Writing What You Don't Know -- Research

 

 

At the turn of the century I had a column in a British writers magazine. I blogged the columns, and put it out in a newsletter with a multi thousand reader list from all over the world. Time has not changed the techniques for writers, although I've updated anything that needed up dating. Check out my website at www.dlnelsonwriter.com or my blogs at http://theepatwriter.blogspot.com

THEORY

Writers are told to write what they know. If taken literally we would only write about our lives. The implication is men can’t write about women or vice versa. A lawyer couldn’t write about doctors, etc. No historical novel would be written, unless the author knew for sure s/he was reincarnated from a previous time period. Science fiction couldn’t exist. Creative no fiction and immersion journalism wouldn't exist.

The premise is obviously false. The advice rules out imagination. More importantly it rules out research to learn about what we don't know.

There are many ways to do research.

THE OBVIOUS

Internet: Search engines are a blessing because what we need is merely a few clicks away. No need to go to the library. One of the problems with an internet search is it gives us more than we need. 

Hint to reduce the number of listings: put in as many terms or words as possible. If you want to experiment try a few tests. Bill Clinton brings up 41 million hits. Bill Clinton Hillary equal 6.6 million. Bill Clinton Hillary Monica shows 1.1 million. Bill Clinton Hillary Monica Trent Lott raises 60,600. Bill Clinton Hillary Monica Trent Lott impeachment and it is down to 12,6000.

Books: Reading about a subject, person, time period provides great information. I am researching Geneva during the time of Calvin and fell across a book about that period at a street market. 

Hint: Amazon.com is a great place to see what exists on a subject before visiting your local library. Don’t forget university libraries if you have one nearby. Often you can’t remove the books, but you can use the books there. The Writer's Guide to Places by Don Prues & Jack Heffron is one example.

Travel: If you really want to get the feeling of a place, visit it. Walk the streets, go into grocery stores, check out the cemeteries, if possible a private home, real estate agents, national museums. 

Hint: if where you are visiting a locality that has a university, contact the department that is in your area of interest and hire a student in that field: archeology, history, art, music

Interviews: Since I had not lived in the 1770s in writing Lexington: Anatomy of a Novel, I talked with park rangers, historians, re-enactors, university professors, YouTubes and documentaries on the subject.

THE LESS OBVIOUS

Travel: If your budget doesn’t allow you to visit a place, use travel guides. Talk to people who have visited there or better find a native. Although I never crossed the Sahara, I have friends who did. They told me their adventures giving me the small details that made it seem as I actually was there when I wrote my story. 

Hint 1: Be sure and use a map, and be careful of details: if you say Straight Street in Damascus has no shops, you would be wrong. You need to know what is on the streets that you name. 

Hint 2 Google images can give you photos of real buildings and places. Good for details that give a sense of reality of place.

Consulates: Often a consulate officer will be willing to provide information. It was easy to find out what relationship an American of Irish parents needed to do to become an Irish citizen by an email to the local consulate. Many have booklets about their country.

CIA: The CIA has information about each country on the internet. www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos

Professional Experts: Find a professor, lawyer, doctor, policeman or someone who is in the profession that you need information about. You will be amazed at how many people are willing to answer questions. I’ve had funeral directors tell me about burial rules, a medievalist tell me how to build a fire for burning a witch, a man who translates ancient languages talk about cuneiform letters from the ancient city of Ebla, a snake expert described vipers in the Pyrenees. Sometimes a simple email is all that you need. Other times it may be necessary to request an interview. Almost everyone wants to share their knowledge when asked politely 

Hint: If it is an interview, I almost send/take a small thank you gift. At bare minimum a thank you note.

Non experts: Why would you want to go to a non-expert? Because the person has experience you might want to incorporate. If you are a professional woman who has never been a housewife and your main character is a mother who never worked, you might want to talk to women in that situation. If you are a man who is writing about a woman who has a hysterectomy talk to women who have had them. Ask the person if they would be willing to read a draft to make sure you have captured the experience. I never had a vasectomy but I talked with two men who did. I sent them the writing and they verified it was accurate.

Manufacturers: Many are willing to send out information on their products. The PR department is always the best contact.

Newspapers/magazines: Good libraries have back issues on film. Don’t just look at your main subject, but notice the advertising, the books and movies showing of the period. For example in the 1940s cigarettes were advertised as being good for your health. At the end of WWII stories in women’s magazines switched from the glory for women as workers to the glories of housework. All this can help you create an ambience of the epoch you are writing.

Photographs: Details can be gleaned from scenery, buildings, clothing. Again, Google image.

Television: Watch programs about the subject. Many stations will provide transcripts of program. Try and search their archives or write their PR departments or the director.

DOUBLE CHECK ** DOUBLE CHECK

When you write about what you don’t know, it is important to double check. In a novel a Bostonian was said to love a local dish shoo fly pie. It is not a local dish, but popular in the Amish area of Pennsylvania. Jeffrey Archer incorrectly named Geneva not Bern the capital of Switzerland. Any reader who knows the area will be annoyed and it negates the verisimilitude of the rest of the work. 

Hint: use the internet as a fact checker.

Watch your language. Regions and social groups have special language. Hoodsies was ice cream in a paper cup in New England. Tonic was soda pop. Try and find a native to make sure your language is fitting for the origin and time for your character.

Approaching people can be done by email, letter, telephone, or directly. Identifying yourself as a writer, helps. However, it might create some humorous situations. The police at Ferney-Voltaire looked at me strangely when I asked about buying a gun in France. After I produced a business card with my name, address and the words ecrivain/writer, they seem to decide I wasn’t a potential murderer.

Once we complete our research we are writing what we know.

NOTES
Some examples of books and websites for special research and it only scratches the surface.

A History Of Cant And Slang Dictionaries: 1785-1858 by Julie Coleman

War Slang: American Fighting Words and Phrases Since the Civil War

The slang dictionary;: Or, The vulgar words, street phrases, and "fast" expressions of high and low society. Many with their etymology and a few with their history traced by John Camden Hotten

http://www.fun4birthdays.com/year/index.html gives major events in different year although the focus is American although if you go several layers there are interesting small details like in Denmark on someone’s birthday a flag is flown outside the window.

Writer's Guide to Places by Don Prues & Jack Heffron