“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? ”
- Albert Einstein
Writers are liars. It’s true, and certainly not a new sentiment. We make shit up to entertain others.
And we are pretty good at it. I mean, get a bunch of urban fantasy writers in the same room and the discussions of vampire politics and the different strains of lycanthropy can become downright damn EPIC. We will sit and contemplate all things esoteric in our stories, dragging from the musty shelves of our inner library things we have read, both mythological, historical, and fictional. (Yes, I am aware that is actually three things and three things cannot be a ‘both’. Don’t get lippy.)
These nuggets of knowledge all blend together to make us experts on our own brand of supernatural as it applies to our story.
But we often try to do the same thing to the real world stuff, and that is where we fall down, scraping our metaphorical knees and making us walk with a metaphorical limp as we cry for our metaphorical mommy. (That is a whole lot of metaphor, but you catch my drift.)
This genre of urban fantasy is named such because we take that fantastical, supernatural, and theoretical element and shove it right into the modern reality of life. The rub between the two is part of what makes our fiction so good, but only if we write the ordinary world stuff as well as we write the supernatural stuff.
Here are some big things you should do in real life, if they apply to your story. This won’t be comprehensive, merely suggestive, but it should kickstart your critical eye as to places you may need to do real world research.
* Does your heroine (or anybody in your story) wear heels? If so, do you know how to walk/run/fight in them?
* Does your hero/heroine wear boots, combat or otherwise? Do you know how it is to walk/run/fight in them?
* Do any of your characters have any body piercing/tattoos? If so, for the love of all things holy, RESEARCH this. I have been a professional tattoo artist as my day job for over fifteen years. In all my years of reading urban fantasy where people have piercings or tattoos I have read only ONE proper take on it. Talk to an artist or a person who has what you want to write for your character.
* Are there guns used in your book? I bet there are. We love guns for our characters, but if you have never held or shot a gun, then you are getting it wrong. You are. You can’t help it. (Hey, one of my favorite authors, whose talent is far greater than mine, once wrote her character pulling back the hammer on her Glock. The only problem? Glocks do not have hammers. Nothing like a hammer. Nothing to pull back.) So go to a gun range, rent a gun, and shoot it. Or come to Atlanta, hit me up, and I will take you to the range and teach about shooting a gun. Oh, and count your bullets when writing. Guns only hold so many bullets and it drives me crazy to read writers going all Hollywood with guns that apparently never need reloading.
* Last, but not least, have you ever driven a car like that hotrod you gave your character? If not you need to find a car club and see if someone with a car like the one you wrote about will give you a research spin around the block.
Go out, live a bit like your characters, write it off as research, and have fun. It will make your writing better.
Until next time, write well.
James R. Tuck is the author of the Deacon Chalk: Occult Bounty Hunter series. Book one, BLOOD AND BULLETS, will be available February 7, 2012 from Kensington Publishing and is available to for pre-order from Amazon.
