Research: Little Bit Conventional

I suppose I’m probably the most conventional researcher of the bunch.  I delve into history and extract from it the pieces that will ground and inform my work.  Sure, I could create whole worlds on my own, but where is the grounding factor?  So many forget about finding some connection to reality; even a dragon is based on legends we’ve created right here in our own world.  But for me… I would fly off into the far reaches of space if I didn’t base some of the ideas in the myth, legends, cultures of the world I live in: Earth.

I’m a history nerd, so of course I turn to history.  If I’m writing dystopia, I look to the political systems (I hold a degree in Poli Sci) and I extract the good, the bad, and the ugly.  If I’m working with fairytales, the source material sits next to me so I can constantly reference it.  I pull up images and articles, clothing, food, landscapes, everything about the culture that I’m using as a grounding foundation for my work.

In two current projects I’m basing a culture on old Norse and Viking history and legends, while the other is set in 1870s Detroit.  Are both works fantastical?  Yes.  Will I manipulate them?  Absolutely; one more than the other.  But these are things we have tangibility with and I always seek  that tangibility in my work.  I want the reader to be able to touch and smell and feel it and for me?  Bringing that real world aspect into it first lies in researching a culture that actually exists.

It’s a lot of work.  There are Pinterest boards full of images (I’m a visual person and need a visual representation to connect).  I have binders and word documents will little pieces that I find interesting.  I look up the clothes and figure out how to make them (and some I actually do make, yay! Reenacting, historical fashion nerd).  I find recipes and give them a try.  I look to films and television, however inaccurate, to find that certain feel to bring to whatever project I’m researching.  I find a way to immerse myself in the culture so that I can better write it on the page.

I don’t want to write a research paper; so much of my education was based on those, and I don’t like reading research papers.  A lot of fiction reads like a text book when an author wants to imbue their stories in their research.  I hate it.  So I do an all immerse research method so that I can write with feeling and perspective.  I want the reader to feel like they’ve stepped back into whatever landscape I have created.

With all this said: historically based fiction is terrifying for those very reasons.  It is why I take this research and twist it into the foundation of the fantastical.  I use my research as a grounding stake into this Earth so I can play with other realities, other histories and other worlds.  I may want to fly you away with me, but I want to be able to point back at home and say: here, don’t forget here.