Editorials

By Meghan Morrow

It seems to me lately, that we have been growing a bit sloppy with our writing. I don’t mean that our grammar is slipping or that our characters are unbelievable; just that we don't appear to be paying as much attention to the details as we once did. One of the largest mistakes that seems to be showing itself more and more is the complete lack of research being done for our stories. We cannot claim to know everything there is to know out in the world, but we still write stories involving areas that we do not fully understand. Since the first person put pen to paper and wrote, "Once upon a time..." people have been writing books, short stories and any other forms of writing you can think of that stray from what is known to them. Whats more, is that readers believe the author has actually been to the places he writes about or experienced the world he describes. These authors have put the effort into creating a “real world” for their readers and some have even been able to convince us of a not-so-real world. But these authors have done their research. They know what and how the world must be described. They have traveled to the places they hope to describe, spent countless hours on Google, read book after book after book on the subject. These writers are dedicated to providing a realistic experience for their readers.

So why, now, have we been growing lazy when writing about places or people we have little to no knowledge of? Are we hoping no one will notice if a few colloquialisms are wrong or the setting is unrealistic? In truth, readers know when the writer is full of it, so we shouldn't hope to fool anyone with a lack of knowledge. The anachronisms may start out being few and far between, but the moment the reader spots the first one, they become mistrustful of the author and their eyes open to the possibility of other errors. The entire point of writing a story is to go somewhere, even if it is your own backyard, an create a new world. We are not going to achieve this goal by filling our stories with mistakes. The only way for us as writers to create is to thoroughly research the subject we are trying to write about.

Some topics will be easier than others. Writing a story about your neighbor will be infinitely less difficult than writing about a woman from the seventeen hundreds. Each of these settings can lead the readers to get lost in the writing, but one slip and the reader will notice. None of us can be absolutely sure how people spoke in the seventeen hundreds even with the proof of written documents from the time period, so how are we supposed to ensure there are no discrepancies? Honestly, there is no way--aside from time travel--but with enough research we can describe the world and the people in it with enough detail to create a believable atmosphere. Even writers who make up there own world do research. They cannot just write out that all of the world is made of pudding and be done with it; they would have to learn more about the properties of pudding.

I leave you with this piece of advice; Research. Read books, check the Internet, ask your friends. Whatever approach you choose, the research must be done. Writing a story isn’t just about writing down a string of words and ensuring there is a beginning, a middle and an end; it is the attempt to create a place of wonder and share it with the world.