I just finished a three-day inaugural city-wide event in Garland, Texas, which featured my first Tucker Snow novel, Hard Country. This great honor was calledOne Book – One Garland, and was a gathering of readers and book clubs that culminated with a meet the author night, an in-conversation interview between myself and a former student who is now the Director ofCommunications for one of Texas’ largest school districts, and my typical avant garde writing workshop.
My workshops aren’t hands-on critique, practice events, but adiscussion of writing, research, the challenges I’ve experienced and overcome, and tips to polish would-be authors’ work. It was a fluid discussion that hopefully answered most of the questions from over thirty attendees.
I surprised them at the outset. “What do you want to know or hear about?”
Those who’d been to workshops tilted their heads at me like a dog looking at a new pan. This was something new.
That opened the dance to a variety of questions about writing, and comments on Hard Country. One lady made my head swell enough to need a new, larger hat. “I was impressed by the amount of detail in your books. I’ve read most of them since I discovered your work and wanted to say the specifics in your novels makes me part of your story. I grew up in those areas you write about, and the wonder how much research you do to make them so realistic and interesting.”
I had to think about that one. Growing up in the areas I write about brings that sense of reality she was talking about, and the little tidbits I learned growing up adds to the rich stew of fiction. And speaking of senses, writers should use all five in their novels without making it obvious they want readers to smell, feel, or see. But what she thought was weeks of research boiled down to reading and listening to the radio.
The idea for one major twist in Hard Country came fully formed from listening to the radio, and a program by local radio host Ed Wallace, who talked about that for a few minutes one lazy Saturday morning before moving on to another topic.
It happens when my protagonists discover that vehicles now are so advanced they download all the information on your phones the minute a driver starts the engine. That info includes online purchases, music preferences, and internet searches. They also gather information about driving habits, braking, speeding, and even each time a driver swerves in their own lane of travel.
The initial plot for Hard Country (and more realistic details) came from years of dealing with a meth house across the gravel road from our family ranch. More reality on this subject came when the meth-heads stole my brother-in-law’s farm truck and it downloaded the contents of their phone, allowing law enforcement officers to trace the theft back to the theft.
The attendee at the workshop was most interested in facts and wondered how much time I spent researching everything I included in the novel.
Not as much as you think, though she thought I’d absorbed tons of material. You can spend as much time as you want in research, but it’s easy to disappear down a rabbit hole and waste valuable writing time.
We don’t have to become experts on automotive downloads, or as in the case of the second Tucker Snow, The Broken Truth, naturally occurring radioactive materials, or NORM, which comes from drilling for oil in west Texas. I stumbled across that interesting aspect of my story when we purchased land in Northeast Texas and found there were mildly radioactive drill rods on the property. Other than a discussion with an experienced NORM board member and a few minutes on the internet, that’s all I needed, except for imagination.
You can put too much information in a novel, to the point the pace slows and readers skip paragraphs or pages. Years ago, I got tired of reading Tom Clancy and Dale Brown, because I felt I was reading training manuals. All I need is a little info to make the story real and valid in a reader’s mind, and told the lady in class I collect just enough facts and anecdotes to make the story real.
In the case of my contemporary, traditional, and horror westerns, the history I include comes mostly from reading both fiction and nonfiction books on the old west. I read Larry McMutrty’s westerns of course, and all of Louis L’Amour’s novels. But more recent works helped shape the reality of West Texas, North Texas, and Eastern Oklahoma, in the case of The Journey South.
I gleaned details from Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne (nonfiction), Mike Blakely’s Comanche Dawn (fiction), and Buffalo Trail (fiction), by Jeff Guinn, and Comanche Midnight (nonfiction), by Stephen Harrigan, to name only a few. Within the past couple of weeks, I’ve collected more historical information from two fascinating books, The Beauty of the Days Gone By, Jason Stone (and I can’t recommend this excellent book enough!) and Charles Goodnight by J. Evers Haley.
Another workshop attendee mentioned my character backgrounds and wondered if I spent much time writing full biographies on those I create. The answer was no. They walk on at the right time, fully formed, and I discover their histories and backgrounds a little piece at a time as the plot progresses.
Think of it as meeting someone at a cocktail party, asking a few questions, and the listening as they reveal their own histories and backgrounds. However, we discussed those authors who prefer to create extensive biographies to further their understanding of the characters they’ve created. Either works, and both are effective!
Of course, the one writing rule I emphasized was that there’s no rules in writing, and they all wrote that down.
“You can spend as much time as you want in research, but it’s easy to disappear down a rabbit hole and waste valuable writing time.”
My dad, a retired Naval aviator, and hence a perfectionist, spent years researching—rabbit chasing as it were—a particular individual and everything possible about his eighteenth-century seafaring world, and barely any time actually writing his historical fictionalization of this privateer’s amazing story (outside of an impressive series of outlines).
I think that OCD-ness led to a “fear” that he wasn’t up to the idea, to missing that one thing, and had to have everything 100% accurate before moving on with the story.
He left mounds of notes and photocopies and books, but very little in way of actual story…
Similarly I’ve come to realize reading about “how to” is not really doing, and after a few good craft or instruction manuals anything else is just deflection and procrastination – and perhaps the same fear of failing the idea.
But if I don’t do something – anything – with that idea, then that’s 100% failing it before finding out whether it really was worth pursuing and where it might lead.
I love to read nonfiction, and that often makes its way into my works. Just listening to radio programs works for me, too.
All that info just sits there in the back of my mind until the plot calls for those tidbits to be integrated into the story.
Thanks for the reference to some of these historical titles. When doing research, I think the Amazon summary blurb for “The Beauty of the Days Gone By” serves as a word of caution. When you read the beginning of the summary for this book, it sounds like it’s a non-fiction piece on Charles Goodnight. It’s not until near the end of this blurb that it’s mentioned that this is a work of FICTION. Indeed, if you read some of the reviews for the book, the reviewer was unclear whether they were reading fic or nonfic.
I believe we can glean historical info from both fic and nonfic, but I believe there is an obligation to be clear about which a particular work is. I happen to love falling down the rabbit hole of research, but I don’t want it to be made more difficult by murky sales pitches.
That’s true, but that novel reads like nonfiction. It’s a wonderful example of what I’m talking about here.
Reader beware, I’ve read nonfiction that read like fiction.
I was looking for a Mexican Cartel location for one of my Blackthorne opening gambits, and ran across an article about how the cartels were kidnapping American engineers to build them cell phone tower/networks. Totally scrapped my original idea for that book and DANGEROUS CONNECTIONS was born. Did I do much research beyond that. No. All I needed was the premise.
I’m with you, Rev, on not worrying about character histories until I need something. Why waste time on astrological signs, siblings, pets until they’re needed in the story?
Just one question, Sir:
Do you ever journey to the Pacific Northwest area for conferences? That’d be great!
🙂
Good Saturday to you…
I love to! Vacationed up there more than once. Maybe someone needs a guest of honor?
Rev, your methods of character and plot development are similar to mine. I get to know characters as the story progresses and I see how they react to circumstances I throw at them. They often surprise me, which is always fun. The subconscious is a big playground of everything I’ve experienced, read, or heard about. When something’s needed, it pops up, although not necessarily at the right moment. .
Oral histories are great research sources, too. People who lived in the time or place and describe everyday details. Some can be deadly dull but then I stumble over a gold nugget detail that brings the story to life.
While you’re up visiting Deb in the PacNW, take a right turn and you’re always welcome at my writing group in Montana.
Yeah!!
Young writers are missing the life experiences that bring characters to life, for the most part. Some, however, have fantastic imaginations that fill in the blanks.
Y’all stay cool up there in the north country.
Sounds like a great workshop! I’d love to be in one of yours, just to hear you talk about writing. 🙂
I do have to know a little something about my main character, like what they fear and what they would never do. Then I set up situations where they have to decide if they’re going to do it or not. Writing is such a fun thing…sometimes. Thanks for a great post.
You’re welcome, and all this is great fun. Create characters and watch them go!
Your workshops sound wonderful, Rev. They remind me of the one I took in 2009 from thriller writer David Morrell. Friday evening he talked about working in Hollywood as his novel “First Blood” became the movie “Rambo,” following this in the all-day workshop on Saturday with advice on finding our own writing process, discussing fiction craft and his own novel writing process, and finishing with people reading openings from WIPs and David leading us in giving thoughtful, reader feedback.
Way back in the 1990s I attended a panel on mystery fiction at a local sci-fi convention and the moderator led by saying he strongly believed that people read mystery fiction to learn something. I
n hindsight, I disagree. I feel people read mystery fiction because they love mysteries first, and enjoy engaging, quirky characters, and then, immersing themselves in a world where, yes, they can learn something.
But that follows, it isn’t the primary reason someone picks up a mystery IMHO. YMMV of course, but, personally, if my goal first and foremost is to learn about a subject, I’ll read a non-fiction book on it.
*in hindsight*. Dang accidental line break 🙂