And so this elderly woman, very distinguished lady, at this writing seminar asks me what I write.
"Science Fiction and Fantasy," I say.
"Oh," she says, "you don't have to do research."
The idea that you do not have to do research to write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy is false, and a tad belittling to the writes of said generes. All good writing is real writing. All research is not sitting in a library or surfing the web for raw data.
Characters, creatures and creations must be real. You know how I do most of my research, by doing. You know how it feels to be in a snow-covered forest, been there. Sword fighting, yes. Ever seen a dragon? No? Ever seen how agile a large animal like a rhinoceras or elephant can be? Ever seen a crocodile's eye? Ever burned yourself?
Ever felt guilty? Hated? Ever hated someone or something? Have you seen the tragedy of death, or the worse tragedy of an unfulfilled life?
Ah, but now I sound cliche'd you say. Maybe, but LOST is on, and it is one of the few show I actually like.
Go live and so do research.
2 comments:
hmmm, I made a comment somewhat like that not too long ago I believe. But I don't think I implied no research, but I came close. I of course, did not mean it in a be-littling way. I could in my estimation of things be grossly mistaken however, because I would assume, that it does take less work to research something you are envisioning than something not. But in the future I will be a bit more careful.
Depends a lot on what kind of writing you are doing in the Scifi / Fantasy genre. All SciFi that is not out-and-out space opera will require a significant amount of research, especially if it deals with the here-and-now, or not too distant future. Fantasy, good fantasy, has a lot of connections to our world, and man that requires a ton of research.
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