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I recently received this e-mail from a reader:
I am working on a manuscript of historical fiction and plan on traveling to the sites associated with my tale (Wales). I was wondering if you had any advice you could share as to how you visit the places in your stories. How do you absorb/experience them in a way that you take into your writing? Given your current travels in France, I thought this would be a particularly opportune time to ask.
Because of the travel complications this spring (due to volcanic ash), I had to consider the possibility of finishing the novel I’m working on now without travel research. I’d done quite a bit of research on my last trip, and I thought it might be possible to manage, given how much is available on-line.
Wrong!
We’ll be back home in Canada in a few days, and once my head clears, I’ll dive into writing the third draft. I’m already dizzy with the realization of how much will need to be changed due to the “on-the-ground” research I’ve done.
When I started travel research for the first of the Josephine B. Trilogy, I was overcome with the feeling of presence. “Josephine walked here.” Experiencing a character’s tangible reality was important to me … and it continues to be, for every book I write. Having a feel for a character’s physical world gives me a certain authority when writing.
But also, for me, it’s a lot about logistics: how did she get from here to there? What were the dimensions of her world?
In other words, facts of the type that are difficult to convey in print.
I also find that there can be wonderful books available in museums that are difficult to discover otherwise. I always check the children’s section, as well. This trip, I found a wonderful illustrated children’s book on the building of Versailles. Since Versailles was in the process of being built during the period I’m writing about, this was a find!
Practical tools
On the practical side, I find it important to wear a (not very flattering) “fanny pack” with all my tools easily at hand: camera (well charged), pencil, notepad, map, money, etc.
This trip I discovered that a recording device is indispensable. (Sometimes I’ll have a camera in one hand, and the recording device in the other.)
I photograph display information that I can then put into Evernote (which then become searchable). I photograph street signs and spots on a map so that I know, once home, what the photographs following are of.
Creating a special map with Google map has been a very helpful on-line tool for keeping track of all the sites relevant to this novel.
I hope this helps! I’d love to hear from others about their travel research tips.
For more on my research process and research in general, go to On Research.
Hi Jan,
There have been times when scenes and bits of dialogue have come to me — but I scratch them out in pencil. I could record them — I just haven't.
I generally find research trips very intense and busy, not always given to reflective moments. That tends to come later, on the page.
Often I'm groaning, thinking of all the things I'm going to have to rewrite, and wondering how I'm going to work it out. I was delightfully relieved to discover that the house my character owned was very much as I had imagined it: no big changes there. More on that to come!
We have been eagerly awaiting to hear from you, and this is a great tip for writers. I am wondering if perhaps bits and pieces of dialogue come to you regarding your characters when you visit places that are pertinent to your story line. Do you record them then on your recording device? In other words, does your novel develop along and come to life for you? I am betting that it must. Jan
Wow — thank you so much!
If only every person in the world would follow all the rules that you gave… I think that everyone should come and visit your website
Sato Travel