(This is a crossposting, at the suggestion of Erastes.)
I’ve been thinking a lot about researching locations for writing purposes ever since my visit to Los Angeles last month. I don’t believe you need to have been somewhere to write about it. When we write historical there’s only so much we can do to see an actual location. Even if we visit a place, the feel has changed. The look has changed. The people have changed. All the same, I think most authors would agree that, if at all possible, we want to see those places, whether we’re setting a story there in the past, present, or future.
Writing something set in a existing modern or historical geographic location, which we have never been to ourselves, creates many challenges. For me, it also creates a huge sense of inadequacy. I have this terrible, screechy voice in my mind telling me other people will see right through my shallow words to the nonsense underneath and know that I have never set foot in my own setting. If travel expenses were no issue, I would personally visit every place I have any interest in setting a story, and take detailed photos and notes. But this is not an option for me. As well as for a lot of writers.
On the other hand, making stuff up is what we do best. Authors do not need to have been somewhere to tell you what it was like. That’s one reason they’re authors.
My own sense of feeling frustrated that I cannot visit every location I wish was increased by the aforementioned trip to LA:
I was in LA for less than 24 hours, yet came away with a strong sense of the city that I will never forget, and which I could never have gained from just reading about the place. There is a universal theme in California, north (which I have much greater knowledge of, having lived there for some time) or south, of examining people.
Appearance is not just important in LA. It is you. Everywhere you go, everything you do, from the way you walk to the way you dress to what you order in a restaurant, is under intense, constant, and completely unabashed scrutiny. Not exactly the surprise of the decade, right? This is Hollywood after all. Yet, it was a surprise. Not the fact that everyone was image-obsessed in LA, but the feel of that obsession. There’s a thick, palpable cloud of stares and fleeting glances; eye contact and body-sweeping gazes; and the unceasing edginess of people who know they are being sized-up just as they are sizing you up.
For someone used to Seattle, where eye-contact with anyone you pass on the street, or in a coffee shop, is about as common as talking clams, this experience was pretty horrifying to me. It’s not something I could have ever imagined the intensity of without being in with it. The cool indifference of one human being to another based on snap visual assessments, and the instant decision of whether of not this person can do anything for them, cannot really be appreciated without going in person and feeling the force of this collective energy.
Then there are other things you wouldn’t learn about LA from a guide book: Cabs not stopping for red lights: Every car in the city being no more than two years old: The atmosphere of a pool-side party after dark: And the lying. As noted, I was there for a very brief time. But in that time, I was lied to often.
These kinds of details give us a feel for location that can be duplicated even if we have never really been there. It just makes writing about the place a whole lot easier and clearer in our own minds if we have been there.
Here’s to lots of research trips down the road. 🙂
~~~
You can find Jordan at http://www.jordantaylorbooks.com
April 7, 2010 at 6:22 pm
I was considering writing a noir style novel set in LA in the 40s or 50s but – despite having been to LA once, years ago, the geography completely fazed me, not knowing which were the poor areas and the rich areas – which areas that were there in the time, all that kind of thing – too many minefields. I’m having the same problem with Bohemia in the 1860’s but I’m just relying on Google earth, really. It doens’t look like it’s changed much!!
Thanks for posting dear! (you should add a little biographical detail at the end, so people know who you are and where to find you)
April 7, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Thanks for the recommendation! And holding my hand to get it on here. 🙂
Are people even interested? I’ll put my site on it.
April 7, 2010 at 9:25 pm
Of course they are! And if they aren’t now, they will be soon 🙂
April 8, 2010 at 12:54 am
That’s the spirit!
April 7, 2010 at 6:38 pm
I’m currently in the middle of writing a noir historical set in Los Angeles in 1929. I was in L.A. last month for 5 days for Left Coast Crime and managed not only to get around downtown and see some of the old buildings still there from that time, but I met up with a couple of men who also write and love L.A. who are keen on her history.
As someone who lived there 8 years a few decades ago I concur with the observation about being sized up. My biggest discovery when I lived there was that there are no such thing as friends. There are people who can do something for you and there are the rest of the Angelenos around you. It is also a city that is almost bipolar. A lot of glitz and glamor on the surface, but a lot of darkness and seaminess underneath it. I’ve spent most of my writing on the latter. Both this one I’m writing now about a corrupt cop who lives in a corrupt city and my contemporary books where the cops are more honorable, but the city is still darkness under all that phony brightness.
Personally I find L.A. to be endlessly fascinating and will never tire of writing about her. I already have plans to back next year for a longer stay and find out more about its dark soul.
April 7, 2010 at 7:57 pm
I can’t imagine being there for eight years. Wow. I’m also working on a book set there in the 1920s, so I know I’ll be back for research at some point down the road.
Bipolar sounds like an apt description. I would hazard a guess that it’s a city with one of the most unique feels to it in the world.
Best wishes with your own research!
April 7, 2010 at 8:04 pm
I can’t imagine another city being like L.A., which may be a good thing. 🙂
I love the researching — I’m finding so many fascinating little things. I went on eBay and found some vintage Good Housekeeping magazines all from 1929. Browsing through them and seeing the ads and looks into how the everyday person lived back then. Fascinating. Of course Hollywood in the 20s is well documented. I’d love to know what research sources you’ve found. I’m collecting new ones all the time.
April 7, 2010 at 8:26 pm
A very good thing!
Magazines are some of the best resources out there for the lifestyle element. The absolute best thing like that I have ever found is the Sears Roebuck Catalogue from 1927. WOW! If you could buy it, they had it. It’s 500 pages of utter bliss for any researcher. Not only do they list everything in their catalogue from clothes to mattresses to hunting gear to toys, but they also have images and prices of every single item.
Want to know what a new walnut dresser cost? It’s in there ($21.85). I love that thing.
Mine is set around small film studios, and the silent film industry is something I already know quite a bit about. It’s easy to find a wealth of information on that, like you said. There are so many books about early Hollywood, the hardest thing is choosing which one to pick up, rather than finding one at all.
Overall, I find the day-to-day stuff to be the hardest to research. What did they eat for breakfast? is a tougher question to answer than How many reels went into making that film?
I’m always looking for more info on the 20s and the place too. Send me a note through my website if you’re interested in discussing and I’ll get back to you.
http://www.jordantaylorbooks.com
April 7, 2010 at 9:30 pm
I don’t know anything about LA, but yes, it’s amazing how much you can pick up about a place by just a very brief visit. It’s not really possible to go everywhere we write about, and imagination is a great second best, but there really isn’t anything to beat standing on that earth and breathing that air. That tends to be one of the reasons why I prefer to set things in Britain rather than the USA. I don’t feel I can fake enough about the USA to convince a resident.
April 8, 2010 at 12:57 am
That’s right. We can still dream up anything, but seeing it for real is a nice bonus whenever possible.
Do you actually want to write anything set in the States? It’s a pretty scary place.
April 8, 2010 at 9:59 am
I haven’t had an idea yet which needed to be set in the States, but I can’t rule it out 🙂
(Though, come to think of it, I think I’ve done the last contemporary I want to do for a very long time, and I don’t have the same problem with historical periods.)
April 7, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Great post, and thanks for the info about LA – one of my WIPs wants to be mostly set there, and from what you say I may be better off looking for another location; except that most of the main characters are ex-pat Brits so they may be able to persuade me that that’s why they’re not like typical Angelenos… Hmm. That one’s on definite hold anyway so I won’t worry about it for now!
As far as visiting locations goes, one of my own experiences was a short trip I took to Edinburgh last August. The sole reason for my being there was that my husband had to do a day’s work in the city and his boss said “Take your wife, you’ll need to be there two nights anyway”. I don’t know what I expected to find there, but I spent all day wandering round just a few streets in the centre – up & down & around the Royal Mile, and then after lunch and a wander around the City Museum (which I’d stumbled across and is a real little gem of a place) I crossed over into the New Town – I think I’d even put it up above Sheffield as “If I had to live in a city I’d choose this one” – and Sheffield is where I lived for 3 years as a student and is still home to a good number of my friends…
I guess my point was kind of that not only does being able to visit different locations help us get the feel of a place, but it can also inspire things we’d never considered before. Or maybe it’s just that I’m slowly falling in love with Scotland…?
April 7, 2010 at 9:49 pm
I wouldn’t hesitate to set a story there. You’re characters don’t have to be typical Angelenos, in actual fact L.A. is probably the most multicultural city in the world. It has a far more diverse population and sometimes has the largest population of a given ethnicity outside of their place of origin. I know it has the biggest Armenian population. A huge Chinese, Japanese, and Korean population. And right now, the Latinos hold a majority so they have a heavy influence. One of my walks took me down 5th street all the way to Wall street and for the last 3 or more blocks it was almost 100% Latino. My only regret was that I didn’t know any Spanish so I couldn’t listen in. But I never felt any hostility or alienation.
I fell in love with L.A. all over again I guess.
April 8, 2010 at 6:58 am
Thanks for the encouragement 🙂
April 8, 2010 at 1:04 am
Thanks! I wouldn’t worry about setting something there if that’s where you feel a story should be. Just go for it. There’s no other place like it.
I really wanted to visit Edinburgh when I was in the UK, but never got there. Someday. Glad you got the chance to go! It sounds like a fascinating place, and much more open to exploring than London is. I didn’t think I’d make it out of London alive so that one left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.
April 8, 2010 at 6:56 am
London is in its own special world and not really very like the rest of the UK in many respects… I find these days I can cope with about 1 or 2 trips there a year, but I wouldn’t want to live there now – unlike my brother-in-law and his missus, though they’ve moved out of the centre of London now 🙂
April 8, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Not at all like it. I adore England overall. London was the only place I ever visited there that I would not want to return to.
April 8, 2010 at 7:08 am
Really interesting post,Jordan! I went to LA in 1998 and even though I was only there for 10 days (and some of that time was spent in Las Vegas – what an utterly bonkers place that is), I still have such a strong memory of it. I wouldn’t be able to write about it, but I do enjoy reading books set in LA just because the city made such an impression on me back then.
I try to visit the places I write about, or should I say I write about the places I’ve visited! I often write a story about a holiday rather than take loads of photos. Makes the memories last longer – especially as I’m really lazy about photos and never label them!
April 8, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Thanks! Vegas really is somewhere you need to see in person if you’re going to write about it! Bonkers is putting it mildly.
That’s a wonderful philosophy. I’ve been some places that just beg to have stories set there, from the moment you step off the plane or out of the car. San Francisco for example. I love it when that happens. 🙂
April 12, 2010 at 7:21 pm
I’ve managed to visit nearly every place that I write about…but often after the fact. And I’m usually pleased that I imagined it so truthfully. One great ally in that goal has been my very complete set of Michelin Guides…plus a very large personal library of art and architecture History. Several years ago I was walking by the Michelin office in Paris and decided I wanted to drop in and thank someone. The gate guard, receptionist and a vice president all gave me a wide-eyed look, a gallic shrug and said “You want to do what?”
April 17, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Travel is wonderful! Glad you’ve been able to see so many places. Having the sense to keep location-related research at hand is nice too.
LOL – It’s the thought that counts. 🙂 I would love to go to Paris to visit the grave of the original Rin-Tin-Tin, but a lot of people think that’s a silly reason to go.