Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime
Write what you know or write from research?
I was recently made aware of a book set somewhere I've been on holiday. Apparently the author has never been there but did a lot of online research for her novel: a love story of people marooned on an uninhabited island. For someone who has been to the location it's clear there are some faults in the story (or they could be described as artistic license), and because the author hasn't been there she's unable to describe some aspects well.
Research can sometimes be needed for a story, but is it best to only set a novel somewhere you know, or at least somewhere generic enough that you can write about it? I'd been considering writing a story based on a cruise ship, and eventually decided not to, even if I could find some of the facts I needed for the story, as I've never been on a cruise ship.
Comments
You can get so much from books etc but you can't beat using your own experiences too.
Of course you don't need first hand knowledge of something to use it in writing - but you do risk being slated if you get a detail wrong. You can bet your bottom euro that someone will pounce.
If the location is somewhere as easy to visit as a cruise ship then I think your research should include visiting one (even if you just have lunch on board) For a whole novel set on a particular island, I think it would be sensible to visit. If it was just one scene then maybe reading about the place and seeing pictures would be enough.
Alternatively write about somewhere entirely ficticious so nobody will know the place better than you.
[quote=BuickMackane]purely on research is lazy and actually a bit arrogant[/quote]
Not necessarily. One of my novels is set in Russia in 1942, just as the Germans push for Stalingrad. Unless I can invent a time machine, there is no way of knowing what it was like for both sides. I only have pictures/film of that time, to understand what the landscape looked like, what happened. I've never travelled to the depths of the Urals or the Taiga, but I've researched it. I've had to research every minute thing about the second world war. I've watched and studied film and pictures that contain the most terrible, graphic images in order to get into the mind frame of those involved, because it's impossible for me to be there and be part of it.
[quote=BuickMackane]If a piece of writing is to have soul, then you've got to write from what you know. [/quote]
Again, not always. I wasn't born 70 years ago, so I have to go with research to make the writing real. Being a writer is also about imagination. Use it.
Of course if you make something up then you know all about it. That's the imagination side of it
[quote=Baggy Books]But you don't need to be a murderer to create a murderer...[/quote]
You need to understand the murderer tho
I was offered a job writing a crime novel set in Amsterdam but turned it down because I'd never been there. I think in cases where the book is set somewhere you really need to have gone there.
I tend to agree. The novel I was thinking about when starting this thread displays the research in terms of giving too much detail in certain respects, but is then let down by the lack of personal experience in others.
What about them documentaries by a guy called George Romero? :-)
The whole point of writing is to use your imagination, but you can't say such and such is, when it actually isn't, without someone writing to tell you about it when it's too late to change it.
Then rather than become a murderer, read books about psychology and murderers. In other words, research it.
I recently read a book by Mark Billingham, and while I didn't think the story was fantastic, I was very impressed with the detail. He obviously knew the settings intimately, naming streets and buildings with confidence. As a reader, I was convinced that he had spent time in the actual location penning this part of his novel. I think you can afford this level of dedication as a prestigious, professional writer, however, as 'amateurs', we don't necessarily have the means to lay out the expense of staying in hotels at various locations around the world, or even in our own country.
One of my children's books is set in Scotland. I've been there only once, years ago, but I can still 'see' it in my mind. I have steered clear of naming specific towns and have taken the liberty of inventing a location, but, all the same, I think it has a believable 'Scottish' feel to it.
My book for children is set in Ancient Egypt and although I wasn't there ( not in this life anyway:)) I feel that it has certainly helped that I have actually been to the places that I am writing about and some haven't changed that much really.
I expect your Egyptian connections also help in terms of giving you a good author profile.