{"id":1444,"date":"2014-06-17T00:28:18","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T00:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/colleenmstory.com\/?p=1444"},"modified":"2020-05-20T05:11:28","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T05:11:28","slug":"should-you-travel-to-research-your-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colleenmstory.com\/story\/should-you-travel-to-research-your-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Should You Travel to Research Your Novel?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Situation: I\u2019m in the second draft of my work in progress.<\/h4>\n

My characters travel across country, from Iowa to California.<\/p>\n

Dilemma: I\u2019ve either a) never been to the locations where my characters stop along the way, or b) it\u2019s been so long the places are dim in my memory.<\/p>\n

Solution 1: Research via the Internet.<\/strong> <\/b><\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve already done this quite a bit, and it\u2019s helped a lot. I\u2019m doing pretty well putting together pictures, maps, and other research information to create the scenes, but I haven\u2019t actually seen <\/i>a lot of these places. I haven\u2019t smelled the air, sensed the energy, touched the leaves on the trees or the wood on the buildings. Readers may sense that.<\/p>\n

Heck, I sense that\u2014the feeling that I\u2019m not being as real with my story as I could be.<\/p>\n

Solution 2: Swap out all the real locations for made-up ones.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Easy enough. I\u2019ve done this before\u2014set the story in a make-believe location. Solves all the problems. No one to come back on you later and say, \u201cHey, there\u2019s no gas station next to the Perkins in Name city in Name state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it\u2019s not going to work for this story. There\u2019s a pivotal scene that takes place in a very real location that just can\u2019t take place anywhere else. That scene has<\/i> to take place there, and to have the characters in make-believe locations all the way up to the last scene makes no sense whatsoever.<\/p>\n

So, the locations have to be real. Mostly.<\/p>\n

Solution 3: Take the trip myself.<\/strong> <\/b><\/h3>\n

When I first thought of this, I was like, \u201cYeah, right. Like I can afford the expense and time away from work!\u201d<\/p>\n

Second thought was, \u201cHow would I ever do that, anyway? There\u2019s just too much going on this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Third thought was, \u201cYou need to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The thought didn\u2019t come out that clearly, of course. It was a quiet, persistent, in-the-back-of-my-mind kind of thought. Every morning as I chipped away at the work, the thought sang away like a distant recording.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to goooooo\u2026..\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

From Imagination to Reality<\/strong><\/h3>\n

They say nothing happens without first having been imagined. The image of my trip continued to gain clarity until finally one day I talked to someone about it.<\/p>\n

I chose someone who was a) extremely supportive of my work, and b) loved to travel. I mean, loved<\/i> to travel.<\/p>\n

Her answer: \u201cDefinitely! We need to go!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonus: This person is my mother, and how often does one get to take a cross-country trip with her mother? I\u2019m really close with mine, and life is short. This made the decision easier to make.<\/p>\n

From Decision to Hard Work<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Preparation for this trip was hard, mostly because of the volume of work I had to do to a) afford the trip, and b) get everything done so my clients would be covered while I was away. (One of the drawbacks of freelance writing\u2014there isn\u2019t really any real vacation time.) I put in a number of really long weeks, where my back was screaming at me for failing to get up and move often enough!<\/p>\n

Planning the trip was also hard work, but enjoyable. I had to map out the journey my characters take so I could determine how much ground we\u2019d be covering each day, and which locations we\u2019d be visiting. I\u2019ve already drafted the book, so this went pretty well as I know where the main scenes take place. It just took quite a bit of time\u2014time that had to be squeezed in between work, edits due to my publisher on my upcoming novel, preparations so the house and the dog would be taken care of while I was gone, and a few hours sleep in between.<\/p>\n

The Actual Trip<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The first time I spotted a landmark important to my characters I was so excited I felt I was going to burst out of my skin. To have spent over a year on a draft of a novel, and then actually see the places I\u2019ve visited so often in my imagination is an experience that\u2019s difficult to describe. It\u2019s like actually going to a place you\u2019ve dreamed of, but never thought you\u2019d visit in real life.<\/p>\n

Does the seeing change the story? So far, I don\u2019t think so, though I\u2019m holding out judgment on the ending, which could go one of two ways. My basic plot will stay the same, but with every step in every new town, every side road explored, every landmark photographed and every scene re-imagined, the trip is sinking into my bones like a thick blues tune, already flowing out of my fingers and onto the page with a more natural rhythm.<\/p>\n

What About Your Novel?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Not all novels require travel. My first two\u2014a young adult fantasy and a literary novel set in a fictional town in my state\u2014didn\u2019t nag me for more information in the form of \u201cbeen-there-seen-and-heard-that\u201d fashion. So whether yours does or doesn\u2019t require this sort of investment is a decision only you (and your characters) can make.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always traveled\u00a0for my novels,\u201d says Dr. Sanjida O\u2019Connell<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> \u201cI firmly believe that no amount of research on its own\u00a0can help you understand the\u00a0feel<\/i>\u00a0of a place. Smell, in particular, is\u00a0hard to grasp.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve only been on the road for three days at the time of this writing, and I\u2019ve already noticed this. Though the locations look similar to how I imagined them after conducting a good amount of online research, the feel\u2014that sense how a place affects you when you\u2019re in it\u2014was quite different in many cases. Now that I have a better sense of the reality, I\u2019m already finding it easier to write the scenes because the details are so much more familiar.<\/p>\n

The other thing that\u2019s great about this trip is experiencing the reality of getting from one place to the other. Writers usually don\u2019t include the boring details of traveling from here to there in the book, but knowing how it feels to cover those miles will help me better portray the moods of my characters when they arrive at their stopping places along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cExperiencing a character\u2019s tangible reality was important to me,\u201d says Sandra Gulland<\/span><\/a><\/span>. \u201cHaving a feel for a character\u2019s physical world gives me a certain authority when writing. But also, for me, it\u2019s a lot about logistics: how<\/i> did she get from here to there? What were the dimensions of her world?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Biggest Benefit to Travel<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u2019m in the middle of my trip now, and will provide an update later about how the whole experience affected the book. My feeling so far is that since it already feels<\/i> more real to me, the text will come across as more authentic\u2014I hope!<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, if you\u2019re feeling like your next work-in-progress would benefit from travel, I\u2019d highly recommend it. One thing I know for certain will happen at the end of this experience\u2014I will grow as a writer.<\/p>\n

And isn\u2019t that what\u2019s it\u2019s all about?<\/p>\n

Have you ever traveled to research a novel? Are you planning to? Please share your thoughts.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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