Paint With Words

Depending on what kind of story you’re writing, you may have to do lots and lots of research for it. Even if it is fiction, sometimes it may take a lot of work digging up facts to make your story sound credible. Take “The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova. While her entire story is fiction, it’s based in a lot of factual things. She needed to know about Vlad the Impaler, from a Balkan perspective as well as an Ottoman perspective, she had to know about Communist Europe, and she needed to know the lay of the land. In the end it took her 10 years to write, but I imagine it’s safe to say half that time was devoted just to researching Vlad the Impaler’s history (and having a husband who’s from Eastern Europe doesn’t hurt either). In my book for my feature writing class, one contributor went so far as becoming an officer in a penitentary just to gain insider knowledge on how American jails are run.

Sometimes all you need to do is plunk yourself down in a library and read as many books as you can find on a subject, or get online to University websites, and see what they have to offer. Sometimes, now, doctoral students publish their thesis papers online. That can definitely serve to be enough, if you’re writing something like Harry Turtledove’s series, or “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden. But sometimes that’s not enough. Sometimes you have to sit down and talk to people.

For me, that’s one of the more fun parts. I love sitting down with people, talking, and picking their brains. But i’m also an outgoing person. It’s neat though to talk to people in the field: survivors, employees, travellers, experts, victims, whoever you would need to talk to to get the information you would need.

One of the most fun parts is when you sit down to talk to someone, and they just open up and tell you about whatever it is you need. Some people are more apt to it because they know or trust you, or because they have a story they want people to hear. Some people are more shy, and you have to open them up a little. But sometimes that is where the story lies.

It’s exciting to see what kinds of answers you can come to, without even trying to. You think of questions and ideas you never had before, and then you just HAVE to know more.

You’ve also got to sit down and do  your reasearch. Now if you’re not talking to anyone of any note (by that I mean you’re talking to a nearly 80 year old man who was a 19 year old private in 1944 and was one of hundreds of Americans who stormed Normandy on D-Day. Sure he was there, but he wasn’t recorded in the history books), what you can find out may be limited to the interview, or a few small outside sources (friends, family, etc), or sources on an event they were associated with.

I guess I’m bringin this all up as next week, I’ll be doing that (hopefully) for my story. The philharmonic here in town is auditioning 8 people to take the current maestro’s place. He’s been with the phil for…15 or 16 years. His first season was when I was 7. One of the potential candidates, Helen Bouchez, just so happens to resemble my main character in my story. It’s pure coincidence I assure you, but I am excited to sit down and see her work. I’ve also talked to my band director at school, and he provided a lot of insight, and I plan to sit in on the conducting courses next semester. My main character is an aspiring conductor, and well, I don’t want to sound like I don’t know what I’m talking aboout.

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