The Scottish novelist Peter May wrote, “the purpose of research is to inform you, the writer. So that when you come to write, you do so from a position of knowledge… [and so] your reader can trust that you know what you’re writing about.” I write a historical mystery series set in the 1910s featuring a forty-ish woman named Alafair Tucker, who lives with her husband, Shaw, and their ten children on a prosperous horse farm outside of Boynton, Oklahoma. Being as I have no children, have never lived on a farm, never cooked on a wood stove, washed in a iron tub, or sewed on a treadle sewing machine, much less shoed a horse, I do tremendous amounts of research so that I’ll know what I’m talking about.
But only a very small percent of the research I do for each book finds its way onto the page. I’m not writing a history book, I’m trying to create a world, and it’s amazing how little it takes to add just that perfect touch of authenticity to your story.
For each book I write, I keep a notebook and file full of information that I read up on as I need it. Much of my research may not be used, for as a book advances some of the ideas I started out with fall by the wayside. Even so, when the book is finally done I will have added quite a bit to the huge amount of arcane knowledge rattling around in my head.
Why, then, do I spend so much time learning everything I can about the times, lives, and mores of my characters when I know I’m not going to write about most of it? Because my own familiarity with the era I’m writing about is going to show without my having to make a big deal of it. The characters are going to move naturally through their world without thinking about it, just like we do in our own world.
Alafair ponders a problem while scraping the ashes from the fire box in her kitchen stove before breakfast. She doesn’t think about the history, configuration, or general use of the cast-iron, wood burning stove in rural Oklahoma in 1915. But I do. It isn’t a bit important to the story that the reader knows any of those things either. All she needs to know, or cares about, is that Alafair ponders a problem while scraping the ashes from the fire box. One single sentence in the book represents an hour of research and quite an education in cast iron cook stoves for me that may or may not ever be used again. Yet, isn’t that a picture? One tiny detail triggers a mental image and puts the reader in a country kitchen early one morning in 1915.
It’s a tightrope. An author wants to create as authentic a world as she can, but the whole point is to engage and involve your reader in your story, not to write a history book. A novelist should strive to be just accurate enough not to alert the anachronism police.
The sixth book in the Alafair Tucker series, The Wrong Hill to Die On, (Nov. 2012) is set in Arizona, where I live, rather than in Oklahoma, where Alafair lives. So here are the problems I have to solve before I even begin: 1. Why on earth would Alafair go to Arizona in the first place? 2. Once she gets there, what is going on that she could get herself involved in, how, and why? So in order to start to construct my story, I began with a trip to my nearest university library where I read through every issue on microfilm of the Arizona Republican newspaper for late February and early March of 1916, and thanks to interlibrary loan, I did the same for the Muskogee (Oklahoma) Phoenix.
I discovered that in Oklahoma, the end of 1915 and the beginning of 1916 were some of the rainiest months in years, accompanied by severe flooding. Therefore, there was lots of flu and bronchitis going around – enough that it was mentioned in the newspapers. Handily, in the late 1800s through the mid-1900s, Arizona was known as a place where people with chronic lung problems came to let the dry air cure them. Problem number one, solved!
And problem number two? There was a revolution going on in Mexico at the time, as well as the war in Europe. The Mexican Revolution interested the Germans no end, and there were lots of German “military advisers” in Mexico. Even better, in the first three months of 1916, residents of the entire Southwestern U.S. were hysterical over the possibility of a cross-border invasion from Mexico by the Revolutionary Army of Pancho Villa. In fact – and now that almost 100 years have passed, I can be happy about it – in March 1916, the Villistas did exactly that, increasing the hysteria in Arizona to a fever pitch.
For icing on the cake, during the winter of 1915-1916, a major (silent) motion picture, The Yaqui, was being shot in Tempe, the very town in which I set my novel.
Anyone who can’t make a story out of all that should have her authorly epaulets ripped off.
Donis Casey, February 11, 2013, Casey is the author of six Alafair Tucker Mysteries, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming, Hornswoggled, The Drop Edge of Yonder, The Sky Took Him, Crying Blood, and the recently released The Wrong Hill to Die On. Donis has twice won the Arizona Book Award and has been a finalist for the Willa Award and the Oklahoma Book Award. Her first novel, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming, was named an Oklahoma Centennial Book. She lives in Tempe, Arizona. Readers can enjoy the first chapter of each book on her web site at www.doniscasey.com.
Nice post, Donis! I often get lost in the past and spend more time researching than I need to or even should. As you say, it’s a way to feel the era so you’re telling it as if you had experienced it first-hand as a normal part of life.
Thanks, Peg. There’s an old Taoist saying: the fish is not aware of the water it swims in. Alafair may not be aware – but I’m currently living in a different ocean so I’d better get familiar with hers if I want to write about it!
So interesting ! I’ve forwarded the email this came from to a faculty member who loves historical fiction (and teaches creative writing).
Why, thank you, Harriette
Excellent post. I was happy to read that you let some things “fall by the wayside.” So many authors seem to feel every good idea, every interesting secondary character, every bit of unusual data needs to be included in their books, and so we readers are faced with huge, bloated, 500 or 600 page behemoths. Many times the central tale gets lost in the minutiae. I’m looking forward to reading your books; the early part of the 20th century was an interesting time and I’m sure you do it justice.
What you say rings true, Donis. I am writing a novel about the same period, well, 1931, in north Texas and Colorado. And yes, when someone had to harness a horse, I had to look it up! Among many other things. Thanks for your thoughtful blog.
I am a reader, not a writer, and i truly appreciate the authenticity of your books, Donis. The dialogue is wonderful – colorful and charming without going overboard and the characters seem truly representative of the time. Love the picture of the traditional role of women of the era, and the way the Tucker ladies push the envelope! However you are researching, it is working!
Donis, How well you describe how we writers find our stories in the history that formed our country. The wood cookstove was a fine example. My Aunt cooked on one into the 1950s here in the Ozarks of Arkansas, as they were reluctant to change over for fear the food wouldn’t taste as good cooked on gas or electricity. Great post.
Velda, in the ’20’s my great-grandfather bought an oil-burning stove for my g-grandmother. She used it for a week before making him haul her woodburning cast-iron stove out of the barn and back into her kitchen. She said it made the food taste funny! So your aunt was on to something.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets sidetracked doing far more research than the book requires. Saying I use 5% of what I find out is probably generous, but it sure is fun to have an excuse to follow your curiosity wherever it leads you!
Fascinating! This is a great post, Donis. I love the things I learn while doing research. And I agree, you will not need every detail you find, but it does make you a better writer to know it!
As a student of history and one who performs as a character from the past I love how you make the point that knowing doesn’t always make it to the page. As you point out however, just knowing colors and creates a realism to the character. Loved this post and will be sharing.
You are so right, I do a major amount of research on small details about the period and where a type of furniture came from, or the history behind each stamp that’s listed or if the flower or tree is native to West Virginia in my one book and what stores and other things were in the area in the 60’s in the Belpre, OH for my other novel. The history of an area is so important and I too always learn so much more than what is added in the books. Cher’ley
Great post, Donis. One of the things I enjoy most about your books is the dialogue. The occasional odd words and phrases of the region and timeperiod make the characters real and sometimes make me laugh outloud.
Well done. Interesting for both readers and authors. I am a nonfiction historical writer and am learning my way through my first historical fiction. You comments are both incouraging and informative.
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