One of the questions I’m usually asked when I talk about my
novel, Missing Emily: Croatian LifeLetters, is “Have you ever been to Croatia?” I have never been to Croatia.
But I found photos of the area of the country in which my story took place and
used those while writing. I also have a good friend from Croatia who I spent
several afternoons with talking about Croatia and her experience during the
civil war there in the early 1990s. With her permission, many of the descriptions
and storylines from Nada’s story came directly from her.
With a story like Missing
Emily, it is probably quite obvious that at least some degree of research
was involved. But what some readers may not realize is that there is some
degree of research involved in every book, even poetry collections. For
example, I wrote the vast majority of poems in Crush and Other Love Poems for Girls while I was a teen or pre-teen
(although they went through extensive revision before going into the book). To
find the poems, I went back to my writings and journals from that period of my
life and harvested the poems I’d written at that time. I also went to the
bookstore to see if there were any poetry books for pre-teen and teen girls;
finding none, I went ahead with the idea.
I completed similar research for my most recent poetry
collection, The Other Side of Crazy.
When I journal, I often simply write down whatever comes into my head,
sometimes without even realizing the words have any meaning. I also write down
snippets – one or two poetic lines. When I was putting together the initial
poems for that collection, I reread my journals to look for material. I had
some poems that were poems I wanted
to include, but I also found poems. Some of them resulted from the random
musings I didn’t find any meaning in until I went back and reviewed them. Some
of them were spurred by the snippets, either into their own poems or combined
into a poem.
My current project, a novel, is another in which the
presence of research will be obvious. It is set in 1859 to 1861, Camanche,
Iowa. Though I grew up in Camanche, I had to research to take it back in time.
I’ve completed extensive historical research through books, newspapers, and the
internet, covering Camanche, specifically, but the time period and Iowa
generally as well. I also completed character research wherein I searched for
and found old photographs of each of my main characters. They are on a magnet
board in front of me so as I’m writing, I can always keep their appearances in
mind.
I also recently took a “walk the ground” trip. I went to
Camanche, parked, and walked nearly five miles over all the areas where my
characters would have walked. I had a map of as near to the time period as I could
find and superimposed the current street names and landmarks. I took photos and
many notes, finding the exact spot of my main character’s home and the places
she frequented. This research is invaluable because now, when I write, the
setting is crystal clear in my mind.
When you talk to authors, you will likely find that in
addition to enjoying words, writing, and stories, they also enjoy research. As
you read, try to think of some ways in which research may have been needed to
create the book. With a well-crafted book, it may not be obvious because the
research will be weaved in with the story so well, it might seem as if the
author had been there. But they may not have; it may just be a result of
extensive and quality research.
