God turned a season of burnout in my life into a sudden bend
in the writing road. That virtual curve led me from life as a nonfiction editor
and writer to the “Dark Side” of writing fiction.
Novel writing demanded a new set of skills, mastering things
like subplots and layers and description and dialogue – both internal and
conversational – and Voices of Truth and Voices of Passion. There’s a lot of
“chatter” in fiction. I had a lot to learn if I was going to do this right. After
all, my goal wasn’t to wander around lost in the darkness.
And so I made a strategic decision: I would write
contemporary romance, not historical. If I wrote about now – the world I live in – then I’d avoid hours of researching clothes
and food and cultural mores. That way, I could focus on mastering the rules of
the writing road for a novice novelist.
Brilliant move, yes?
Well, no and yes.
Turns out, writing contemporary romance doesn’t exempt you
from research. I live now, but that doesn’t mean I know everything about today
– or the past five years, for that matter. I am a writer – and a wife and a
mom. However, not all of my characters are writers, wives and moms. Professions
for pretend people require research – as do locations and hobbies, among other
things.
Even so, I’m satisfied with my choice to write romances
based in the here and now of Colorado. I love that I’m immersed in my imaginary
characters’ Storyworlds. And if I need
to do research, it’s no more than a walk around the block or day trip away.
When I needed to describe what my heroine in Catch a Falling Star saw from her west-facing floor to ceiling windows, I looked out my windows and watched the sun set behind the Front Range. I also accessed some of the hundreds of photographs of Colorado sunrises and sunsets I have stored on my computer.
One of my characters in my debut novel, Wish You Were Here, liked to run in Garden of the Gods, a public
park – and national landmark. I grabbed my camera and invited my husband to
walk with me through this beautiful locale a mere fifteen minutes from our
home. As we walked and talked, I paused and snapped photographs of the towering
red rocks – and the lone white one. As we passed tourists and families and runners
and spotted the occasional climber ascending a rock face, I reminded myself
what my imaginary character might see as he ran through the park.
Made up characters have to eat and drink just like real
people do … well, you know what I mean. The well-known Craftwood Inn was the
backdrop for a pivotal scene in Catch a
Falling Star. Featuring a wide-range of game, it’s one of my husband’s
favorite restaurants. We’ve eaten there a number of times. Even so, to describe
the interior and the meal, I went to the restaurant’s website and viewed
photographs and a current menu.
For Catch a Falling
Star, I knew I wanted a military hero. I opted to make Griffin Walker a
fighter pilot because Warren, one of my husband’s best friends, flew A-10s. Since
we live all of 10 minutes from the U.S. Air Force Academy, it was easy to
include that Griffin was an Academy graduate. Before polishing a scene where
Griffin revisits the Academy for the first time since he graduated, my husband
and I walked the exact spot my fictional character walked as he pondered his
life choices. And yes, I carried my camera, asking my husband questions to
flesh out the scene because he’s also an Academy grad.
Colorado is over 100 million square miles, and is home to
more than 5 million people. With the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, locations
like Denver and Estes Park – not to mention Telluride and Aspen – and landmarks
such as the Olympic Training Center and Mesa Verde National Park, I’ve just
begun to explore the novel possibilities of my home state. My goal? To take my
Interesting post--reminded me of my one vacation in Colorado.
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