I do a lot
of research as a fiction writer. It's one of the things I try to get out of.
I wanted to
write a historical romance, many years ago, and I wanted a setting that no one
had heard of so that I wouldn't have to do any research. I chose Wales;
actually the border between Wales and England in the 900s. Seemed like an unknown
time and location. I guess if I didn't know something about that bit of
history, I would make it up (Horrors!" gasp my history professors). Or
maybe I already knew enough to fake it. Or maybe teenie weenie elves would work
on those parts -- at night – while I slept. Actually, I didn't have a plan for
lack of knowledge on my part. So I dived into the story, figuring I would locate
the rare books on the topic if I really needed to.
Turns out
there were many books about the history and archeology of Wales and England.
Dang!
Another
story I wrote was about sparrows. Pretty simple topic, eh? Surely a peek in a
nature book would suffice for research. But what does a sparrow chirp actually
sound like? Luckily, I now have use of the internet, so I was able to listen to
the chirps of little sparrows all day long. And what do magpies sound like?
(Foolish me, I put them in this story with sparrows.) And how would a flock of
sparrows attack a pile of garbage – say a hamburger and fries – on the
roadside? And would there be a thorn bush in the same setting as rose bushes?
Oh no! More research.
Dang!
I tend to
write historical fiction, so of course, I must do some research if I want the
time and setting to seem realistic to readers. Historical research quickly turns
into serpentine rabbit holes.
For example,
I wanted to know what time of day President Garfield died in 1881. I knew he
had been shot by an assassin, that he lingered for several weeks, that
telegraph notices about him were printed in every newspaper in the country. And
I knew that he passed in the evening. My question: what time did he actually
die, and when would citizens in later time zones be told?
What a rat's
nest of information I stumbled upon. First, there were not yet time zones in
1881! How then, did people know what time it was (besides looking up at the sky
and guessing)? Every town had jewelers and/or watch repair shops. Usually,
these shops had a clock outside their building. Every day they would use a sextant
(used by captains at sea to plot their location on the globe) to determine the
exact location of the sun. From this reading, they would set the clock on the
street, and people in town could then set their clocks.
Time zones
as we know them, were developed by the railroads and passed into law in the
early 1900s.
All that
research, just to find out I couldn't use time zones in my story. Grrr.
I am
currently reading The Silmarillion, by J. R. R. Tolkein. This is the
backstory of his epic fantasy: The Lord of the Rings. Oh my goodness! The
Silmarillion is the creation myth, god legends, and cultural development of
the Elves of Middle Earth. In the back, are pages and pages of index to locate names and
places, a map of the area of the stories, genealogy charts of the elf families
and the human families. If all that isn't enough, there is an extensive appendix
about the elven language. An entire language!
Talk about
research!
I whine
about research involving sparrows, but he did the fictional research for a vast
fantasy.
Research is
required for all genres of fiction: historical, fantasy, and future; thrillers,
romances, and mysteries; children's, young adult, and erotica. To write good
stories requires research.
Dang!
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