So far, we’ve looked at things that had something to do with the actual process of creation, and that you probably were able to pluck out of our imagination without too much trouble. Unfortunately, however, no one can know everything about everything, and this is where research comes in. I like to see research as an opportunity to learn new things in areas that I’ve never before even perhaps thought about. And if everything you learn doesn’t end up in a book, there’s always Jeopardy...
Research
The first important lesson you need to learn is that not everything you write in your book has to be true. It does, however, have to be credible. The trick is to know enough about what you’re writing about to give it this credibility.
When writing your crime novel, start by employing knowledge that you possess yourself. You’ll soon find out that you know quite a lot about a wide range of subjects. But when this knowledge starts to dry up, that’s when you turn to research.
EXERCISE:
You assignment is to choose one of the two subjects below and to do the research necessary to at least convince me, as your reader, that you know all about it. The main objective here, as always when writing crime fiction, is to keep the tension taut and not to show off your detailed knowledge of what you’re writing about. What I want, in other words, is a passage that would belong in a crime novel, not a clinical description.
It’s up to you how you do your research: library, internet, interviews, whatever. The two scenarios are:
1. The medical examiner is about to conduct an autopsy on a woman’s body. No one knows how the woman has been murdered, and his job is to find out. Write a text of at least two sides of A4 in length.
2. A Jewish household is in the middle of celebrating Hannukah when a member of the family is found murdered. Write a text of at least two sides of A4 in length in which you describe the event against the background of the celebrations.
Suggested reading:
A forensic dictionary