Research is One of the Best Parts of Writing

There are a lot of things I didn't learn about writing as a career in my highly-ranked MFA program.  One of them is how enjoyable and even exciting researching a book can be. And I don't just mean tracking things down online or spending time in an archive. I mean talking to experts.

Working on book after book, I've found how helpful experts can be and how much they enjoy opening up about their fields of expertise. One of the first was a county medical examiner I interviewed because my debut mystery featured a body discovered in a river. We talked about decomposition and a lot of other aspects of the situation, and went very deep (pun intended) in our hour-long chat.

I've spoken with lawyers, cops, private investigators and have never found anyone unwilling to talk about what they do and love. I tell them who I am and why I've contacted them and ask if they have time. The majority of interviews get done in person, but once or twice I've had to work on the phone if the expert was an inconvenient distance away.

These interviews don't just help ground my books in reality, whatever the genre, they also take me out of my own world into worlds I don't know and find fascinating.

I try to be as prepared as possible. I’ve read about my source on line and I come with a lot of questions. I’m always open to having my ideas and plans change, depending on what I learn.

In my current novel-in-progress, music plays a major role and so I've interviewed a cello player I know, a friend who's played the piano for years, and a professor of piano at Michigan State University. I have eight years of piano behind me, but don't know much about repertoire and the kinds of issues professionals deal with. The talks have been fascinating. 

I've also interviewed a fire chief because there’s arson in the book and I wanted to understand how a fire brigade would respond. I toured the local fire station so I knew as much as possible about the equipment and gear. The head of an advertising agency has helped me develop a major character in that same book and make his work life believable and interesting.

Each source for this stand-alone novel has been unfailingly generous with their time and of course will be acknowledged when the book comes out.

It may not take a village to write a book, but it definitely takes human resources who live in very different worlds than I do, and who enjoy sharing their wisdom and experience. Talking to them doesn't just augment the reality of whatever book I'm working on, it almost always opens up new possibilities.  Better still, it breaks the isolation of writing a book, and that makes me very grateful.

Even if you're shy, contacting the expert you want is easy via phone or email.  What's most important is thinking out your questions in advance and being prepared for the book to go in a different direction or take on aspects you hadn’t imagined, based on what you learn. As Henry James advised a young writer: "Try to be one of those on whom nothing is lost."

Lev Raphael is the author of 27 books in many genres. His work has appeared in 15 languages and he’s done invited talks and readings in 9 different countries—where he takes lots of notes for research, just in case. He mentors, edits, and coaches writers at writewithoutborders.com. You can contact him there for a free consultation about your project.

(Image from Pexels on Pixabay)