It’s probably safe to say that every writer does research. It’s fun! It’s important! It takes a lot of time that could be wasted staring at your (lack of a) plot!
This year, for the first time in a while, I’m doing NaNoWriMo. Since I’ve got big gaping holes in my plot that I don’t want to think about, I’ve been doing a lot of research. Alaska. Kayaks. The behavior of moose and orcas. What do rich people do all day? What’s the temperature of Resurrection Bay in June?
My NaNovel will be contemporary and not speculative, so there’s a LOT to research, of course. The last time I researched for a contemporary story, in the author notes I left the disclaimer, “KD wishes fervently that she had found more time to research rock-climbing, the Civil War, the Underground Railroad, video production, colleges in Western Pennsylvania, visa requirements, Danbury, Connecticut, Civil War re-enactors, and navy slang, but hopes there are not too many factual errors.”
People have interests! Things are done differently in different places! You have to get it as right as you can, or people who are enjoying the story get tossed out of their suspension-of-belief and that sucks. I, personally, hate when it happens to me. I don’t want to do it to anyone else!
Of course, then you can run into things like the Tiffany problem. Or how, after reading one story I wrote, people found it impossible to believe that a young man went all the way through school without being diagnosed with dyslexia. Instead his teachers just thought he wasn’t too bright. No way, readers said! I, a person working in a school, could name names if that were okay, but since it’s not…and anyway, it’s my job to make ’em believe in the story. Ahh, the perils of communication as a calling! I probably should have gone into more depth about the very small school he attended with no internet, or some such. Anywhoo. Live and learn.
All I can do is the best I can do. For instance, with Flame–she wears her sword in a scabbard on her back. Most Vral who carry swords do. I wanted to do it, but it seemed suspicious. How well can that possibly work?
Pretty well, it turns out.
Research is, of course, very dangerous. It’s far too easy to fall in! For my most recent Flame edit, I spent a lot of time listening to the sounds of animals in a mountain forest at night. I found barking deer! Here’s a fox. I researched what trees grow where, and when they have fruit or nuts safe to eat. I investigated snares, and horseshoe orbits, and knife-sharpening.
Seriously, I did a lot of research for Flame, only partly because there were times it was that, or print out the manuscript in order to set fire to it. Here’s some thing about schooner-rigged scows.
Here’s a whale breaching onto a kayak (those people miraculously survived.)
Here’s a thing about beetles in Namibia that won’t show up in this Flame book, but may turn up later.
Why do a lot of my blog posts end up being “look at this cool thing I found!” anyway? Maybe because there are so many cool things?
Doesn’t matter. That they exist, and I can share them, that’s what matters. Also, books matter. (Nice segue, no?) We’ll be putting up the sneak peek for Flame Isfree and the Feather of Fate on November 1st. It will go on sale December 15th. You’ll be able to see if my research did me much good! And also, hopefully, you’ll enjoy following Flame’s adventures.
In the meantime, don’t go kayaking under whales.