Research and Inspiration in the Information Age

RHYS BOWEN:  Since I write historical fiction I have to do a lot of research. It is important to get everything right. I don't know about you, but if I find one glaring error, that's the last I read of that book. Like a train coming into the wrong station in London, or calling the king "Your Highness."  yes, I've read both.

I am always fascinated with the way other writers do their research. I can remember driving to the library and asking for help from the reference desk. So I was interested to see that Vincent O'Neil's experiences mirrored my own.  We're happy to welcome him to Jungle Red Writers today.... take it away Vinnie!

VINCENT O'NEIL:
 

When I first started writing, it was on a manual typewriter. I used the card catalog and the microfiche reader at the library to do research, in a process that was time-consuming and often ineffective. If I needed inspiration for setting the mood in a story, I would usually read the works of other authors who had written about a place or situation similar to the one I hoped to depict.

I can’t say I miss the card catalog and the microfiche reader very much; after all, it took some leg work to go and find the right book or journal, and the search often turned up items that didn’t match their descriptions. As for setting the mood by reading the writing of others, even when that worked it felt more like imitation than inspiration.

That’s why I much prefer the resources we have now. In addition to easy access and multiple media, the inspiration I’ve received from photos, videos, and personal blogs has helped me to mentally experience places I’ve never been and things I’ve never done. While acknowledging the difficulties of sorting through the incredible amount of information available to us now, and recognizing that some of it is inaccurate, I must say that the tools of the information age have really helped my writing and even my development as a writer.

When I’m approaching a topic about which I know nothing, I usually try to find one of the “Idiot’s Guides” because they’re usually such excellent sources of fundamental information. For example, when I started researching my theater-themed murder mystery Death Troupe, I began with a copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amateur Theatricals. I slowly worked my way up to reading the memoirs of some famous directors, but the nuts-and-bolts understanding of the stage that I got from that particular Idiot’s Guide was invaluable.

Death Troupe is set in the Adirondack region during the wintertime and, while I had visited the area years before, my personal knowledge of that part of the world was dated. I wanted to set the story in a small town, but I didn’t know much about the organization of such a place, beginning with what kind of local businesses they might have. Thanks to the Internet, I could view the entire region as either a map or a very detailed satellite photograph. That helped me to find a few towns and villages that resembled the place I wanted to invent, and then by looking up the webpages for those towns and villages I easily got an idea of common businesses and industries.

Photographs on those websites were also very helpful, both for suggesting exciting locations such as an old fire tower on a tall hill and for stirring up ideas regarding the general atmosphere of the town that would be in my book. Later on I ran into difficulty describing a cross-country skiing lesson, even though I had once been pretty good at that sport. It was important to get the sequence of actions right, describing how weight shifts from ski to ski and the way the poles are used for balance. I’d forgotten exactly how that all worked, and yet a YouTube video of basic cross-country skiing techniques brought me back up to speed in no time.

I’ve always believed that research can lead to great inspirations, and just getting back in touch with that part of the world reminded me of impressions I’d had years earlier while also suggesting new ways of looking at the locale. From videos and still photographs to town websites and community newsletters, a wealth of information was literally at my fingertips.

When I was writing my horror novel Interlands, I decided to include a haunted hayride. The already-frightening experience of rolling past scary scenes, complete with gory special effects and live actors in disturbing costumes, was to be made even creepier by supernatural elements intruding on the main character’s perceptions. The problem was that I had never been on one of those hayrides. Once again YouTube videos came to the rescue, not only showing real haunted hayride attractions as they played out, but also describing some of the behind-the-scenes work that helps to make the experience so unsettling. Just by watching those videos, I was able to get a feel for at least part of the mood I wanted to create. I also got some great ideas for spooky stations along the route of the hayride and the ways they could be made even more terrifying by the involvement of supernatural influences.

None of these techniques is meant to take the place of actually visiting or experiencing the locations and activities we seek to describe. However, they certainly helped me in that they augmented what I already knew (or thought I knew) and often provided me with fresh ideas.

In closing, I’d like to repeat that some of the information found on the Internet is not accurate, and so it’s important to check anything we decide to present as being realistic or factual. But for conducting background research, gaining inspiration, and just helping to generate a mood similar to the one we hope to create, I’ll take the technology available to us now over the microfiche reader any day.

Vincent H. O’Neil is the Malice Award-winning author of the Frank Cole mystery series, the theater-themed mystery Death Troupe, and the horror novel Interlands. His military science fiction novel Glory Main (written as Henry V. O’Neil) was published by HarperVoyager in July and the sequel, Orphan Brigade, is set for release in January, 2015. Please visit his website www.vincenthoneil for reviews, sample chapters, and important links. 

RHYS: So Reds--what's the most interesting or unusual piece of research you have done?  I remember riding a train up a Welsh mountain, looking out of the window for the best place to push someone to their death. When I found the perfect place, and shared this info with my husband, I noticed the train car had gone very quiet and people had moved as far away as possible!

And readers--has there been one glaring error that has made you stop reading a book?