Research Can Be Fun
By Marion Tickner
“To assume makes an ASS out of U and ME.” That’s what my boss told us when I worked as an insurance claims adjuster. We were taught to get the facts, never assume anything. The same rule applies to our writing.
Remember Joe Friday? “Just the facts, Ma’am, just the facts.” How do we get the facts? Research. Research usually begins in front of a computer. You can find tons of information on the Internet, but is it always accurate? Research doesn’t have to be boring, in fact, it can be fun.
If you’ve never robbed a bank but would like to include a bank robbery in your story, talk to customer service. Find out what happens at the time of a robbery. Be sure to tell her, though, that you have no intentions of robbing a bank.
Author Mary Jane Auch had read accounts of immigrants coming to America, but it was a visit to the restored landmark, Ellis Island, that helped her experience how it must have felt when her characters saw America for the first time. At the end of her historical fiction, Ashes of Roses, she describes other things she did in search of the facts.
Setting is an important part of your story, either real or fictional. Children’s author Kristi Holl’s Iowa mysteries are convincing because she wrote about places she knew—the place she lived or the vacation spots she visited.
Phyllis A. Whitney traveled to faraway places to get a feel for the setting. She spent time researching the area and talking to people. When she wrote, she renamed real buildings and facts about the area to meet her fictional needs.
If your setting is a real place, don’t assume that because it’s on the map, there’s a McDonald’s on every other corner. Of course you can find maps and other information on the Internet. Which would be more fun: staring at a computer screen or taking a day trip to check out the area?
Again, if you’re using a real setting, verify your facts. Don’t have something happen at the corner of two streets that run parallel to each other. Also, be careful if you name the street where the characters live. You might hear that the town has a Castle Street. Sounds innocent enough. But if you check out the location, you may change your mind about planting them there.
If your setting is fictional, you can do anything you want with it. You remember seeing a log cabin in the woods and decide that would make a great setting for a camping story, but there’s no lake. Create a lake. Is your character is interested in an island he sees from camp? Import it from somewhere—one you’ve seen.
We’re told, “Write what you know.” I’d like to change that to, “Know what you write.” As a member of Toastmasters, I visited a newly-formed group and was asked to evaluate the speaker. The woman told about her vacation at a lake and about the tides coming in. I didn’t want to embarrass her by reminding her that the ocean has tides, lakes do not. An editor would catch the error, but when you write, make sure you know the facts.
Do you know what it feels like to plod home from school or work in a blizzard with icy snowflakes stinging your face? Have you ever stood on the street corner with hurricane winds whipping around you? Do you know what it’s like to come home and find your house has been demolished by a tornado? If you write about an event of nature that you haven’t experienced, ask somebody who has.
Don’t forget to use the library and Inter-Library Loan. In fact, if you use the library often enough, the librarian will get to know you and who knows what opportunities you’ll have to promote your writing, whether it be a book or magazine article.
Finally, no matter what kind of research you do, keep good records. You’ll need the information for your bibliography, but also for yourself if you need to go back to check or verify what you’ve written.
The Internet is a good place to start, but don’t stop there. Act like an adjuster. Be an investigator. Don’t ASSUME anything. Dig deeper until you come up with the facts, and then write your article/story.