During my schooldays, my most favorite assignment was to write a report. The subject matter was of no consequence, and the longer the page requirement the better.
But the best part about report writing was the research.
In those days, research meant going to the library – the internet wasn’t even a glimmer in Al Gore’s eye (unless he was a very precocious teenager and I sincerely doubt that.) Yes, although I loved the writing part of the assignment, the going-to-the-library, looking-stuff-up in books and magazines was the penultimate treat.
Nowadays I read a lot of historical fiction, and I’ve become a fan of biographical fiction – fictional treatments of historical figures. The best of these books bring real people to life in a fascinating way, and as I read them, I marvel at the way the authors take what must be months of research and bring it to life through imagined situations and dialogue.
That is some research, I think, after finishing books like Hemingway’s Girl, The Aviator’s Wife, and A Good Hard Look. It’s clear that the authors must relish research as much as I once did, but the enormous amount required to complete a novel project of that nature is daunting to say the least.
I started wondering how they went about it. So I did some research.
Ericka Robuck (Hemingway’s Girl) was inspired to write her novel by a visit to Hemingway’s home in Key West, Florida. “I spend about 4 months researching my subject without writing a word,” Robuck wrote, “and then ideally I start writing without allowing myself to get side-tracked. I visited the house and Key West several times for setting research, and read numerous biographies and all of Hemingway’s work, and spent time at the JFK Museum in Boston at the Hemingway Archive. Ninety percent of his photographs, journals, letters, and manuscripts are there, and provide an excellent resource for getting to know and understand Hemingway.” (Robuck’s new bio-fic novel, Call Me Zelda, about Zelda Fitzgerald, releases in May.)
Melanie Benjamin (The Aviator’s Wife) confesses that she does her research in a very “unscientific” way. “I look at a life, I read enough about it to give me a good solid foundation. Then I pick and choose the details that will make a compelling novel – knowing that I will be leaving out, or not fully exploring, many of the stories that make up a remarkable life. I allow myself to ask the what ifs. I look at a life, even one that’s as documented as Anne’s (Morrow Lindbergh) and I see the hidden corners, the locked closets; I wonder what she didn’t tell us. I never take anything on face value; I’m always seeing things that others don’t, even in the most mundane, every day objects. I have learned that too much research can stifle my creativity, so it’s always a balance for me; I need to learn the basic facts, get a sense of the time and place, but if I lose myself too much in the research I find I can’t imagine the things I need to, in order to write a compelling novel with fascinating characters. My imagination is my greatest strength as a novelist – not my ability to research! For me, I don’t spend too much time worrying about physical details; it’s the emotional journey that fascinates me.”
Ann Napolitano’s novel, A Good Hard Look, features writer Flannery O’Connor as a main character among a cast of other strong characters. Napolitano admits she was “fearful that I would portray her (O’Connor) inaccurately. To conquer that fear, I read everything I could get my hands on. I re-read Flannery’s stories, her essays and two novels; I read the one existing biography on her, and several critical essays about her work; I flew to Atlanta, rented a car and drove to Milledgeville. I visited Andalusia, her farm (which is now a museum) and walked all over town. I was only there for about thirty hours, but that visit was crucial. Milledgeville had to be real to me, so I could make it real for the reader. Sitting on Flannery’s front porch, and smelling the air there – I don’t think I could have re-created her world without spending that time in her space.”
I don’t know whether I have what it takes to complete the kind of research necessary to write an entire book of historical fiction, but it was fun reading about how the professionals do it.
How about you? Do you enjoy research? Do you employ much research in your writing?
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I just saw Ericka Robuck speak . . . the story of her book was so fascinating. . . If you loved it, too, I’ll have to get a copy.
Great post! Thanks so much for including me. I do love research.
I love doing research. I think it’s why I enjoy genealogy so much. Right now I’m completing a family history/genealogy project for my brother-in-law whose ancestors came from Germany three generations ago. The research on this has been fascinating. He knows nothing about his lineage so i’m hoping he will be thrilled to see pictures of the town where his ancestors lived before coming to America in 1850. I hope to have it completed by his birthday this year in July. I’ve been working on this project for years but now that I’m retired I can devote the time needed to complete it. I could live in a research library surrounded by fascinating books, documents and all other types of interesting pieces of written information.
This is a fascinating post, Becca. Love learning how others do it. I enjoy the research too, but it also slows me down from doing what I want to do, which is write the piece. Interesting. Would love to have the time to do both!