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Sunday, November 12, 2017

Research: The R Word

RESEARCH: THE R WORD

Research for any book is essential. Even if I’m writing a romantic novel, descriptions for settings need to be accurate and protagonist flaws need to be realistic. Having the book’s setting in wet Seattle is vastly different from the desert landscape of Phoenix. Writing about a character with claustrophobia will certainly have different symptoms from one with a drinking problem.

If the plot revolves on the use of technology, I’d better know what I’m talking about or readers will correct me. If a character uses a gun, descriptions and uses need to be as accurate as I can possibly make them. Writing western romance makes it important to know a thing or two about horses. My last book was about a horse trainer who was injured while training a wild horse. Since horse training is not one of my talents, I needed to understand the process to describe it as if I’ve been training all my life. 

Research kicks into high gear when I’m writing historical fiction. I’m on book two of my World War II series about the wartime experiences of a young embassy secretary in military intelligence. My protagonist began her adventures in London at the end of the war, so it was mandatory that I understood the events, speech, dress and food from that time and place. I was lucky to have the diary of a young woman who was in London at that very time and was able to extrapolate her experiences to enrich my fictional story.

Now that my protagonist is in Oslo, Norway, details about life after the German occupation become paramount. I’ve never been to Norway, but after months of research, I feel I know the place intimately. That does not necessarily translate to flowing prose or an interesting story. Combining story with research is a neat trick to pull it off without the dreaded Information Dump. There’s so much you, the author, want to include, but it needs to serve the story, not the other way around.

So the R word with its close ally L (library) go hand in hand when you’re writing anything. Sure it’s good to write what you know, but face it—we don’t know everything.





1 comment:

  1. I do love the research part of writing. I live too far for convenience from a decent library, so over the years, I've built my own collection of reference material. It certainly is easy to get lost in the pages.

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