Research for Writing

     For me, research for writing is a two step exercise, starting with collecting and analyzing the information for the detail I am fleshing out and then working it into the scene in an unobtrusive way. Every once in a while you’ll read a story that breaks out into a lecture on some esoteric subject, but that isn’t the sort of research that I generally do (I am quite capable of overdoing it if that’s what needs to be done). The level I’m focusing on is a bit less focused than that.  It’s about finding the right details for a scene (a dress for a well to do, 18^th century, lady or how to open a locked wooden box when you have no key?) and then integrating it into the scene in a seamless manner. Keeping it unobtrusive and in character is what I aim for.

     It doesn’t do to suddenly expand a character’s wealth of knowledge. You can write that at the hero’s house running the microwave and a hairdryer at the same time blows the circuit breaker, but if all the hero knows is that a trek to the darkest corner of the basement is now in order then that is where it should be left. He shouldn’t explain the finer points of household wiring unless he happens to be a pedantic electrician by day. Maybe what you, the author, needs to know is will this breaker tripping and flipping cause a fire that you need to push your plot forward, and what morsel should you put into words to keep your reader interested. To me, this integration of fact into fiction is what makes writing so enjoyable, and something my favorite authors are very good at doing.

     So much for my slightly rambling first real post (the default post created by WordPress hardly counts). Over the next few days to a week I hope to have the kinks ironed out of the site (unless it’s kink that people want) and organized how I want it.  Then some more blog posts about research I’ve done and some the bits and pieces I am working on currently plus a couple of my short stories too.