Guest blogger: Deanna Raybourn
September 4th, 2008 by Michelle
As a writer of historical fiction, I am frequently asked about research. Specifically, readers—and aspiring writers—want to know if it is necessary for me to visit the sites I write about. On this point I always give a firm and unequivocal yes. And no. Contradictory, I know, but hear me out. Developing a historical novel means creating a dual setting; it means creating a specific time and place for your reader to inhabit. They are a tourist in your world, and you must give them a guidebook of essential details to help them get around. In order to do that, you have to know the neighborhood at least as well as they do—and preferably better!
In preparation for writing Silent in the Grave, I traveled to England. (Technically, I tagged along on a school trip as a chaperone—a maneuver I only recommend to the truly desperate or masochistic.) I had planned that Grave would be a Regency effort, light and sparkling and frothy as a syllabub with just a spot of murder to spice the pot. But once I began writing, I realized the book needed Victorian London, a city of foggy streets, shadowed by industry and populated by Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes. The only difficulty was that I knew much less about 1886 than I did 1816. Luckily, I changed the setting the week before I was scheduled to depart. Once I knew my setting would be changed, the trip to London enabled me to experience that setting through new eyes. I sat on the same park bench that Lady Julia Grey shared with a London prostitute; I walked past her house on Curzon Street; I chatted with a raven in the Tower. And just as importantly, I was able to purchase maps and historical guides only published in England—books and ephemera that were indescribably valuable in establishing the London of Julia Grey and Nicholas Brisbane.
On the other hand—and you knew there would be another hand, didn’t you?—when it came time to write Silent in the Sanctuary I was desperately pressed for time. (My publisher may have gotten the idea that I was just a bit further along than I actually was…) With a deadline looming and the dollar falling, I had no choice but to press on and write the book without a trip. I relied instead upon mountains of research books and the blessed expanse of the internet. I found floorplans to Cistercian abbeys, photographs of jubilee towers, and moon tables for 1886 so that I could write with confidence that the moon was full and streaming its silvery light into the windows of Bellmont Abbey.
I have repeated the pattern in subsequent books. For Silent on the Moor, I told my husband I needed to smell a moor, and we packed our bags to spend Easter week of 2007 in Yorkshire. (And a very good thing we did. It turns out that moors have a very distinctive smell, and that it is very difficult to hold a proper conversation upon one.) The book I am just beginning to write, The Dead Travel Fast, is a compromise. It opens in Edinburgh, a city I have visited twice, but the action quickly moves to Transylvania, and I am forced once again to rely upon research and my own imagination.
And in the end, I think that is the most important travel tool of all. All of the scrambling over pyramids or sailing down the Danube will never convey the atmosphere of a place to a reader. Only a writer’s passion for a setting can do that, and while travel is broadening and inspiring, it is no substitute for the journey of imagination.
9 Responses to “Guest blogger: Deanna Raybourn”
Thanks for blogging with us today, Deanna. I have also had to mix imagination and hard research. When in Spain two years ago, I managed to organize a side-trip to one of the locations in my WIP, and while it was much changed from how it must have been in the early 1800s, I got a great sense of the geographical layout and the major landmarks. My imagination had to erase the highrise buildings and build a different world.
I am so happy to hear you are working on a new book, and look forward to reading it.
Deanna, congratulations on your RITA! I read both your books out and loved both of them. Michelle turned me onto the first one. You did a fabulous job weaving the setting in as well as crafting such great characters.
I set most of my books in setting I’m familiar with, but I’d love to travel and use the locations in a future book. And deduct them from taxes, of course.
Yet another example of why I adore this author and all of her perfectly written prose–continued success, always!
Hell, I’m all about traveling to the places I want to write about. Too bad I haven’t really been able to swing that yet. Ah, but the emerse yourself in your setting … sigh. Bliss.
It certainly makes the book come alive, doesn’t it. Right now, my WIP is set in Milwaukee, which is a city I’m intimiately familiar with. I love being able to describe a restaurant or shop in detail and make it come alive for the reader.
Thanx for joining us here at MM, Deanna. Love the passion I hear in your blog.
I love traveling to the places I write about, if possible. With the exchange rate what it is now, it has become very difficult, and expensive. But I have been able to in the past, and loved it. The scent of the moors is mystical. I could have stood there forever. The way the air feels against the highlands when the clouds roll over them, and it starts to drizzle, is amazing. If I could have sat up a table right there and wrote, I would have. Or the smell of the soft green of Ireland, yes the color smells. I’m getting carrid away…I better stop before this is ten pages long.
I know exactly what you mean! I always carry a notebook and jot down what a place smells like, the quality of the light, anything that catches my attention and will translate well into a book. (And very good point about writing it off! I have taken only one trip in the last two years that I could not write off because I combine signings with research whenever possible.) I think in light of the feeble dollar, the best plan is to save up and travel to a place you can use for more than one setting! I know when I went to Yorkshire I kept scouting for sites for future books and stockpiled some extra information. Might come in handy!
Deanna, how fun to travel and research!
For now, my fictious towns are a product of my imagination, and the fact I’m snuggled in one of my own. But oh one day, the places I’ll go!
Thanks for being at Magical today too. Such a pleasure having you here.
Hello,
congrats on your rita win, and also on your highly compelling covers. The art gods certainly smiled on you! Now I’m off to tell my husband of the very good example of yours, taking you without questioning on a trip so you can imbibe aromas.
I absolutely love that book cover–it is beautiful!