Every project requires some kind of research. There’s got to be something at the bottom of it. No matter how much you are making up, there is going to be some aspect that has to be fact-checked, or some nuance that can be picked up from a little rooting around. I have in my time researched aquatic life and wave patterns in the Great Lakes, surface conditions on Venus, Russian and Indian mythology, lighthouse keeping, the Salem Witch Trials, contemporary restraunt culture and the lives of the daughters of George III.
I love my job.
I’ve got to say, however, I’m no scholar. I know authors who are, and they are highly methodical. They come up with their outlines, the call out the high points, they do their reading, compile their sources and only then do they sit down with pen and paper, and they are constantly checking as they go.
I’m not like that. Somedays I wish I was.
When the idea or the project comes to me, I go out and I start grabbing, either at the library or at the bookstore. I must confess that one of the reasons I do love research is that it gives me the perfect excuse to indulge my book-acquisition habit (I can stop any time, really). I’m lucky in that I have access to the University of Michigan’s graduate library. This is a building so huge there are sections with a compass rose on the floor so you can find your way out again. There are so many books in it, the average fate of a volume is to rot away before it’s read. Bibliophile Heaven.
But back to the grabbing.
I’ll grab whatever first comes to hand that is related to the subject or subjects I think I’ll need for the project, and I’ll dive in. Deep. I’ll follow the book currents where they lead, using the references in back, or grabbing other books by the same author, or simply whatever comes next on the shelf. Eventually I’ll slow down. It’s akin to realizing you’ve over-eaten. My brain is full of Subject. That’s when I totter over to the computer, and sit down and start writing.
All the Subject sort of mixes and jumbles and blends in my brain with the ideas for the story. This is where it becomes like the painters pallette; all the colors blending together into just the right hue for the canvas.
But it doesn’t stop there, because there’s always something more. My rough drafts always have big holes in them with notes that look like this: [Ed. Double-check whether Venus glows in colors]. That’s when I go to the people. I’m done with the books, now I just want quick answers; names, dates, places], and nothing beats a human source for those.
Even more fun is the research trip. The difficult part of writing SF is you’re mostly writing about places you’re never going to get to. This gives you a certain amount of freedom, but it deprives you of the chance to visit the location, to soak up the atmosphere and energy, meet new people and just experience a different locale, and then write it off on your taxes.
Did I mention I love my job?
CL Anderson is the author of Bitter Angels and a bunch of blog posts, mostly on Thursdays.
This is great advice, which I’d love to quote for my upcoming book The Fantasy Author’s Handbook. What do you say?
C.L., I love research too, but for an entirely different reason.
For you it feeds your need to be around books. I’m the same way too. It’s great to have an excuse going to university libraries and bookstores because, “I have to. It’s for work.”
But I also love research because I actually learn something away from the television / internet(s) / newspaper. Reading one book, like you say, and having it lead to three more books needed is just a very cool thing. It forces me to learn outside my comfort boundaries.
For the book I am rewriting right now, I had to do extensive research on Arthurian legends, Celtic mythology, Henry II and his sons Philip, Richard and John, the Crusades, the history of Seattle and the entire history of the Vatican — all the way down to its floor plans. I learned so much and as that outline percolated in my head the history helped inform the story and its characters.
In short, I found it easier to the write the book because of two months of research behind it.
PS: Does Venus glow in colors? haha
“This is great advice, which I’d love to quote for my upcoming book The Fantasy Author’s Handbook. What do you say?”
Phil: I’d say that’s really flattering and sure, and if you want to research more about what fantasy writers have to say you should check out the Book View Cafe blog
http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/
In particular, I recommend Judy Tarr’s comments on horses and fantasy authors but there’s lots of posting there about the craft.
Shawn:
I completely agree with this.
“For the book I am rewriting right now, I had to do extensive research on Arthurian legends, Celtic mythology, Henry II and his sons Philip, Richard and John, the Crusades, the history of Seattle and the entire history of the Vatican — all the way down to its floor plans. I learned so much and as that outline percolated in my head the history helped inform the story and its characters.”
Whoa! Sounds like it’s going to be a heck of a book. Mind if I ask what the working title is?
“PS: Does Venus glow in colors? haha”
Yeah, but now you kinda want to know, don’t you?
Working title is The Dark Thorn.
It is a contemporary fantasy rooted in history and takes place in Seattle, Avalon and Rome. As I said, it was great fun to research and my early work on the project helped cement the story in reality. And since one of my subtextual themes is religious extremism and its prevalence in all monotheistic religions, it was important that I get it right to make my overarching point about it.
Terry Brooks gave me some great notes for improving the book after he finished reading it, one of which is removing 1 of my 4 POV characters and telling the story from those chapters with one of the 3 POV characters left. So I rewrite and rewrite. It’s been fun.
Wow. Sounds fantastic. I can’t wait to read it.
And good on you for being both willing and able to take such a hard note and run with it.
I want hard notes. I know some writers in their 70’s say they are still learning the craft of writing, but those men and women know far more about it than I do — and they got there with some tough love from editors they trusted.
I need that tough love. Especially before I start learning the wrong things.
I completely agree. The day I stop learning how to write better is the day it’s all over.
OTOH, the important thing you say here is someone you trust. Such notes have got to come from someone who gets the story and what you’re trying to do with it.