Where would you like to go to research your novel?

akmacca · Feb 2, 2010

At some stage of our writing careers we have to do research. Most of us I assume do it via the internet or the library.

But what if you had unlimited funds to do your research wherever you wanted. Just call up your travel agent and hop on a plane, boat or helicopter.

Perhaps The Louvre or the Amazon jungle. Tibet or Timbuktu.

Where would you go to do your research?

Claudia Gray · Feb 2, 2010

Lots of places. Moscow, definitely. Rhode Island, probably. I could come up with a reason to go to Everest base camp (though I have zero desire to climb any higher!)

Bukarella · Feb 2, 2010

Chaolin monastery :e2fight:

fadeaccompli · Feb 2, 2010

Italy! At least for the current project, I'd want to trudge through Rome (with the, alas, enormous ambling herds of other tourists), and spend at least a day in Venice. Spend a few days in a more rural area, poke through the museum, get a feel for the speed of life and the way modernity overlaps (or erases) antiquity... I'm not writing about Italy, but there are certain sensations/sights/concepts associated with that country that I'm trying to work into my current project.

jennontheisland · Feb 2, 2010

Ukranian River Cruise.
http://www.vikingrivercruises.com/r...-odessa-kiev-2010/vlo/itinerary.aspx?altnav=1

Fredster · Feb 2, 2010

Vegas, baby, because that's where it's set.

But...I'm on the final chapter now, so it would be moot.

kal-el · Feb 2, 2010

The Amazon rainforest.

cooeedownunder · Feb 2, 2010

Via a time machine back 200 years

DigitalGhost · Feb 2, 2010

I'd go to Peru!

PoppysInARow · Feb 2, 2010

I would love to write a novel set in Italy or France, but I would have to go there for a few months so I could get the tone and culture right.

a_sharp · Feb 2, 2010

The great central marsh of Iraq with Dr. Azzam Alwash's Nature Iraq restoration project. Visiting the setting for my first novel would inspire me to rewrite. In 1993 Saddam destroyed the habitat for millions of animals and the Marsh Arab people whose culture had existed unchanged for 5,000 years. Last Fall 60 Minutes traveled there to feature Alwash and his work. I SO wanted to be in that boat with those guys.

Calla Lily · Feb 2, 2010

Far enough north in Canada to see the Northern Lights every single night. Every. Night. I can have my MCs need to travel there, no prob.

Then to get warm again, back to Hawai'i. Kauai, specifically, because the MCs are gong to get married in book 4 or 5 and they'll need a busman's honeymoon. (It's been 23 years. Oh, how I'd love to go back.)

That'd take a year between them, easily. Better yet, two.

After that, the Rockies. Then maybe Wales.

aadams73 · Feb 2, 2010

Everywhere.

JulieHowe · Feb 2, 2010

akmacca said:
At some stage of our writing careers we have to do research. Most of us I assume do it via the internet or the library.

But what if you had unlimited funds to do your research wherever you wanted. Just call up your travel agent and hop on a plane, boat or helicopter.

Perhaps The Louvre or the Amazon jungle. Tibet or Timbuktu.

Where would you go to do your research?

I really need to visit Cuba, but I don't think it will happen before this first novel is done.

jruby · Feb 2, 2010

I'd love to visit Australia, and the Galapagos.

thewakingself · Feb 2, 2010

akmacca said:
At some stage of our writing careers we have to do research. Most of us I assume do it via the internet or the library.

But what if you had unlimited funds to do your research wherever you wanted. Just call up your travel agent and hop on a plane, boat or helicopter.

Perhaps The Louvre or the Amazon jungle. Tibet or Timbuktu.

Where would you go to do your research?

Bold = mine.

My character would begin her adventures in a prologue (I know, so declasse) set in Morocco. Chapter One opens upon a chase in mainland Greece, a thrilling sequence that ensured my MC ended up on Mykonos. The harried protag would continue her sojourn through Istanbul and Cairo, journeying ever southward through Jeddah, Djibouti, and Sri Lanka. Her villain would then gloat over the fact my MC's McGuffin is in Fiji. Alas, my MC discovers the villain has instead hunkered down in Antarctica, thus necessitating a trip to Ushuaia and the polar ice caps.

There cold, dark fate insists my MC has an epilogue in the Virgin Islands.

I would then then trunk the novel.

Kidding!! I'm sure I could string something together after all that.

scarletpeaches · Feb 2, 2010

I'd never write anything that required research beyond Google or Wiki. I write about settings I've already experienced. To paraphrase Monica Dickens, I don't do things to write books about them, but my books naturally arise from my life experience.

That said...

...the Leto brothers' apartment.

Collectonian · Feb 2, 2010

Hokkaido Japan where my current WIP is set :-D

MissAimee · Feb 2, 2010

I would love to go back and spend longer then 15 days in Scotland.

K. Taylor · Feb 2, 2010

Bora Bora.

Easy for me to write about the US - I've been to 47 of 50 states.

Caitlin Black · Feb 2, 2010

The International Space Station, then Fermilab. And then Honolulu because I like the name.

Caitlin Black · Feb 2, 2010

Oh, and all over America and Italy.

Henri Bauholz · Feb 2, 2010

The Mayan coast of Mexico and the Peten jungle of Guatamala. I think these would be wonderful places to write a novel.

my blog

shaldna · Feb 3, 2010

see, i'm in two minds about this. i think that too much research can be as bad as not enough.

For instance, when a writer has done loads of research then there is the temptation to use all that info, which can get a bit exhausting for the reader.

With places there is usually little need to go and visit somewhere as part of research because being too familiar with somewhere can alienate your readers.

Some things you should take as a given, for instance, I know that Colorado can get really cold. And I know that the Sahara is dry. I don't know the street layout, and I don't know the colour of the buildings. But in all honesty, do I need to? Aside from a passing comment perhaps?

That said, if a writer is working on Sci-fi or period pieces I do expect them to know thier stuff. I expect them to know the rules and I expect them to be accurate.

Jamesaritchie · Feb 3, 2010

There's no substitute for on location research. One place I haven't been and really need to get to is Morocco. Someday.

I also need to get back to Mexico City. I was there for a while thirty years ago, but I know it's changed greatly, and I really want to spend a couple of weeks there in the near future.

Where would you like to go to research your novel?

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