Hello adventurers! It’s that time again — another update on my fiction work in progress, and what I’m learning in the process of this thing we can banging out a novel.
If you’ve missed the first few posts in the series, you can catch up here:
I set out my goals and come up with a timeline.
I finally learn to outline, and fall a little bit in love with Scrivener
Unsurprisingly, historical novels require a lot of research. I’ve found some unexpected places where that happens.
I run into a stumbling block because I’m not making enough time to write.
So, with all that said, what have I been doing the last few weeks?
I’ve been working on some on-the-ground research.
Write that Novel: One the Ground Research
No, sadly, not literally on the ground. I have not been traveling to London (though it’s on my To Do in the Next Two Years list).
But I have been researching the environments that my characters are chasing a murderer through. And let me tell you, it’s been educational in a number of ways.
Why You Need On the Ground Research
More than one person has expressed surprise that I’m doing this sort of research. After all, many of my potential readers will know nothing about London. They’ll have no idea whether my characters are living where they should, much less taking the appropriate amount of time to get from point A to point B.
So why bother?
1. I expect it of myself. If I’m going to write this thing, I’m going to write it right. Sure, not every agent or publisher or reader will care about high levels of accuracy. But I care. So I’m going to do it.
2. People will notice. Not everyone, but there will always be people who know the area I’m writing about. They may not have an encyclopediac knowledge of London neighborhoods, but they will be able to tell when something doesn’t seem right.
And of course, if someone who lives or has ever lived there were to pick up my work, I want them judging it based on the story and the writing, not getting distracted because my characters were somehow able to cover a distance of five miles on foot in three minutes.
3. It makes the story better. If I know the geography of the place I’m writing about, and I incorporate that into my writing, then everything will seem more real. Whether or not my readers know that I’m being accurate, they will be able to sense that everything in my created world (and historical fiction is always a created world, even if it’s based on the real one as much as possible) fits together and makes sense.
If everything is right, though, the majority of readers probably won’t notice. And that’s okay — it’s better if they don’t.
By making the setting an integral part of the world, I let it fade into the background, rather than distracting from the story.
How to Research Real Places When You Can’t Travel There
Since my story takes place in the past, rather than the modern day, and I’m writing in about a place I don’t live, I have to get creative with my sources.
1. Pinterest. I’ve talked about the mapping feature on Pinterest before, but it bears mentioning again. I love being able to create a map specifically of locations that my characters go. It’s a great way to visualize things.
2. Other novels. I’ve read a lot of historical fiction that takes place in London, much of it in the 50 years either side of the times I’m writing in. This gives me a good starting knowledge of the geography of London, as well as how that geography relates to social class and activity.
3. Google maps. When my characters are traveling from point A to point B, I like to check it on Google maps. That way, I can make sure that they’re taking a realistic time to get there. I’ve also used it to figure out things like which police office would be closest to my characters’ homes so that I can send them to the right location.
4. Google Earth. This was a big thing a few years ago, but you might not have known that it’s still around. You can download the app and then travel from your desktop. I do have to be careful, since I’m writing about 200 years ago, but luckily in a place like London the layout of the city is pretty reliably the same.
Personally, it drives me a little nuts when writers mess with real geography in their novels. Truth can be stretched a little bit for the sake of fiction, but at some point it becomes distracting. And with all the tools available online, there’s no reason not to do your research!
Have you ever had to get creative to research a project?
What tools did you use?
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