Researching Places

Get thee to a library.

caw.

You can get by with research, but I'm a big proponent of in-person research. Especially if you can write off your travel expenses against your writing income.

I think a competent writer can get by with excellent research.

I wrote a short story several years ago, and the setting was southern Louisiana. I posted it online. A woman who used to live in that area emailed me, convinced that I'd been there before, because my descriptions of the bayous were so dead-on. My resources for the descriptions were a photograph from National Geographic, and repeated childhood viewings of Swamp Thing.

The novel I am currently submitting is set entirely in West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. I have been to the state of West Virginia many times, so I know the geography and the look of the mountains. But the only city I've actually visited is Wheeling (probably why a good deal of action takes place there). For the other towns that I used, I relied on research for names, locations, local supermarkets, that sort of thing.

But know your specifics. You don't want to say that there's a huge mall in the middle of Hinton, WV, when it's just a little podunk mining town. Your editor may not know that, or care, but some vocal fan just might.

-Kelly

loquax said:

How important do you think it is to actually visit the places you are writing about (providing they exist)? I understand that word-sprawling epics could take characters to any manner of famous landmarks that you the author have never been to and probably never will. Do pictures on the internet suffice? Is it the skill of the author to describe a Venice dusk without ever having experienced one, or would attempting such a thing be too risky in the fact that you might get it completely wrong?

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Depends, I guess. My now-shelved WIP has scenes in New Jersey, San Francisco, and Los Angeles (mostly in L.A. though). However, as it's a time travel novel, the NJ scenes take place in 1974, so I had to do a little research as to what people wore then (despite having lived through that decade as a teenager); I plopped the MC in the same town I grew up in, and although it's changed, most of the streets are still there.

The scenes in SF and L.A. are set in 1942, so I had to do a *lot* of research, in libraries and on the Net. I even bid on and picked up some street maps of those cities from about that time.

The weird thing is, when I received the SF map, my hubby looked at it and decided, hey, why don't we go there? Hubby wanted to go there because of the Anchor Steam Brewery and because he wanted to hang out in Haight-Ashbury on his birthday (April 20). Anyway, he also asked me if I thought it might help. I thought it would, despite the story being set decades earlier. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, and I figured I picked up some of the atmosphere and a feel for the place that (I hope one day) that's pretty realistic.

So that would be my advice. Do some internet and library research and get some street and city maps. If you have the dough, go and visit, but I suspect most people can't do that (unless it's nearby).

Another suggestion: request brochures. It seems travel bureaus are always willing to send a bunch of brochures. Who knows? Maybe that Venice sunset will be somewhere within those brochures...

~Nancy

Corresponding with someone who lives there also helps.

Yes, I do think it's possible to accurately portray a location without actually visiting it. My last project was set in Australia, and I've never been there. I did a lot of on-line research, bought a map of the area, spent a lot of time at the library looking at photos, and most importantly, I have an Australian friend who was able to fill in all the gaps. Since I was writing for an Australian audience, she was invaluable in helping me with the language. Yes, it's English, but their idioms are so different from ours.

Of course, I would love the luxury of visiting all the places I write about, but, alas, we don't always have that option.

Researching a locale

I've become a big fan of going to the locale where my WIP is set and living there for two weeks. While there is a cost involved, I find it's worth it. You'll soak up all sorts of valuable information that will make your story ring true -- sights, sounds, local customs, architecture, weather patterns, fashion, landmarks, and so forth. Of course. it's one thing to visit Chicago, another to visit South Africa. But if you can afford the visit, I'd say it's the best investment you can make. Go there and smell the place. It'll show in your finished product.

If you can't afford to go, then, yes, hit the library for info. Rent a movie that's been filmed there. Maps are a must. Read another novel that's been set there. (You know, stealing is OK in Fiction Land, if you do it deftly.) These approaches work well, I think, in lieu of an in-person visit.

use every resource to get an accurate image of place. Your eventual hope is that someone somewhere in that place is going to be sitting there reading the book. It has to be familiar to them.

Location

Going there is always better than research, but sometimes going there is impossible, so research has to do.

They say you have to live in a place for twenty years to really know it well, and I tend to believe this. You can get by with good research, but you'll never write as well about a place you've never spent some time in as will a native of that place.

I think one of the biggest mistakes new writers make is setting their stories in locations they've never seen. The place where you live, teh place where you were raised, may seem common and odinary to you, but to readers around the world it's just as esoteric and exciting as the Ivory Coast is to a native Californian.

Being that I'm poorer than a churchmouse, forced by unemployment to live on my parents' mercy, I'm depending on heavy research to help me set the scene of 1480's Europe. I am constantly looking for info on weather, watching movies set in that era, and things like that.


David

Dhewco, be aware that historians and amateur history buffs sneer at the many, many mistakes made by filmmakers who attempt to create the past. While movies set in your era might help you with flavor, don't assume anything you see on screen to be factual. (It's been a while since I spotted a zipper, but machine-made buttonholes abound, for instance.)

Maryn, movie fan

I always try to back up what I see in movies. I read books, magazine articles, and ask questions from people I trust to be knowledgeable.

I back everything up.

David

cleoauthor said:

Yes, I do think it's possible to accurately portray a location without actually visiting it. My last project was set in Australia, and I've never been there. I did a lot of on-line research, bought a map of the area, spent a lot of time at the library looking at photos, and most importantly, I have an Australian friend who was able to fill in all the gaps. Since I was writing for an Australian audience, she was invaluable in helping me with the language. Yes, it's English, but their idioms are so different from ours.

Of course, I would love the luxury of visiting all the places I write about, but, alas, we don't always have that option.

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I think research is the way most of us have to go. I'm an Australian, and my current WIP is set in Australia and New York. I've haven't visited NY yet (its top of my list) but I have a friend who has lived there all her life and gave me wonderful information on the area, sites and the feel of the city. i couldn't have written it without her.

stace001 said:

I think research is the way most of us have to go. I'm an Australian, and my current WIP is set in Australia and New York. I've haven't visited NY yet (its top of my list) but I have a friend who has lived there all her life and gave me wonderful information on the area, sites and the feel of the city. i couldn't have written it without her.

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Research can work, but it can also backfire. One of the biggest gripes I hear from editors is writers who have never been to New York City setting their work in New York City. Most editors live in or around New York City, they know it in detail, and you can't fool them easily.

You really have to get it right, and while this can be done through enough research, it's far from an easy task, no matter how many people you talk to who live there.

Of course, just visiting doesn't help much, either. Not with a city like New York. You really won't know any more after a two week visit than you did before, and may even know less.

If there's one bit of advice I could give new writers it would be to not set your fiction in New York City unless you know the city very well. Most editors and agents do know it very, very well, and they do not like it at all when writers get it wrong.

And, of course, the other big gripe from editors and agents I know is that far too many writers think fiction should be set in New York City. It seems like three fourths of the manuscripts in any slush pile are set in New York City, and most of the rest is set in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, or New Oleans. Or it it has a foreign location, it's London or Paris. And it's usually easy to tell the writer has never been to wherever the story is set.

From my experience, editors and agent both like setting that are different. WQhen everyone is doing NYC, or one of the handful of other giant cities, same old, same old sets in very quickly. Editors and agents like reading about places they haven't been, don't know well, and that most readers won't know well, either.

Fiction set in New York City can certainly sell, but it better be right, it better be good, and it better not come across as phoney in any way. It will have to rise above the setting, not sell because of it.

Research can make up for a lot, but this is once place where I think most new writers would be a heck of a lot better off following the old rule "Write what you know," changed slightly to "write where you know."

Dhewco said:

Being that I'm poorer than a churchmouse, forced by unemployment to live on my parents' mercy, I'm depending on heavy research to help me set the scene of 1480's Europe. I am constantly looking for info on weather, watching movies set in there era, and things like that.


David

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I'd be real, real careful about watching movies. Movies get away with all sorts of flubs that you can't get away with in a novel, and darned few movies are accurate. They don't just take liberties with the past, they often reinvent the past whole cloth because the "plot" demands it, or because they just don't care.

there era

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I can't believe I let slip an error like that. I'm so ashamed . . . forgive me.

James, like I said in an earlier post, I double check everything as far as I can. I use novels, the few experts I know (Don't use them unless I can't find a book, after all they're busy professionals), and various novels I know to be serious researched.

The only thing I use movies for is setting . . . what was the general quality of life, what did that gun or sword look like, what kind of food did the people eat. I don't get historical facts from movies. If I did, I'd believe Clay Shaw helped kill JFK. (From the notoriously inaccurate JFK by Oliver Stone).


David


PS. Maybe you weren't referring to me specifically in your post, but a generic warning for lurkers . . . but you quoted my post, so it felt personal. I know that movies aren't always accurate, I pity the fool who doesn't. It took all my self-control not to tell you . . . well, duh! LOL

Thanks for the post

I suggest checking with locals online where possible. I read a romance set in 'Australia' that was so blatantly written by based on Crocodile Dundee stereotypes rather than people that I felt like asking for a refund.

Dhewco said:

I can't believe I let slip an error like that. I'm so ashamed . . . forgive me.

James, like I said in an earlier post, I double check everything as far as I can. I use novels, the few experts I know (Don't use them unless I can't find a book, after all they're busy professionals), and various novels I know to be serious researched.

The only thing I use movies for is setting . . . what was the general quality of life, what did that gun or sword look like, what kind of food did the people eat. I don't get historical facts from movies. If I did, I'd believe Clay Shaw helped kill JFK. (From the notoriously inaccurate JFK by Oliver Stone).



Thanks for the post

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Where movies are horrible about is with such things as guns, swords, knives, food, and costumes. I don't think I've ever seen a movies that got these things right across the board. Always double check anything and everything you see in a movie. Most of it, including guns, swords, and costumes, is probably wrong.

loquax said:

I think there are two things that research can't capture - ambience and detail, and I find this especially hard to deal with when writing about specific places.

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If writing about the location is integral to your story, there is nothing like making the trip. Research is great, but it'll never allow you to capture the smells, sights and sounds of the place.

My story was set in an exotic location, and I thought I'd be able to get away with interviewing people who actually lived there, along with researching in the library. I got about halfway through and knew I couldn't do the story justice unless I went there. I'm eternally grateful that I did. It completely changed the complexity and richness to the story.

You just have to decide how important it is to have that touch, taste, smell feel to your story with respect to your locale.

For those without the means to travel, I recommend researching setting on the Internet. That doesn't mean just finding the chamber of commerce site. I mean finding photographs of every part of the area from every angle, looking up what sort of wildlife and plants are in the area, finding sound clips of local bird calls, finding blogs other people have written from THEIR trips to the location, etc. Ideally you should spend WEEKS doing this - filing your bookmarks in an organized fashion, and looking for that multisensory info that is so much more important than population and basic geography. What will it feel like if you go outside in your shirtsleeves at 4 am in May? What will you hear and smell when you take a walk?

By the time you write about the setting, you should be able to close your eyes and see, hear, smell, and feel it. Don't just try and throw in a few random details. Be sure you have the ENTIRE picture, then put in whatever details naturally occur as you're writing. You have to know about 50X more than you actually put in.

As for the library - I have very rarely found it worth the travel time, unless I'm doing historical research.

crosseyed reader said:

My story was set in an exotic location, and I thought I'd be able to get away with interviewing people who actually lived there, along with researching in the library. I got about halfway through and knew I couldn't do the story justice unless I went there. I'm eternally grateful that I did. It completely changed the complexity and richness to the story.

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But did you sell the ms?

I would say that you could write about a place without visiting it - provided you pay really close attention to detail. I recently read the latest Grisham book, The Broker and the number of incorrect little details almost killed me. The example that stuck in my side the most was that he had the eurostar in southern Italy ... the eurostar doesn't even go halfway there, and a quick look on their website would have made that clear to him.

I don't like to be tied down with a 'real' city.





I research the area where I want my novel to take place using topography maps, information about the local flora and fauna and I read a travel magazines/books of the location. Then I invent a fictional town/city. That way, I can have my characters move through the town how I want (streets/buildings/restaurants/stores/offices/hospitals, etc). I draw up a simple location map for each fictional town I make up and have the town/city laid out so I can remember the town for my characters.


I don't have to worry if I say they went from this office to this restaurant and it only took them 10 minutes to walk, whereas if I said that using a 'real' city, someone would actually know that to go from point A to point B it would take 1 hour.



As summary – I use the lay of the land, but build my own towns.