{"id":10343,"date":"2023-03-20T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-20T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10343"},"modified":"2023-03-19T11:25:26","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T15:25:26","slug":"writers-as-fisherfolk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=10343","title":{"rendered":"Writers as Fisherfolk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s stretching a metaphor to call writers fisherfolk, but in for a penny . . . If you can stick with me here, I\u2019d say we cast our nets through research<\/em>. What I like best about the research I do for my short stories and novels is that it gives me ideas, it lets me connect my story to reality, and readers respond because the story seems so \u201creal\u201d to them. Even if a bit of background work gives me only a single word, it will be the mot juste<\/em>. Our net-casting\u2014our research\u2014happens at several levels\u2014trolling for ideas, diving into the facts, and weighing the catch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trolling for Ideas<\/strong> \u2013 When readers ask, \u201cWhere do you get your ideas?\u201d and a writer says \u201ceverywhere,\u201d they mean that every news story, magazine article, museum exhibit, and anecdote goes into that great filing cabinet<\/s> wastebasket in the brain and comes out, maybe, someday, in some form or another. Very likely, it won\u2019t be identical, it may not even be recognizable, but it will be \u201cinspired by.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An example: In my novel, Architect of Courage<\/a><\/em>, the protagonist learns a heinous crime was not the fault of the person he blames, and a police detective wisely advises him to let it go. \u201cThis will be hard to wrap your mind around. It changes things,\u201d the detective says, adding, \u201cTime and again I see people who can\u2019t give up their theories about who\u2019s to blame for a crime. They hang on for dear life.\u201d This idea came from reading an FBI agent\u2019s blog about the British family of a young woman murdered in Perugia, Italy, a crime for which American Amanda Knox was wrongfully convicted. Despite numerous and lengthy legal proceedings and much evidence exonerating Knox, the dead woman\u2019s parents steadfastly believed in her guilt. The psychology of this case, if not the factual situation, bore directly on my thriller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diving into the Facts<\/strong> \u2013 Writing page after page and chapter after chapter requires a different, much more focused type of research. Maps, reference books, photo research, the Internet\u2014all keep the writer out of blooper territory. Are there one-way streets in Brussels? Which way do they run? How long does it take to get from the Hotel Sofitel to the American Embassy by cab? What does the hotel neighborhood look like? My architect protagonist is mostly in Manhattan, but he travels to Brussels and Tarifa, Spain, too. I was amused and flattered when a friend contacted me asking for Brussels travel tips. I\u2019ve never been there. The setting just seemed so real to him. (Success!) The facts I uncovered, in turn, led to new ideas and situations that fostered the story\u2019s development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weighing the Catch<\/strong>\u2013 So, the author has written \u201cThe End.\u201d Is it? Probably not. Now that the story is down on paper and the dilemmas of the plot and characters are solved, what more is there to do? It\u2019s time for the big picture. Beta readers help (think \u201caudience research\u201d). In Architect of Courage<\/a><\/em>, I also needed a more specific review of the way police work. Yes, I watch tv, but on the off-chance its depictions of policing aren\u2019t 100% accurate, I sought help. I spent an afternoon with a former NYPD detective and terrorism expert going over every paragraph and every line of dialog that involved law enforcement. \u201cWould a detective say something like this?,\u201d \u201cIs this how it\u2019s done?,\u201d \u201cDoes this make sense to you?\u201d Blooper-patrol again, though my questions weren\u2019t just about what do cops do, I was hoping for\u2014and received\u2014insights into how they think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your Further Research:<\/strong>
I like Benjamin Sobieck\u2019s The Writer\u2019s Guide to Weapons<\/a><\/em>. It provides \u201cjust enough\u201d information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Need a foreign word? Try the Word Reference website<\/a>\u2014lots of idioms associated with a word, and online forums with native speakers where you can ask questions. Especially helpful with slang. Many languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’ve read Architect of Courage<\/a><\/em> and wonder where something or other came from, feel free to ask! And if you haven’t read it, you can order it here<\/a>. (affiliate link)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s stretching a metaphor to call writers fisherfolk, but in for a penny . . . If you can stick with me here, I\u2019d say we cast our nets through research. What I like best about the research I do … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Research is like fishing for ideas and information to enrich a story and \"lure\" readers (sorry!). ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[174,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-draft-blog","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2GP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10345,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10343\/revisions\/10345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}