Writerly Questions

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“Where else can you post, I need to blow up a car. Can you help?” This was the ending sentence on one of my email digests this morning, which made me laugh. It’s a list run by former law enforcement professionals for crime writers. They help us work out the details, running that balance between what’s factual and what works in fiction. CSI and other such shows and movies have changed forensic “reality” so much for readers, that if a writer sticks to what’s real, readers think it’s wrong. So we have fun there, asking questions that might raise a few eyebrows in other venues.

Writers sometimes get asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” Well, that’s the easy part. Ideas are everywhere. I can get an idea for a good, old-fashioned murder mystery just by walking through the mall or around the parking lot. The follow-up is usually harder, so I’ve found that the question I get more often is, “How do you know that?”

Hm. The first time I heard this puzzled me. How do people know anything? Research, read, network, talk. In other words, you ask someone who knows.

This wound up being an eye-opener for me, because it was another one of those “I thought everybody did this!” moments. If I get curious about something, I research it. I’ve done that since I was a kid, spending quite a few hours in the library. With the Internet, it’s even easier. For me, continually learning new things is one thing that keeps life constantly interesting.

Apparently, people still have curiosity, but no interest in actually finding out. Why is that?

Hm….that sounds like research to me.

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