Thought of something to say while I was putting that washing on the line.
How much research would you do for a typical short story?
How much is too much? Or is there no such thing as too much research?
I rarely don't do any research, no matter what genre or subject matter I'm writing in. Some stories don't need much, but I always find they need a little. Generally it might be things like: checking a car manufacturer's site to see what year a car when into production (ie could my character be driving that car in that year); or, using Google Maps to zoom around an area I'm writing about (if it is a real place, of course) just to get a better feel for the land, the streets, etc.
Mostly though, I seem to do lots of research! Much of it never makes it into the story, but by the time I'm done my head is copiously filled with trivia.
When I wrote 'Calliope: A Steam Romance' I did pages of research on early 20th century Sydney, the places and clothing of the time, early nuclear physics, alternative steam technologies, automatons, calliopes and, ultimately, circuses. I probably had around 40 or 50 pages of research for what ended up a 9,000 word story.
Most of circus research then got built upon for 'All the Clowns in Clowntown'. For around 3mths I immersed myself in circuses and clowns. I read everything I could about them, and their history, on the web. I watched movies and documentaries on circuses and the art of clowning. The only music on my mp3 player, or blaring from my PC speakers, for a month were the Circus Marches of John Philip Sousa. I learnt to juggle and even dressed as a clown a couple of times while sitting at my desk writing the story (yeah, okay, go ahead, laugh at the description, for there are no photographs). I also did a lot more research on the history of steam trains. Did you know they used to call a caboose a 'Clown Wagon'!! That's the sort of gems research can pop up, which is why I like it so much.
In the end, I had around 100 pages of research, a 10,000 word story, and a head filled with rubber chickens and sousaphones. My wife swore she'd leave me if I ever played the Liberty Bell March ever again!
All this clown research led me to more and more clown research. Especially the difference between the two major types of clown - the familiar USA Circus Clown, and the far older Commedia Clown of Europe (mimes, harlequins, jesters). I didn't dare play any more Marches out-loud but secretly, on my headphones, I was still listening. Also to old Vaudeville routines and Commedia Operas. This gained another 100 pages of research of the history of clowning and the start of my (in-progress) story 'A Plan For Pierrot' - a tale of the Clowntown crime underworld, Clown race-riots, and unrequited love.
Recently I have been writing another story. No clowns in this one though, and so I had to start a different line of research!
This is a story I'm writing specifically to submit to the Eneit Press anthology 'In Bad Dreams 2 - Where Death Stalks'.
The brief on the submissions page seems to me summed up by the following:
We want your best urban supernatural stories; we want disturbed original tales from every corner of the globe. We want stories set in the cities least used (from a literary sense).
I had nothing in mind to begin with so, in order to start somewhere, I had to choose a city. I took out my atlas and basically chose one at random. I got...
Dushanbe, in Tajikistan in Central Asia.
Where? I thought. Time for some research.
Now, Wikipedia might not be the most reliable 'encyclopedia' in the world, but it is for me the best of jumping-off points for my research. It always gives me a broad overview from which to start, and plenty of links outwards to investigate.
I started researching Dushanbe, and Tajikistan and it's history. One of the cradles of Zoroastrianism, conquered in 7th century CE by the united Arab tribes, occupied by Soviet Russia for most of the 20th Century, another 6yrs of civil war. Currently a city trying to crawl out from under the shadow of its soviet past, home to drug and weapon runners, destination of Pakistani and Afghan refugees, and a base for US, Indian and French troops fighting in Afghanistan. And, delving into Zoroastrianism I found the Daevas (the evil Demons of that religion).
It wasn't very long before a story started falling into place with all this information.
By the time I thought I was ready to put all this information down into a story, I had over 300 pages of research!!
The problem was, the story ideas kept growing! There was so much there just begging to be used that I was having a very hard time confining the idea to a single short story. At least, I was having a hard time if I tried to think about it too much. It was hard if I tried to plot it all out before writing.
So, instead, I just started writing on instinct, hoping all that research would filter through my brain-sieve in just the right amounts.
The approach seems to have worked well so far. I'm now 4,000 words into 'Daivadana' and hoping to wrap it up in another 2-3,000 words.
Reading through what I've written it is amazing how much of that information my brain has chosen to ignore. And equally amazing what it has chosen not to ignore. About 70% of what I originally envisioned (whilst researching) has not come to pass. Instead, it is becoming a very different story to I what I thought. A much better story, I think, although at what might end up almost 8,000 words I'm no longer sure it will be suitable for IBD-2. It has become a lot more political. Yes, it definitely is a bad dream, but more one we seem to be living that one we are dreaming.
We'll see how it goes.
But, is 300 pages of research too much for an 8,000 word story?
Or do others find themselves doing this sort of thing too?
Sorry for the long post, but hey, at least I was doing something :)
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