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The Eureka of Cumulative Research 10/14/2010 5:23:19 PM
Before I ever wrote a book, research conjured up images of scientists and sterile labs, test tubes and Bunsen burners. It didn’t seem like something that applied to people who spent an inordinate amount of time in pajama pants. But perhaps writers are the most fanatical lab rats, dedicated to unearthing surefire plot formulas with no guarantee of ever gasping, “EUREKA!”
When it comes to writing, research is as important as good grammar and not naming your main character Lala. It’s a no-brainer rule: If you have no knowledge of a 747’s cockpit, don’t try to fly the plane—or use it as the vehicle for your hero’s shining moment. Much of that stems from the age-old adage, write what you know. I don’t necessarily agree. At least not to the point where I don’t feel comfortable creating a character like Flynn, BEAUTIFUL DISASTER’s protagonist. He’s someone with a complex military background; he grew up in Indiana, suffered a horrible childhood, and spent time in prison. Well, I’ve never been to Indiana, my childhood did not involve social services, and the military is as removed from my life as the planet Neptune. As for the prison part, well… Ha! Had you going there for a second, didn’t I? But I can tell you this: the folks running Leavenworth are chattier then you might think. It was a turning point for me, realizing that novel writing is not limited to personal experience.
What I have learned during the writing/revision/writing/… you get it, process of six novels is that ingenuity and a straightforward approach will garner useable information on most subjects. Let me qualify that. I won’t be writing any books where the protagonist is a bio-chemical engineer or the setting a place like Morocco. For one, the mere idea of a bio-chemical protagonist makes me want to take a nap and, secondly, research has its limits—unless, of course, your last name is Picoult or Patterson. You can write about places like Indiana or Leavenworth, if you use them with guarded authority. But if you’ve never been to Morocco, their tourism website won’t convey the sounds or smells, cultural nuances, or the exotic atmosphere that is surely inherent to it. Glossy photographs and a phone interview with the Marriott’s best concierge will fall sharply short of the familiarity needed to pull it off. It’s too big and it crosses the line of believability. When that becomes the issue, revert to the old adage and write what you know—or at least write what you can learn about without crossing the Tropic of Cancer.
Locations can be tricky; subject knowledge is a little easier to fake. And by fake, I mean learning enough to make the reader believe that Flynn is a former special ops Marine and Mia a holistic eco-friendly interior designer. They’re two topics that I could not have cared less about before BEAUTIFUL DISASTER. Apply it to my characters and suddenly I was rabid with curiosity. Flynn’s character took a natural path from the beginning. It was one of those enigmatic writer moments where I knew who he was and everything that drove him by the end of chapter two. The trouble was I didn’t know the first thing about being in the military, the challenges, or what his life would have been like. Enter Staff Sergeant Matt Zeiszler, USMC. It was just a matter of making a half dozen or so phone calls and eventually finding a Marine who was former special ops. Sergeant Zeiszler was willing to share his experiences, support or correct my theories, and offer details that I applied to Flynn like an eighth layer of skin—the one that holds him together. Mia was more of a process. It took me three years to figure out who she was and what made her character tick. Oddly enough, part of the problem was Flynn. His character is so compelling that I was probably a bit lazy about hers. It was revision number four, I believe, when the light bulb finally came on, and I realized that his character could not be the catalyst for hers. Mia had to be somebody all on her own. From there the pieces quickly came together. It was as if she’d been standing there all that time, tapping her foot, waiting for me to notice. In this case I reached out to holistic designer Laura Catanzaro. That took some Googling and another phone call. Her expertise was precisely what Mia needed. And I felt like an artist who’d just traded a charcoal pencil for a full color palette.
Approaching an expert in hopes of picking their brain always leads to a moment of, “This person is going to think I’m a nut.” And when you don’t have a book on the shelf that mindset is twice as daunting, the unease of explaining yourself an unavoidable moment. Don’t let it stop you. You get past it, and you get better with every source you approach. In fact, I’ve yet to be turned down for an interview. I’m always upfront, explaining that I am not a bestselling author or anything close to it. All I could offer was my thanks, a free copy of the book, and a mention on the acknowledgement page, should we get that far. A few weeks ago the galley for BEAUTIFUL DISASTER arrived. While I admired the typeset copy, I think I was most taken back by the acknowledgement page where Sergeant Zeiszler, Laura Catanzaro and a few other VIPs are mentioned. Readers might glance over it, but I know the cumulative importance of that research and how it shaped BEAUTIFUL DISASTER.
