Writers Do your Research
Make your setting and story world seem as real as possible. Even when writing Sci-Fi and Fantasy. The best way to do this is by doing as much research about WHERE you are setting your story and by research WHAT your characters will be doing in those settings.
My TV Pilot, Thistledown, takes place on a large family farm and I know very little about farming or the lives of farmers. I know my farm will be set in Ohio. I also know the primary product of my story farm is grass fed beef and lamb – not crops.
So I have to research various free-range farms that do well in Ohio. Where are the majority of these farms located? How large are they? What is the primary livestock on these farms? What are the secondary livestock on such farms? What are the daily routines on these farms? What farm equipment do they use? What do the animals, equipment, barns, sheds, and paddocks look like?
Many of these questions can be answered by surfing the internet. I capture images and print articles to PDFs, and store them in a “research” folder under my Thistledown TV Pilot project folder.
The images are great visual aids to help us realistically describe the same object within our writing.
For this project I even captured images of farm houses. I sketched floor plans for each building I would be using on the farm. Captured images of my imagined cast.
I devour each article, highlighting specifics that will help me portray my farm and the type of farming that my characters perform on a daily basis. You-Tube videos suck up a lot of time, but they are extremely helpful for getting in-the-know on something.
I found tons of useful farming videos on how farmers raise grass-fed cattle and sheep; how they use chickens and pigs to enrich their paddocks.
Beyond that simple research – visiting an actual Ohio farm is on my list of Must Dos this spring.
So if you want your stories to come alive for your audience research elements of your setting or occupations of your characters. Just remember, not everything you learn will be used in your screenplay or novel. Just add enough to give your audience insight into your character’s world.
