Tag Archive for: #writer research

Road Research

By Barbara J. Eikmeier

My favorite place to find details for a story is on a road trip.

My regular job is presenting programs about quilts to small and regional quilt guilds. Bookings take me off the main highways to “Blue Roads”, through tiny communities and sometimes even down dirt roads. Ninety percent of the time I travel alone.

Once my GPS is set for my destination and snacks and water bottle are within easy reach, there is one last item to put in place before hitting the road – my notebook.

Over the years I have filled great piles of these notebooks with lecture notes, story starters, to-do lists, quilt patterns, rough drafts and travel notes. I don’t journal daily, although I admire those of you who do. I just make notes. My notebooks are sloppy. I seldom keep the script on the line but if I’m striving to hit the line, I prefer wide-rule over college rule so I have plenty of space for the letters that loop below the line. I really love letters that loop below the line. I have a memory from kindergarten of writing my name in the proper upper right hand corner of the paper. I started with a B and ended with an A but in between I used all sorts of letters – especially g and j because they looped below the line. My teacher didn’t think I knew how to write my name. I did. It’s just that it was so long and only used three letters repeated over and over, yet there were so many fantastic letters to choose from on the ABC chart that wrapped around the classroom. As an adult I opted for Barbara J. Eikmeier as my legal name because with all those letters in my long name, only my middle initial loops below the line!

When heading out on a trip, my notebook, wide rule or college rule, it doesn’t matter because I won’t be using the lines, is positioned on the passenger seat. As I drive I notice landmarks, brown sign historical markers, the names of rivers and creeks: Bee Creek, Wolf Creek, The Mississippi River!

Keeping my eyes on the road, I write without looking: Kalona Creamery, MO mile marker 48 – look up round barn.

My notes include clever place names that I can use in my stories: The name a of a beauty shop in western Kansas became the name of the diner in my current novel.

When I stop to rest or get fuel I take my notebook inside with me. I’ve sat in McDonald’s, Subway restaurants and  truck stops making notes about the man with snow white hair cut as if a bowl had been place on his head, the young kid behind the counter who was overly friendly – acting as if I liked him enough I might take him with me, and the trucker with the huge tattoos up and down his muscular arms that spelled out PUGSLEY in great Gothic lettering. What does Pugsley mean? It doesn’t matter – I can make something up as long as I have a note to jog my memory.

I record snippets of conversations, especially local dialects and topics like the old guys discussing the price of beans over coffee and a breakfast burrito at their local gas station where three cafe tables line the wall along the windows – the only breakfast eatery for miles. And I’m a huge fan of local bulletin boards with notifications of missing pets or persons, items for sale, local fundraisers, estate sales and funeral announcements. A writer can extract a lot of interesting details from a bulletin board in a gas station!

Periodically I will skim through a notebook or two and re-write or type an entry. I usually remember what I’ve written about, (and where it was and when) when re-reading my scribbling that either runs sideways in bold print, or neat script with lovely loopy letters. A psychologist in a writing class once said it was a hand/brain correlation that helps us remember things we’ve written.

The back to school supplies are dwindling. Soon the notebooks, folders and 12 packs of #2 pencils will be relegated to the office supply aisle until next year. It’s my reminder to stock up on another stack of spiral bound notebooks.

How do you keep track of tidbits you notice on a road trip? Do you also love spiral bound notebooks?

Barbara J. Eikmeier is a quilter, writer, student of quilt history, and lover of small-town America. Raised on a dairy farm in California, she enjoys placing her characters in rural communities.

Tripping Over Research

 By Kathryn Lane

Planning a research trip!

Research is a must for scientists and academic writers who
either “publish or perish”. And it’s also a 
necessary activity for people who
pen non-fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction.

But what about genre writers?

To me, authenticity is important in novels. Without it,
readers lose interest. Plot, characters, setting, and time period are important
elements that often should be augmented with research. For example, a character
with a particular illness must be presented authentically, so research of
symptoms and treatments could be important.

Sagrada Familia Basilica 

As a suspense and mystery author, I delve into police
procedures, murder weapons, guns and how to use
 them, and even the interior of
ambulances. Settings form an important element in my novels
I often place my stories in foreign countries. To make the
reader feel they are experiencing that locale, I do online research. Before
completing a manuscript, I take a trip, camera in tow, to check out my
locations. I want to verify I’ve described the environment as accurately as
possible, including geography, culture, architecture, historical facts, or even
practical items such as how the police are organized in another country.

Before completing my last novel, Revenge in Barcelona,
my husband and I traveled to Spain. We spent time imbibing the culture, sampling
the food, verifying historical tidbits, and touring architectural sites I’d built
into the story. Plus a friend in Barcelona set up a meeting with an
antiterrorism agent (who remained anonymous) to discuss the various police and
counterterrorism forces working in Catalonia, the part of Spain where the tale
happens.

Cave
Art from Aurignac

Early in the manuscript, I had protagonist Nikki Garcia and
her fiancé visit Franco-Cantabrian
caves containing paleolithic art. I’d built scenes where the
antagonist followed them, just out of sight, through these isolated parks. I’d
personally visited the caves to get them right. While editing the manuscript, I
realized the cave section did not fit the story or add real intrigue. It was an
information dump. So I cut that adventure, retaining only a couple of passing mentions
to the antiquity of cave art since it’s in keeping with Nikki’s character and
her love of ancient archaeological history.

How did I realize I had an info dump? Following my rule that
research incorporated into fiction should be balanced, I’d highlighted my
research in yellow as I wrote to keep track of it. Upon editing the work, the
unnecessary research popped out
I was literally tripping over my
research.

***

Have you
ever researched so intensely that you’ve incorporated an information dump into
your writing?

                                                                                ***

Photo credits: Map – courtesy of
glenn-carstens-peters-ZWD3Dx6aUJg-unsplash.

Façade of
Sagrada Familia Basilica, Cave Art from Aurignac, and Nikki Garcia Trilogy by
Kathryn Lane. 

                                                                        

Kathryn’s
books

The Nikki Garcia Mystery Series and her short story collection – Backyard
Volcano.
All available on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082H96R11

Kathryn Lane started out as a starving artist. To earn a
living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a career in
international finance with a major multinational corporation. After two
decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery and
suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from
her Mexican background as well as her travels
in over ninety countries.

https://www.kathryn-lane.com

https://www.facebook.com/kathrynlanewriter/