craft because there are those that need her to continue to be that cash cow. It makes me wonder how long they expect that bubble to last.
And let me just reiterate, for any Twifan that may read this, even though I am a writer striving to do just what Meyer has done (I should say Rowling just because the quality is much, much better but for arguement’s sake) in terms of selling her work, I would never trade places with her. Ever. I would never want to be the author whose work people thought was so bad they just had to read it for themselves (this would be many people I know, in one degree or another). It would make my soul die to know that I were making millions off of something I knew was (and was nearly universally editorially regarded as) crap.
OK…my comment is going to be a long one. Just giving you a fair warning (also included a few links to my stuff that might help a bit).
First, I’m always “researching” since I read constantly and file in the back of my head interesting factoids, phrases or ideas. Now, concerning the two types of research you mentioned I’ll admit that I am thorough when it comes to one and somewhat lazy on the other.
On “internal” research. At the start a every new project, I take my legal note pad and write down a list of parameters. If the project is a sci-fi story I write down things like technology level, spacial expanse, type of faster than light travel technology (if any), etc. Did the same thing with my NaNo(http://thewonderingswordsman.wordpress.com) which was an Urban Fantasy type deal. Now I tend to fudge character names for some reason, but I get downright specific on other areas such as types of demons. In other places, such as the nature of where these creatures come from, I fudged and called it “Beyond”, but made sure that my notes included the reason why this was left vague on purpose (goes to the theological/psychological/philosophical underpinnings of the novel).
As for “external” research, a simple rule of thumb is, the less you know, the more you need to research. A corollary to that rule would be the deeper you delve into a subject, the more you need to research. I mean if you are not trained as a medical examiner and your story revolves around the speed of human decay in a certain type of terrain, you do well to go beyond watching a few episodes of CSI. I use a handful of online research sources such as Wikipedia (general and specific Wikis like the HP and Star Wars Wikis; have three Wiki tabs active right now on my browser), Google Earth (maps are always good) and some others. If it is a subject I am familiar with, such as military matters, I only skim selected sources to verify the nomenclature of a given weapon system or other details. Even if the reader can’t tell the difference between an AIM-9X or a AGM-114, the fact that I know the difference lends a certain air of authority and confidence to my work. Makes it easier for the reader to accept what I’m writing.
Now while writing fiction one can make up places and characters and certainly play around with archetypes (http://thewonderingswordsman.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/playing-with-archetypes) but firm grasp of where these come from lends an air of credibility to your version of them. It also helps with consistency and internal logic. I really hate it when authors (and TV producers) thrown consistency out the window.
So I am all for research but I will say that I don’t go as far as say one J.K. Rowling when it comes to creating notes and backgrounds although I do like to dip my toes into the fountain of knowledge from time to time. Now back to Jubilees, Samyaza, Yomi and the AGM-114 Hellfire missile.
I’m not too big on creating mounds of backstory either, at least not yet. The most of that I have is for DC but I wrote that thinking I was writing the story but it turned out to be backstory, if that makes any sense. So I have that by default. I definitely know more about my characters and worlds than what’s on the page, but I’m like you. I can fill an encyclopedia with it.
And thanks for the amazing response, Rafael!
No problem! I’m a geek about this “Inside the Writer’s Studio” stuff, which was why I became a lit major in college, only to find out that when they talk about literature they talk about someone else work and not how to create your own.
That’s why I took the writing classes! Granted most university level writing classes focus on forcing you to write lit-ra-ture but in the end, it’s still a valuable means of learning how to write if you get a professor you respect and admire. My writing professor was a great guy despite the fact he shunned anything genre. I still learned a lot from him and his teachings became the basis of my understanding and the beginning of my learning in writing.
I did the same thing. Those lit classes just teach you how to read it which can make you a better writer, recognizing what does and doesn’t work in a story. But you need those fundamentals of knowing how to write in order to really become a better writer.
[...] for Writers Inspired by recent posts on research by writers I decided to compile a short list of the go to online resources that I use [...]