Research and its use in writing! Hayden Lee and Thomas Bickerdyke

Research is an important first step in writing; it allows the writer to gain a wider understanding of contextual issues (if period) and a wider knowledge on his/her subject (whatever it is s/he is writing). For example if the author writes a book about fighter pilots they would want to do research on fighter planes from whichever era the book was set in in order to deliver a more realistic, descriptive and well rounded piece of work. The research can be gained first hand, by going and learning how to say, fly a plane or it could be secondary research using the internet, books, etc on the different parts of a plane and how it works, this enables the writer to enforce more detail whilst writing and to develop more interesting plots etc. As opposed to no research, where the piece would not have as much weight and it would lack detail, which would make it bland and uninteresting. Research would enable the writer to write with a wider understanding of the topic so with more confidence and on a more authoritative level.

Research will usually take time and is often done before starting the piece of writing or near the beginning. Depending on what it is you are researching it could take quite a while, if you were going to have a piece of writing about the ancient Greeks you would need to learn more about their customs and gods and everyday life in order to best set the scene with an accurate depiction of what it was like in that time. Or for example, you want to use archaic terms in your work to make it more authentic and effective since your piece is a period drama but you only know a few archaic terms. Research will enable you to use more terms as well as correct any mistakes you have made for example you have misused a certain archaic term and it has affected your drama by making it amateur(ish).

Another thing that needs to be researched isn’t just ‘the what’ but also ‘the where’, it's not just about what you do but where you do it. A famous example of an author who travelled to places such as Spain during the Spanish civil war and learned about the place he would set his books is Ernest Hemingway, similarly Jack London spent some time in Alaska during the Gold Rush and learned about the land there before going on to write some of his most famous works set there.

Another way of doing research is interviewing people who know about what you wish to write about, for example if your main character is an engineer you could go and interview an engineer to find out about the job, or if you were going to write about a cult or a paranormal horror story you could interview a Demonologist, or if you were going to write a book about dinosaurs, a paleontologist. Research like this will help develop and strengthen your idea/plot for your piece, as it will shape how you think. It will also show you what other writers have achieved and how they used different techniques in their work. Sometimes doing this can provide you with ideas and things that you haven’t thought about before.

Something to keep in mind when using research is that if the piece of writing is non-fiction then although you want to be accurate you can also take some creative liberties with the writing. Can people really out-run an explosion? No but it makes for a great scene. Does Jack London know the thought process of the animals he  wrote about? Not really. If you lay accurate foundations for the work though people will be able to forgive, and appreciate, the odd moments when you suspend fully accurate realism for a better story.

Head Wound City

Before reading this you may find it of use to listen to the EP being discussed. You can find the whole thing at this link: goo.gl/mjjazg. Enjoy!

Head Wound City (2005)

Head Wound City will leave you a bloody broken heap on the floor. They’ll mug you at knifepoint, leaving you with nothing but your own teeth scattered across the pavement. Born in an era of play it safe ‘indie’ pop rock bands, Head Wound City refuse to play by the rules, they’re a violent, headache-inducing alternative. They’re the kids hanging around on your street corner at midnight, the boys that daddy hopes you never bring home.

The EP presents itself as self-aware look at the place and times they live in, openly mocking the ‘idealistic’ landscapes of California and the grandeur of the people that inhabit it- implying that it’s all a fugazi. Guitars screech like an old dial-up modem, the singer wails his words against a background of barbaric blast beats, all while punctuated by jazzy inflections. Everything goes at its own pace and direction but comes together to create an erratic harmony. Lyrics are mostly made up of enraged absurdity ‘I've got these radical friends broken lips, rainbow violence pink clouds on a razor mountain’ derived from not fitting in with the beach bums and trust fund baby-hipsters of cali ‘So you've aced the prick class: moustache for extra credit. Climbing up to privileged. Pretty sweet. You pleased your parents.’ Couple this with the amount of noise they make and you’re left with a Kafkaesque headache.

Head Wound City are ugly and they want to show you how ugly the world is. So ‘Set sail for the fucked coast’ and let’s go get beat up in Head Wound City.

Harry English.

Black Widow By Alex Pritchard

A spider spins a web,

It rests in the corner of a room.

There’s a fly buzzing around.

It seems to be lost.

The spider waits patiently.

It is hungry for more.

The fly has found itself somewhere unfamiliar.

It can’t find an exit.

A spider catches a fly,

And sinks its venom into it.

The fly is confused,

Where did it go wrong?

The spider slowly wraps the fly,

A fragile cage of soft silk,

The fly can’t move,

but it is comfortable.

It tries to deny its fear.

‘I’m no longer lost!’

It thinks.

‘I have a comfortable home!’

Was there somewhere it needed to be?

Had it already forgotten its pain?

Was this love false?

Was there someone real-

Crunch.

The fly came to his senses.

He’d been liquefied in his comfortable cocoon.

How had he not noticed?

He’d let himself be devoured.

I was stupid. So stupid.

Showing and Telling - Melissa Cavinder and Harry English

Showing and telling are two different techniques used within literature for the author to tell their story.  While it is often said that you should ‘show not tell’ there is no definitive method the author should use. Think back to when you were in school, your science teacher would explain to you how to set up and carry out your experiment, some people may have been able to follow instructions and carry out the experiment straight away. But you may not have understood, however as soon as they set up the experiment you were able to replicate what you were shown. People learn in different ways, whether it’s through auditory, visual or kinaesthetic, there is no wrong way to learn, much like showing and telling there is no wrong way write. Unlike the different learning styles though, it doesn’t just concern the individual, the author has to bare in mind the reader and the advantages and disadvantages of showing and telling.  

Showing is primarily used as a means to involve the reader in the story- as if they were actually there. Showing intends to demonstrate to the reader what is happening in the story as opposed to informing the reader what happened, for example when trying to establish setting the author may write ‘Harry’s breathe became visible as he was met by the roar bitter winds’ instead of ‘It was cold when Harry stepped outside’. Through the use of the senses such as sight and hearing the reader knows that it was cold outside, instead of just being told it was cold outside, this allows the reader to envision themselves in the world created by the author. While showing is more dramatic and illustrative, it also takes more words to describe simple events, so authors that show may lack brevity and could also risk of rambling on- causing disinterest in the reader.   

Telling takes on a very different role in storytelling. Showing uses lengthy description, whereas telling gives us the facts but doesn’t expand on it. For example, whilst showing would explain how someone is beautiful and what formed this opinion, giving us detail on their personality or outward appearance, telling would simply just say that they’re beautiful in it’s basic form. Another example would be showing the reader that the beach takes the characters breath away by giving a description of the smell and surroundings, but telling would state that it took the characters breath away but wouldn’t show it in a way that subsequently takes the readers breath away. It’s the fact that telling doesn’t connect the readers senses to the story that makes it a complete opposite to showing. Whilst most would say that showing, not telling, is the better of the two, it’s necessary in some written work to use telling. For example, if showing says how a character feels about a sunset and it’s impact, you need telling to say what the characters doing, why they’re looking at the sunset and if it’s reminding them of a previous experience. In some forms of writing, telling us is more important, one of those being scripts. Scripts are written simplistically, and need very basic language and technique as most of it will be performed. In a poem however, telling wouldn’t be used at all, as it’s all about the emotions and the senses being provoked.

Examples (link here)

Telling/informing: They stood close and wrapped their arms round each other in a passionate embrace, so that she became aware that he had been riding, and then that he was as nervous as she was.

Showing/evoking: They gripped each other and the tweed of his jacket was rough under her cheek. His hand came up to stroke her hair; she smelled leather and horses on the skin of his wrist. He was trembling.

Both showing and telling are important in their separate ways. In most cases, it’s necessary to use both to give the reader all they need for it to be a success. You can’t have a piece that gives us extravagant and beautiful description without telling us the facts surrounding it. Although most people say to show, don’t tell, it’s best to use a combination to get a well rounded piece of writing.