Research Triangle

A modern writer might ask, "What's the point in 'Write what you know' today? Can't you just Google it?"

And it is a fear. We remember the delights of the surprising and the obscure in so many books we had read. We remember having that glimpse into how to fly a plane or who the Hittites were or what a Lighthouse Keeper's life is like. We grew up as writers practicing how to do that; how to tease out those rare plums and then frame them for the reader. Is that all gone now?

I don't think it is.

Because here's the thing. There are still advantages in knowing a subject before you decide it should be in the book and then open that Google search page.

Three things come to mind.

The first is that you know the thing exists. That's not small. I had another "meet for lunch scene" I needed so I set it outside the New Globe theatre. Of course I looked it up, and found pictures, and looked at it on a map, and used the map to find somewhere to sit. But I did this because I already knew there was such a place (I've been there) and it was something that fit in with what I wanted to do with the book and the character.

I've done a lot of blind searches in which I wander around trying to find something interesting to have in a scene or to build the whole scene around. The India Club restaurant is one of those; I didn't know about it. I did, however, know that the most traditional London food there is...is Indian. So I had that head start in knowing where I wanted to look.

The second is you understand your results. When you know something about a subject, you have a better filter. You know what is good data and what is suspect.

You also have an idea of the shape of the box. That gets into the whole difference between a designed educational course and self-study; the latter tends to be blind to its holes. The former makes sure you get a proper survey of all of it.

Knowing something about a subject means you know when your source is only telling you part of the story, and you have to look in other places as well.

And of course, if you already know the subject, you know the resources. Or at least the shape of them. While I was researching the "getting dressed as a VAD nurse" scene I ran into a "Burda 125." I didn't follow it up, but I not only know what it means, I've done that before. How to look in the Burda catalog and how to find a pattern in it from the name or code. The fact that I knew something about the subject made what the Google Search turned up more useful.

The third and last is that when you know something, you have started connecting it in your mind. You know things that are like it. You know things that spring off it. When I wrote a scene with a Venetian busker in a previous book it was based largely on me knowing the operas being quoted. But I also have known buskers. And he has a little amp and I've helped someone buy one for her own performance so I know how that works, too. Not well. There's details I didn't know (but didn't bother to research because they didn't need to be in the book.)