It is
absolutely true that if you are writing fiction, you can create your
masterpiece whole cloth without a stitch
of research and, most likely, get away with it. I am not saying go ahead and
put forth your best effort sans the
appropriate effort, far from it. It has always been one of my rules to
exhaustively study upon the subject I decide to write about. Okay, more of
guideline than a rule, but let’s not be picky.
A couple of
years ago I was writing a book called Living
Legend set in ancient Greece. I could have taken the well-traveled road,
winging it until the end and I probably would’ve gotten away with it. Probably.
The problem
was my own stubborn pride and my sense of what’s right. If I wrote something
about ancient Greece that didn’t jibe and got caught, or worse yet, caught
myself, I would have been both mortified and enraged (at my inherent laziness,
of course). It was my ‘Ah-ha’ moment in writing, when I realized that research
was important for the creation my world, my art. I also came to the conclusion
that it would be insulting to the reader to half-ass the endeavor. The worst
thing I could do (besides committing a gross act of violence) was to treat the
reader like a simpleton.
Despite
what MSNBC, CNN, and FOX news would have you believe, most people are as smart
or smarter than the average bear and are pretty quick to spot a slacker.
Research is the key to world building, to avoiding logic traps and to adding
depth to a story, bringing it to rich life with not only the addition of
detail, but the correct detail. The
art of storytelling requires, no demands,
that we as authors summon the energy for competent research.
Look, I’m
old enough (no comments from the peanut gallery, please) to remember when we
didn’t have the Internet with Wikipedia at our fingertips, not to mention the
thousands of other websites perfectly suitable for data mining. Back in my day (yeah, I said it), it was books,
books and more books. Encyclopedia Britannica was my best friend an the local
public library was my home. Now there is no excuse not to at least head to
Google, type in what you’re looking for and hit RETURN. Life in the Digital Age
is a lot kinder to us wordsmiths. In fact, as far as research goes, it is virtually
ideal, so there is no reason not to perform due diligence for our readers.
‘Nuff said.
Mark
Everett Stone is the author of The Judas
Line and the BSI Series that begins with Things to do in Denver when you’re Un-dead.
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