How to find details for a story when you’re not good at them

The trees hadn’t quite bloomed when I visited Mason Neck Park for research.

I admit it.  I’m terrible with details. 

I can look at a place, see all the details, come back, and not remember a single one of them.  They all merge with the big picture.  So all the things I see at the beach turns into beach, sand, and water, and I forget about a bunch of stuff I did see.

So I’ve learned these three work arounds:

1. Ask questions about the place

No matter the location, I ask questions about specifics.  If we’re in the woods, then the questions might be:

• What kind of trees are here?
• What kind of birds live in these woods?
• What sounds do they make?

Which leads to the second workaround:

2. Take notes live at the site

Visit the location with a notebook and write down everything.  I went to Mason Neck Park, which is located on Pohick Bay and noted all kinds of things:

• Flies buzzing past.
• Warmth of sun
• Long ago fallen tree being gnawed away

Mason Neck Park was a substitution.  I couldn’t go to the actual location of the setting, which is in Hawaii, so I had to make do.  Woods are pretty universal in how to they operate.  I’m planning on going to Virginia Beach for the beach experience (yes, pictures!).

After I get back, I pretty them up in notes.  I plan to do these trips at different times of the year, since Spring is different than Winter.

3. Research

The library is my friend for looking up specific names of plants.  I usually just make a note in the manuscript with something like:

(Name of tree) towered overhead.

Then I can hit the library once I have enough details to research, preferably ones in the same detail family.

I’ve mentioned some of the things I do in passing and have had people pop up in surprise and say, “That’s what I do!”  So we’re not alone.  If you have trouble with details, what do you do?

Related Posts:

• When you Hate to Research
• The Frugal Novel Researcher

 

6 fun reasons to go to a library book sale

Books! Really, do I need to say more?

My county library had their semi-annual book sale this weekend.

In the weeks before the sale, they start storing the books behind a fence in the parking lot, and it looks like it’s about to burst.

If you haven’t been to one, it’s time to go.

Reason #1: The books are cheap

Paperbacks at .50 cents each; books that would run $20 at a bookstore going for $3.  Seriously, how can you resist with prices like that?

When you go though, bring your own bags.  Use those ubiquitous canvas bags everyone gives out.  They’ll hold up under the weight of all the books you put into the bag.

Reason #2: They may not just have books

My library sale also has maps, video tapes, DVDs, and music.  Some of the maps are quite old, from vacations past, but if it were needed for a story set in that time frame, it’d be a pretty good reference.

Reason #3: Unexpected Finds

I’m terrible with details, and one valuable resource that has helped me is a visual dictionary.  I found an out of print one at the library sale, then later went to the bookstore and got the newer updated one.  Very valuable discovery.

Reason #4: Research

I used to have an auction in my book.  It came out on revisions, but when I was looking for more information on auctions, I wanted to get an auction book.  New ones are expensive!  They can cost $60.00. I rooted around two separate library sales and found 15 year old auction books, one for paintings and one for coins.

Reason #5: Raises money for the library

I think every library in the country has suffered from budget cuts.  Even when I was in the military, Fort Lewis kept cutting the library’s budget.  It just seems like the bureaucrats don’t really think libraries are an important resource.

So you can contribute two ways: Clean out your bookshelves and give it to library and then fill your shelves again from the sale.

Reason #6: It’s about the books

Seriously, is there no better reason than this?

What’s the most fun thing you’ve found at a library sale?

More stuff to see:

• Books are better than chocolate.  Maybe.
• Things that happen to books
• When words strike back

 

Rule W: Write what you know and write only the stories you can write

Linda’s Rules of Writing

Sometimes “write what you know” seems like a mysterious and frightening thing!

We’re onto the letter W in Linda’s Rules of Writing of the A to Z Challenge, with the infamous “Write what you know.”

I think “write what you know” is one of the most interpreted pieces of writing advice out there.  Writers take it too literally, as a member of one of my critique groups did.  He was a human resources manager, so he figured that to “write what you know,” he had to make his character a human resources manager, even though there was no logical reason why such a job would have been involved in the actual story.

Allen Wold (Alien World if it helps to remember his name) said at one of the cons I was at defined”write what you know” as:

1. What you’ve experienced
2. What you’ve heard from friends and relatives and acquaintance
3. What you’ve learned from research

But I also ran across one more, which was from Write Faster, Write Better from David Fryxell.  It’s a book on freelancing, but Fryxell notes “Write only the stories you can write.”

I could research medicine for a medical thriller, but I know so little about the topic that I would have to spend enormous amounts of time on the research to more or less get it right.  Probably more time than even writing the story.  On the other hand, since I was in the army, I could probably write about a medic without having to spend as much time researching.

How do you use the infamous “write what you know” in your writing?

–

Watch for photos of tulips in Washington, DC on May 3.  They are truly spectacular flowers!

Caption: A to Z Challenge Logo

 

When You Hate to Research

That’s me, by the way.  I don’t really enjoy research and am never going to get lost in it and forget to write a novel.  In fact, what Advanced Fiction Writing says is absolutely true:

If you hate research, then [you] are probably not doing enough of it and your fiction writing is going to suffer in various ways.

* Sigh * Yup, it’s true.  It also doesn’t help when I see another writer produce a huge list of questions about details to research and all I want to do is hide because I’ve instantly gotten overwhelmed.  Don’t mistake this — I like some of the information I find because it does inspire creativity, like researching Chinaman’s Hat in Hawaii:

Screen reader: Palm trees and grass frame an island shaped like a hat the Chinese immigrants used to wear.

Butt the process of research is at the opposite end of creativity.  I’d almost rather do proofreading.

Almost.  Proofreading is pretty boring!

So it starts with making the research as efficient as possible.

I have to know exactly what I need.  What I’ve been doing is identifying details in scenes that I need to research.  Like if the scene is set outside, “What are common trees in Hawaii?”

Screen reader: Shot of a monkeypod tree in Hawaii, which resembles an umbrella.

Then all I have to do is bring the list of questions with me and hunt down the information with a fast scan through.  I also have to make sure I take good notes so I don’t have to repeat the research. Been there, didn’t want to do it, but got stuck doing it anyway.  I’ve always had a problem with being able to take useful notes, so I’ve been experimenting with visual note taking.

The time to do the research is also a consideration.  I ran across a reference in a book where a non-fiction writer would do footnotes when he wasn’t feeling particularly inspired.  So I try to do the research when I know I’m probably not going to be writing.  That way, it doesn’t feel like it’s cutting into the writing time.

Do you hate to research?  What do you do to make the process of it less painful?

–

How do you take these three diverse subject — a princess, a boatman, and a lizard — and make them into a story?  My short story “Six Bullets” turns the princess into a soldier who has to fight an army of warriors of a river.  Check out the Forward Motion anthology, A Princess, a Boatman, and a Lizard.

 

The Frugal Novel Researcher

Maybe a few too many books?

How many research horror stories do you have?  I’ve bought books that I’ve never used, made copies of magazines for scenes that ended up being jettisoned from the story, and had to research topics multiple times because of my bad note taking abilities.  Yet, as the sequestration looms on Washington, DC, I may be furloughed.  The writing isn’t stop, but I’m going to have to find ways to cut costs out of things like research.

That means, among other things, not buying books.

Must.  Resist. The. Bookstore.

And it’s easy to buy books.  It doesn’t look like a lot of money.  Until I realize I’ve bought five books on a topic and have spent $100.  Start adding up what you’ve purchased and see what it comes out to.

I think one of the reasons I spent so much on the sources was because I’m a terrible note taker.  I’m visual spatial, so I don’t connect well to the typical note taking methods, nor was I taught how to do it.  I’ve had to start out saving money by learning how to do this part better with visual note taking (which is also a lot of fun!).

But the internet, while free, isn’t always a good source.  Ever gone online for a quick 5-minute search and 1 hour later got back to writing?  Sometimes it’s easy to get distracted, and specific information can be hard to find.

So the local library has been my first resource for research.  It’s pretty close, so if I needed to save on gas, I could walk there (you are tracking your gas mileage when you do research, right?).  I’ve been using a combination of the library’s online catalog and WorldCat, which is a great tool for telling me what library the books are located at.  Sometimes I’ve had to go to other libraries, like the University of Maryland.  But that has additional mileage costs and parking, so I have to make sure that my visits there are a good use of my time (back to taking good notes).

Inter Library Loan has also been a great tool.  It does cost about $3.00 a book, so I still have to look at what I’m spending.  I once made the mistake of getting a book through ILL, and the book turned out to be available in its entirety on Google Books (having been published around 1900).  Worse, it wasn’t helpful.  So, before I order an ILL book, I look around to see if there are other resources I might be able to use.  The result is that I’ve only ordered two books recently because they’re topics I know I’m going to need to spend more than a few hours with the book.

Copies are also one of those things that add up.  I used to copy pages from magazines when I found an article I needed, and for the same reasons as buying books: note taking issues.  Often what would happen is that I’d make the copies, and then the scene that had needed the research would get deleted.  :>

What are your research horror stories?  What to do you do to save money on research?

Links on research for fiction writers

Guns, Drugs, and Elvis: Research tips for novels from Kenyon College

10 Research Tips for Fiction Writers:  Practical tips based on experience from Sheryl Clark.

Researching Details in Fiction: Worth a look alone for the list of links.

 

Thinking smarter and managing writing time

So much is being asked out of writers today.  We not only have to research and write a book, but publishers expect us to blog and use Twitter to help promote it.  But no one talks about how to manage the time for all of these, and the last place you want to be in is figuring out how to manage it with a deadline looming.

When I worked with a cowriter, an agent requested a full.  It was exciting.  I was envisioning that we would be taking the next step in our writing career.  But I told cowriter we needed to come up with methods to finish the book faster because of the publisher’s year deadlines.  Maybe he meant to be supportive, but he dismissed it, saying deadlines could be negotiated.  I had this immediate image in my head:  Him blowing off the deadline and me in a panic .. Read the rest on Unleaded – Fuel for Writers.

 

The Traffic Culture of #WashingtonDC

One of the thing that never makes it in books that are set in Washington, DC, is the traffic.  Anyone who lives here knows it’s not only a way of life — there’s a culture associated with it.  Residents know that it’s best to avoid downtown during Cherry Blossoms, White House Easter Egg Hunts, and floods.  Traffic goes from bad to very, very, very bad.  Summer is also bad because the tourists get stupid and walk out in the middle of the street without looking.  Then there’s the messenger bikes — these guys do not stop for stoplights or cars.  They just weave in and out of the moving traffic.

Part of the problem is that we have a transitory population.  There’s a large military community, so they’re only here 1-2 years; ambassadors and foreign diplomats; politicians.  Then there’s the guy who immigrated from another country where it’s okay there to cut across three lanes of traffic to make a right turn.  There are also drivers who will speed up to avoid letting another driver in and ones who will cut in line because they have an inflated sense of self-importance.  All of this creates chaos because no one is following the same rules.

So I have to shake my head when an author has a high speed chase down 17th Street.  Or anywhere else in DC.  L.A., yeah, I could believe that.  The streets are long and wide, but DC — the streets just aren’t exactly chase friendly. Maybe Pennsylvania Avenue and Independence, but it’d be pretty hard to do without hitting a tourist.

What are some unique aspects about the place where you live?

–

Also check out my post on Planning Washington, DC.

 

The Sounds of Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery is likely to be the setting of at least one scene in my next book Hunger.  So a trip was in order to experience the cemetery.  I’d been before, but it was during summer and crowded with tourists.  This time it was late November.

The most memorable thing: the sounds.  I went right when the cemetery opened and the tourists hadn’t arrived yet, so the sounds stood out.  It started with a suffocating quiet, as if someone were pressing a hand down on the place for silence.

Then the sounds came through, one at a time:

The buzz of a leaf blower.

The wind ruffling the leaves in the trees.

Water spraying against concrete.

The clack of the soldier’s shoes as he pivots in a right face.

A child’s cry as she bounced down some stairs ahead of her parents.

Then the bark of rifle volleys.  One.  Two.  Three.

Drumbeat.

The Star Spangled Banner.

The soft footfalls of rain.

—

Also check out my blog on the 21st Anniversary of Desert Storm: Women at War.

 

Action, Adventure, Earthquake: What Does One Sound Like?

When I was kid, we’d go to the Griffith Park Observatory, which is an exhibit of all things science.  Moon rocks, electricity, and, of course, earthquakes.  There was a seismograph on display, showing all the earthquakes that had occurred in the last day.  Of course, all the kids were jumping up and down in front of that seismograph, trying to “make” an earthquake.

But the seismograph only shows one piece of earthquakes, especially when it comes to describing the experience.  For the research for Miasma, the other experiences were just as important to know:

What the heck does an earthquake sound like?

Surprisingly, while there’s a lot on how earthquakes work and on the damage, there’s not much on the actual experience.  The University of San Diego has a number of recordings made during quakes, all indoors.  We hear objects falling, the screams.

And the fear.

My own experiences with earthquakes are inside buildings, which is different than the setting in Miasma, outside, atop an island similar to Mokolii Island.  Curiously, the most memorable indoor sound I heard was the sound of the house as it moved back and forth. Tick, tick, tick, tick.

Some examples of outdoor earthquake sounds:

Outside, there would still be objects falling — but likely bigger objects.  During Virginia quake, the spires on the National Cathedral fell and landed on the ground.  So, the cracking of the spires as they broke, and the crash as they impacted with the concrete sidewalk.  Didn’t see that, but it’s not hard to imagine.  Brick chimneys always came down during the quakes in L.A.

Cracking sound, too, of concrete and other building materials breaking, metal being torn apart.  That one, unfortunately, is not hard to imagine when seeing pictures like this from the Department of Transportation.

Church bells might start ringing if the quake was big enough.  From National Geographic:

On December 16, 1811, a powerful earthquake jolted the 400 residents of the town of New Madrid, Missouri. The intense tremor set church bells ringing in Boston, Massachusetts—1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away.

People screaming in panic.  Though this experience is indoors, it can be applied anywhere.  When the Tacoma, Washington quake hit (early 90s), one of the female soldiers ran up and down the barracks hallway screaming, “Earthquake! Earthquake!  Earthquake!”  Other people might pray or swear.

A tree branch might creak as it moved — pulling from experiences with high wind.  A sharp crack as it breaks.  Leaves rustling from the movement.

Covering all the senses in an an action scene helps bring to the experience for the reader and make it more vivid.

What do you think fear sounds like?  Tell us about it!

hope you’ll drop in for a visit with my article Writing a Novel When You’re Right-Brained on Vision: A Resource for Writers.

 

Action, Adventure, Earthquakes — 3 Interesting Facts

An earthquake makes a great action scene.  Hollywood’s done a number of movies, including Earthquake and 10.5.  More recently, the TV series Bones had what looked like an earthquake but turned out to be a water main break.  As the shaking starts, Booth says something like, “Washington DC doesn’t have earthquakes.”

A year later Virginia was struck by a 5.8 earthquake that damaged the National Cathedral and the Washington Monument.

Hollywood is all about making the earthquake exciting, so moviegoers see the ground splitting open and then snapping shut after it swallows a hapless Red Shirt.  Or the ground splits open and follows the fleeing heroine (hmm — Didn’t know earthquakes could see and think).  Of course, the reality is quite different.

These are some interesting facts I discovered while researching earthquakes for my contemporary fantasy, Miasma:

Richter Scale

The Richter Scale is no longer used.  According to the Southern California Seismic Center:

Because he [Richter] defined his scale in terms of these torsion seismometers, once these instruments were replaced by more modern equipment, the conversion used to turn seismogram readings into a measure of magnitude was no longer the exact same scale established by Richter in 1935.

Thank goodness fore research.  This would have been easy mistake to make.

Taking Cover

When I was growing up in Southern California, we went through earthquake drills.  One of the things taught was when an earthquake starts to get into a doorway.  That’s now outdated advice, according to the US Geological Society:

In past earthquakes in unreinforced masonry structures and adobe homes, the door frame may have been the only thing left standing in the aftermath of an earthquake. Hence, it was thought that safety could be found by standing in doorways. In modern homes doorways are no stronger than any other parts of the house and usually have doors that will swing and can injure you.

Locations

When the word ‘earthquake’ is mentioned, we immediately think of California.  The state has been the site of several very destructive major quakes — I’ve been in two.  For Miasma, I based my story on Hawaii, and that state has earthquakes.  In the last week, there were 14.  Just for a comparison though, in the same time frame, California had 398!

What kinds of interesting facts have you run across in your research for your book?  Tell me about them!

I hope you’ll drop in for a visit with my article Writing a Novel When You’re Right-Brained on Vision: A Resource for Writers.  I also have a guest blog on setting on Sue Santore’s blog on October 28.