Today it's Laura Nance...
Why I LOVE research!
(And how it helps me plot...)
First of all, thanks to Joe for coming up with such a great
way to raise funds for Alzheimer’s research and promote writing at the same
time. And thanks for allowing me to post on your site.
As a nurse practitioner in a retirement community, I treat
patients with Alzheimer’s every day. It’s a horrible disease for both the
patient and the families. I hope research will soon find a way to prevent this
illness.
I’d like to talk to you about research of another sort. If
you’re a writer, you should already know that it’s important to get your facts
and figures right. Readers come from all sorts of backgrounds, and someone will
eventually notice if you slip up on even the most obscure piece of information.
One or more of them will give you a one star review for missing a fact, even if
they loved the book. Trust me, I know.
So, I try to be very accurate and thoroughly research any
topic I’m not familiar with. I also have my husband, an engineer, as a
technical advisor. Although it’s hard spending time away from your story to
look up things like what would happen if a hydrogen leak is lit, or what would
be the physical effects of cyanide poisoning, I’ve found that I almost always come across
something that fascinates me and helps with my plot or descriptions.
I’m probably preaching to the choir on the importance of
research to you guys, but I wanted to share the interesting stories I found
while researching my latest mystery, Murder
in the World Below, and how it helped me plot my tale.
If anyone is as old as I am, you may remember a TV show in
the 80’s called Beauty and the Beast. It was about a deformed man who lived
with other outcasts in the tunnels and sewers of New York City . He rescues a woman from a
brutal attack and nurses her back to health, then helps her every time she’s in
trouble in her job working as an assistant D.A. fighting crime in the Big
Apple. Remember that one?
I loved that show. I loved the atmosphere of the world
created from castoff items and trash. I loved the characters and the sense of
community they developed. All this happened right under the feet of busy New York citizens.
What if a world like that really existed? I started thinking
of writing about a similar place. The idea bounced around in my head for a
couple years. I had to have a reason for people to go underground that would
make sense. One day, as I was researching old insane asylums for another book, Memories of Murder, I came across a story
about Willowbrook.
Willowbrook
State School was a state-supported institution for children with intellectual
disabilities located on Staten Island in New York City from 1947 until 1987. It
was closed due to deplorable conditions that included everything from overcrowding
to illegal testing done by infecting patients with hepatitis and then trying
medications on them.
At
the time, it was the largest state supported institution of its type. It was
built to house 4000 children but at one point in the 60’s it held over 6000
people.
In
1972, a young, mostly unknown Geraldo Rivera went undercover there and wrote an exposé, entitled Willowbrook: The Last
Disgrace,
which garnered national attention
and won a Peabody Award. He exposed the horrible living
conditions, as well as the physical and sexual abuse of the inmates.
Despite attempts
to upgrade and reform the school it ultimately closed in 1987. Following its
closing, there was another interesting story associated with the school. A man
named Andre Rand, who had worked as a janitor at the school, was suspected and
later convicted of being involved in the kidnapping/disappearance/attempted
sexual assault of five local children. There were rumors that he hid in the
basement of buildings at the old abandoned school. Parents scared their
children to stay away from the deserted campus by telling them this tale, which
was never proven.
In 2009 a
documentary style movie was made of this incident called, Cropsey, which is sort of a slang term for a boogie-man. It’s
supposed to be pretty scary, but I haven’t seen it yet. As of now, Andre Rand
is serving time in a New York
As soon as I read these stories, the idea I’d been mulling
over took shape immediately. I already knew I wanted an underground world. I
decided to use a similar idea to Willowbrook. My story takes place in the
Shenandoah area of Virginia, which is known for underground caverns. These
subterranean areas, combined with forgotten basements and tunnels below an old
institution, form the world of Haven where my outcasts live.
Then I dove into research for ways murders could happen in
that area with substances that would be available to the underground dwellers.
I can’t believe I never knew that rat poison is actually a drug I use every day
to treat people who need their blood thinned. Warfarin, or the brand name Coumadin,
is used as rat poison. Hmm.
Now, by research, I know the signs and symptoms of poisoning
by rat poison, cyanide and arsenic. Hopefully not something I’ll ever see in my
clinic! Not much I could do for them anyway except dial 911.
To add an urgent situation of impending doom to my
underground world, I decided to create an energy problem. I had to research
what would be the most likely source of power for my community and then a
reason why it would be challenged. I decided on coal-fueled steam furnaces. Of
course I had to figure out how this type of system would work and then a
possible solution to the dilemma of its loss. I also realized you really can’t
buy enriched uranium for a nuclear power source on the Internet. Ooops. That,
along with my search for types of assault weapons for another novel, probably
have me on some CIA watch list. Yikes.
So, here’s the blurb for my novel. Now that you know the
story behind it, you’ll see where my ideas came from.
Murder in the World Below
A sprawling
facility for handicapped children closed in 1960 amid findings of deplorable
conditions, illegal testing and sexual abuse. Sixty-one years later, the
academy is a community college in the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia.
Unknown to
the upper world, refugees from the old asylum live in a secret world they’ve
built in the tunnels, caverns and basements beneath the old school, hiding
their differences and fear of those above ground.
Haven, as
the residents call their underground home, is a happy, thriving community until
they learn their source of power is about to be cut off. A resourceful young
woman named Awen sets out to find an alternative source of energy. But someone
in Haven is murdering people and sabotaging her efforts.
Aided by a
professor from the college, Awen races to expose the killer and hunt for a
source of energy that will save Haven. Unfortunately, the murderer now has
their sights on Awen as the next victim, and time is running out for the world
below.
As a writer, when you become stumped with a plot
point or writer’s block, try digging into some research on something related to
your WIP. You might find it leads you in a new direction that adds complexity
and depth to your tale. For sure you’ll make certain all your facts are right,
and at the very least you’ll learn some interesting information. (Possibly
something you’ll use in another story...)
As a special treat, this week I’m pricing Murder in the World Below at only 99
cents for the Kindle version. Here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/nwetdnq. I hope you’ll check it out and let me know
how you like it. You can connect with me on my website: www.laranance.com where I post other
tidbits of research on my novels that I found fascinating.
What are
your stories about research? Have you ever been caught in a wrong fact by a
reader? What’s the most interesting fact you came across when researching a
novel?
Joe sez: The problem with research is it can become its own procrastination technique. You search for something necessary for your WIP, and four clicks later you're reading about the ecological issues facing Guam (and I hope they get that coconut rhinoceros beetle infestation under control.)
It is incredibly easy to lose focus on writing and go on data quests that lead to nowhere. Here are some tricks I use.
- Turn off the Internet while writing.
- Type "research here" where you need research in your book, then keep writing and come back to it later.
- Use a desktop timer and don't leave your WIP for more than five minutes before returning.
- Write what you know rather than what you have to learn. For example, if you know Glocks, give your character a Glock. Why give them a Sig, which you've never shot before?
Also remember that it is very tempting to infodump when you learn about a subject you find interesting. Resist the urge. Long, blocky paragraphs of information aren't interesting to anyone other than the researcher, and showing off by regurgitating everything you learned abut a particular subject tends to make readers skip those parts. Good for you that you learned how to build a nuclear submarine. Unless that's essential to the plot, pare it down to what info is absolutely necessary to move the plot forward.
Anyone else have research tips?
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