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Research: Creating the Right Balance

5/8/2013

3 Comments

 
Picture
You sit down for a day of novel writing. A paragraph later your character rolls up his sleeve and his forearm is tattooed in Chinese script.  You halt your writing and look up Chinese writing on Wikipedia, and following the source material at the end of the article, you order two books on Chinese calligraphy. The next thing you know it’s time for lunch. Is this a good use of your time? Only you know the answer.

The question is: do you need to research before you write the scene in order to inform the writing, or can you write the scene and add the researched layer in the same way a painter would add another dimension to her painting. It’s a question I still struggle with after writing for more than ten years.

When I decided that I wanted to write a mystery, the only thing I knew about criminal investigation was from novels or television, so I took a series of criminal justice classes at my community college. I learned the difference between interrogation and interview, grid searches, accelerants and blood spatter. To add a sense of place I’ve scoped out dive bars and cart culture, and used my friends’ and families’ houses to shelter my characters. I’ve interviewed two detectives and asked a ton of questions of a friend who worked for years as a prosecuting attorney.

That said, I try to keep writing before I stop and research. My story and many of my characters remain fluid through much of a draft. In  A Bitch Called Hope, I had a completely different murderer until six months before my agent sold the story. Which is why a lot of my research ends up in a file cabinet for some future novel. One of my writer friends researches everything before she puts fingertips to keyboard. Her characters spring from her head fully formed. Another writer friend has her character loading a dishwasher in her 19th century novel. “I’ll do the research later,” she says. It makes for a painful critique session.

What is your take on research?


3 Comments
Madge Walls link
5/9/2013 03:13:03 am

A bothersome question. I'm of the school that plunges ahead with the story, only looking things up if the facts will change the story line. Recently I had to see if syphilis is contagious in its latent stage. I had assumed it was, but apparently not. That changed things and i was glad i found out early. I also need to know if residential neighborhoods routinely had sidewalks in Philadelphia in 1898. It matters, but not greatly. I will adjust that later and keep up the writing momentum. Meanwhile, my current novel in progress has a main character named Lily.

Reply
Lily Gardner link
5/9/2013 12:03:30 pm

How cool is that! I take it you're writing a historical novel. Romance? Mystery?

May the Muse be with you!!!

Reply
Madge Walls
5/10/2013 02:10:29 am

Historical set in Philadelphia (never been there; research needed) and Portland in late 1800s - 1923. Not about Hawaii, not about real estate. A big leap into the unknown! Are you working on another one?




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    Lily Gardner

    Portland writer of noir mysteries.

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