Every morning when I fire up my computer, and fire up my brain with coffee, aka life’s elixir, I’m thankful to be living in this modern era. Not only for the electricity to power the computer and the coffee maker, and let’s not forget indoor plumbing, but most especially for the instant connection to the entire developed world.
At no time am I more thankful than when I’m brainstorming a new book, and my brain is filled with ideas and overflowing with questions. Sure, I make stuff up for a living, but if one of my characters has a certain profession, I can’t invent what they do during an average day on the job.
Which brings me to my current project, a future book in my MacLeod’s Cove series in which a large component of the plot will be maritime archaeology. What do I know about maritime archaeology? Absolutely nothing.
Back in the olden days of my childhood/teenage-hood/young adulthood when working on a school project, I’d flip through the set of encyclopaedias sitting pride of place in the living room. If they weren’t adequate, I’d trudge to the town library and pour through research materials to find the answers.
Now, thanks to the wonders of science, all the information I need is at my fingertips in the virtual encyclopaedia, aka, the internet.
In less than an hour it became clear that Dr Eliza Steadman, my heroine, will be one busy lady as she searches for a historical shipwreck near MacLeod’s Cove. But I needed details, some insider knowledge to add spice and colour to my blank pages, so back I went to tapping the keys and clicking the mouse.
The first thing my expert needs to do is comb through records and archives and maps to define the search area. Then she needs to obtain proper permits and authorizations from both provincial and federal authorities before conducting any exploration.
She will of course get all the permits and authorizations she’ll need, because fiction.
But then there are the logistics, like hiring a boat and a captain. I write romance. Bonus points if the captain is perfect hero material. Mike Boudreau ticks all the boxes.
Okay, I’ve got her in some kind of boat (I’m still working on that detail) with a hunky captain, bobbing in the ocean. How can she detect things on the ocean floor? *tap click scroll* Aha! Her mentor and old family friend comes to the rescue and loans her a magnetometer for detecting metal objects under the water. Isn’t he a nice guy? Well …
Not clear sailing yet, though, because even if she locates the wreck, she must follow the legal requirements for reporting the discovery, and they are many. And even then, there’s no guarantee she can do anything with the discovery. There are lots of regulatory and legal stuff to navigate.
Now, remember, I’m at the starting point of this book so I have no idea what’s going to happen between Eliza and Mike. My research opened all sorts of possibilities. Will this become another Oak Island mystery? Will the hardship and turmoil of yet another failure convince Eliza to change careers? Will an angry local person sabotage her research vessel? I can’t wait to find out!
Luanna Stewart is a Canadian author who has been creating adventures for her imaginary friends since childhood. She spends her days writing many flavours of romance, torturing her heroes and heroines before helping them find their happy-ever-after. But when she’s taking a break from wreaking people’s lives, you can find her pulling weeds, baking something delicious, or enjoying a cup of tea whilst completing a craft project. Enjoying (most of the time) an empty nest, she lives in Nova Scotia with her patient husband and a yard full of voracious deer.
4 comments:
Fun post. Luanna! I love going down the research rabbit hole. While writing my first book, a non-fiction children's book about ospreys, I found a writer needs to learn a whole lot more about her subject than will ultimately reach the page. The trick is to decide what to include, based on your audience and your voice as well as the story your are telling. I can see that in your process. "Fiction" is the ace up your sleeve for glossing over some harsh (and usually boring) realities.
Great post, Luanna! I love the internet for research. That's how i got the idea for a fictional underwater statue museum in my first book "The Witch with the Trident Tattoo".
Like you, I sometimes go down the internet rabbit hole. Do you have any tricks for not going down the rabbit hole on research?
Great post, Luanna! I enjoy research, and the rabbit holes it leads to. :-)
Luanna, those of you who love research and rabbit holes are truly amazing! After reading your post, the idea flitted through my mind that maybe, just maybe, I might take a dive down a rabbit hole some time...or not.
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