Book writing – how far does author research need to go? -

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Joe McCoubrey

15 Jul 2012, 08:46 AM | Post: #1

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Book writing – how far does author research need to go?

It is self-evident that the more an author puts into a story, the more a reader will get out of it. Solid research will underpin the credibility of what lies between the covers of a book but and help build the trust of readers.

Research leads to writer-confidence in relating key information or capturing the atmosphere of a setting. More than that, it informs the reader by adding to his/her knowledge bank (no matter how subliminal). To do it properly, however, requires a balanced approach and an eye for what is important as opposed to what can be little more than window dressing.

I was once told that just because you know the detail of something doesn’t mean you have to bore the pants of everyone by telling them how clever you are. It’s all very well, for example, that you may know the precise calibrations and mathematic formulae for manufacturing a car engine but do your readers really want to spend time reading about it in a romantic novel, or, for that matter, any other kind of novel? SEE MORE AT: http://joemccoubrey.com...

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alexroddie Reading "Pompomberry House" by Rosen Trevithick

17 Jul 2012, 08:58 AM | Post: #2

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RE: Book writing – how far does author research need to go?

(15 Jul 2012 08:46 AM)Joe McCoubrey Wrote: I was once told that just because you know the detail of something doesn’t mean you have to bore the pants of everyone by telling them how clever you are. It’s all very well, for example, that you may know the precise calibrations and mathematic formulae for manufacturing a car engine but do your readers really want to spend time reading about it in a romantic novel, or, for that matter, any other kind of novel?

In my opinion that's the real key. I write historical fiction, and to me I would be doing an irresponsible job as an author if I didn't know as much as could be known about my time period. I don't limit my research to just the material I definitely need for my story. I allow myself to digress and pursue fascinating little sidelines. It all takes a lot longer, but if in the end I have obtained a more rounded and complete general view, it translates to a richer story. I feel that I have to know as much as I can possibly know. For me, research definitely takes longer than actually drafting the story.

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alexroddie Reading "Pompomberry House" by Rosen Trevithick

17 Jul 2012, 09:26 AM | Post: #3

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RE: Book writing – how far does author research need to go?

In fact here's a good example of the lengths I'm prepared to go to in order to do my research:

http://glencoemountaineer.blogspot.co.uk...

This is a collection of blog entries on a research campaign I carried out between July 2010 and March 2011 (the Raeburn Project). The goal was to experience at first hand what it must have been like to be an ice climber in the 1890s in Scotland. I built an ice axe accurate to the design of the period (from scratch), and also went to considerable trouble and expense building my period mountaineering boots (leather-soled with Tricouni nails for grip, almost impossible to find nowadays!) I then conducted a number of snow and ice climbs in the mountains above Glencoe using the equipment.

I like to think that this project, as well as being a wonderful and enlightening experience in its own right, translated to results. It certainly made writing The Only Genuine Jones much easier!

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alawston Reading The Cambridge List - Robert Clear

17 Jul 2012, 10:59 AM | Post: #4

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RE: Book writing – how far does author research need to go?

I'm such a naughty researcher. I was talking about this in an interview the other day - if I'm writing a period novel, then I'm happy to look into the broad strokes of history, politics and society, but when it comes into those nitty-gritty "how long would it take a soldier's infected leg wound to turn septic and kill him" kind of details, I do just make stuff up that sounds about right.

Talking about costumes and fashion in the Doctor Who episode "The Girl in the Fireplace", producer Russell T Davies said something that resonated with me. I may be paraphrasing, but the gist was: "You want to make sure everything's broadly accurate for the period, but if you obsess too much into the detail, you find you've picked the one year where everything looked rubbish." I've shied away from being a stickler for detail ever since.

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LindaGruchy Reading The Chandelier Ballroom by Elizabeth Lord

17 Jul 2012, 01:25 PM | Post: #5

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RE: Book writing – how far does author research need to go?

In one of my novels (currently with my agent) I picked a year when nobody knows who the Governor of Britain was, wrote the thing, then went back to add in his name when I decided to add more material. Sad

And the more research I did, the more incorrect and inconsistent work I found out there, though those were popular books not academic works.

The more research I did re the law the more complicated things got, to the extent that I wiondered if I should do a law degree just toi write a novel which might never be published. And then the law gets changed. And the law is dufferent in Scotland so people think you've got it wrong anyway.

Two coppers will tell you contradictory things. Another will be out of date becasue it's not his area of expertise.

Then you find other people who are very successful writers have played fast and loose with procedure, or Holywood has played fast and loose with historical fact.

If you have an academic background like me, there is a tendency to fret over the details. Other people don't worry and write just as good a novel.

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leep

21 Jul 2012, 09:33 AM | Post: #6

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RE: Book writing – how far does author research need to go?

Exceptions to every rule, but if the average person doesn't know the answer then the story comes first and you can either make up something that sounds feasible or bend the truth to fit.

An example I can remember off the top of my head is one of the Indiana Jones films (last one I think), where he travels to Europe on a plane a couple of years before transatlantic flights were run and returns on a Zeppelin a year or two after they stopped. Most people would never have known that and they (at least the second) add to the story.

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Jennie Lee Reading The Razor's Edge -- Somerset Maugham

22 Jul 2012, 04:22 AM | Post: #7

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RE: Book writing – how far does author research need to go?

I'm a stickler for accuracy. If you have a hundred correct facts and one unfortunate inaccuracy through lack of research, readers are inclined to remember the mistake and be a bit hesitant to purchase your next book.

Speaking of the 100:1 ratio, sometimes 100 pages of research is required for one page worth of inclusion. But that 1% will shine because of ALL your background knowledge.

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alawston Reading The Cambridge List - Robert Clear

23 Jul 2012, 09:09 AM | Post: #8

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RE: Book writing – how far does author research need to go?

(22 Jul 2012 04:22 AM)Jennie Lee Wrote: I'm a stickler for accuracy. If you have a hundred correct facts and one unfortunate inaccuracy through lack of research, readers are inclined to remember the mistake and be a bit hesitant to purchase your next book.

That's true... as long as the readers in question notice the mistake. In my first published short story (a Doctor Who charity anthology way back in 1999 and long out of print), I probably took outrageous liberties with ballistics and military protocol and all sorts of things, but the only mistake people noticed was that a person in freefall managed to catch up with the similarly free-falling TARDIS. And they only noticed that because everyone had pointed out the same error in Goldeneye a few years previously.

The trouble is, that was a deliberate mistake! The whole story had been conceived, pitched and written as a pastiche of Bond opening sequences...

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LindaGruchy Reading The Chandelier Ballroom by Elizabeth Lord

23 Jul 2012, 10:13 AM | Post: #9

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RE: Book writing – how far does author research need to go?

I have just read a DTB first published 1988, "Death of an Outsider" by MC Beaton. It's supposed to be darkly humorous police procedural, and it is mildly funny in places. It's all reportage, which means I didn't feel very engaged with the characters, and the author has got her facts seriously wrong. It's starts end of January in Scotland when Maggie T was Prime Minister, and seems like it belongs to the 1950s with police houses etc. Mayvbe my memory is wrong, maybe things are behind timesup in Scotland. I could forgive the author t6hat, but only in a cosy6y, not a police procedural.

What spoiled it for me was this passage, "A bomb had gone off in 10 Downing Street. Intended to kill the Prime Minister it had not succeeded but it had killed two members of the Cabinet, a policeman, two detectives and a messenger... etc... Hurricane Bertha had struck the Clyde Estuary. Ships had gone down, people had been killed by flying slates... etc etc".

I didn't remember either of these, so I googled. The closest I can get is October 1987 Great Storm and the mortar attack 1991, or the Brighton Bombing. All the wrong date.

At first I thought this was some US writer with a poor grasp of English news as it was first published in America but no, Beaton is British.

It's wrong, so wrong to mangle history like that even in a cosy. It spoiled the wholer story for me because it smacks of disrespect for the reader if an author can't be bothered to get basic facts right, fa cts which actually did not really pertain to the story.

In crime you often end up having to play fast and loose with Procedure or the storyt becomes so bogged down in fact as to be unreadable. Also thwere are some things which should remain undisclosed to the public for operational reasons, so research doesn't always bear fruits.

And there are some things you don't know you don't know unless yuoui are a studfent of certain oestoteric facts, eg in Gladiator School I tried to find out the actual legal position of my protagonist in AD 107 and the academics I asked didn't know that fact, would have had to ask colleagues, and suggested that most readers would not know if I got it wrong, and those who did would forgive me if I had tried hard to get the majority of facts right (Gladiator School or Gladiatrix as my agent wants to call it, is with my agent just now.)

Having whinged about Beaton's high-handedness with false facts I then went on to read three more, and they were very enjoyable in a cosy, Agatha Christie sort of way, but only because I'd picked them all up second hand. If I hadn't got them I would not have bought them because I was really miffed about the pseudohistory.

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alexroddie Reading "Pompomberry House" by Rosen Trevithick

23 Jul 2012, 10:36 AM | Post: #10

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RE: Book writing – how far does author research need to go?

(23 Jul 2012 10:13 AM)LindaGruchy Wrote: It's wrong, so wrong to mangle history like that even in a cosy. It spoiled the wholer story for me because it smacks of disrespect for the reader if an author can't be bothered to get basic facts right, fa cts which actually did not really pertain to the story.

Not sure I necessarily agree. As an historical fiction author I mangle facts left, right, and centre to get a better story--but I think the key is to be honest with the readers. My books don't even pretend to be historically correct in this respect (they're very much speculative fiction, almost fantasy based in a loose framework of reality). However, I'm very careful with things like street addresses, food types etc. I think it all depends on what kind of book it is...

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