Research and Contemporary Fiction

Recently a few people have asked me about what (if any) research I did for my novel. It's easy to assume that a book set in a roughly contemporary period in the city where I currently live would not require much of a library card workout in terms of research materials.

In fact, I got to do quite a bit of reading while writing the book. I say "got to" because I really enjoyed my research. My protagonist, Maggie, runs a store which sells (among other things) New Age paraphernalia, so I read books about Tarot cards and healing crystals, as well as some shorter articles on auras and aura reading. It wasn't something I knew anything about prior to the novel, but I needed to know what Maggie knew in order to write her, and having that knowledge became integral to the book.

The other subject on which I did a lot of reading was significantly more challenging. Maggie's mother, Carol, drowns herself in the Don River at the beginning of the book (literally the beginning, so no spoiler alert needed), and I felt I owed it to Maggie to read some non-fiction accounts by people who had lost loved ones to suicide. It was difficult, to say the least, but enlightening.

My favourite part of the process though was researching Toronto, where the book is set, where I live, and which I love. I double-checked even things I assumed I knew, just to make completely sure I didn't have Maggie standing at the corner of two streets that don't actually intersect or eating in a restaurant that didn't exist at the time, and I learned things I hadn't known at all, much of which didn't make it into the book but which was of great value to me as a mental backdrop (and as geeky municipal know-how).

There was one day in particular that sticks out, where I decided I needed to check the physicality of the river scenes, particularly Maggie's memory of her mother's death. I rode my bike up and down Bayview and tramped around in the weeds near the train tracks, trying in vain to locate an entry point to the river. I skulked around the Humane Society building and under the Don Valley Expressway. Finally, I remembered the staircase down from the Queen Street bridge. Locking up my bike, I went down to the river with the sun setting, using my bike light as a flashlight, still wearing my helmet in my rush, and undoubtedly looking completely insane. While high school kids calmly drank their surreptitious beers on the path, I dropped rocks into the water and tried to gauge the distance from ledge to river and various points of depth. I climbed down the bridge supports and noted the kinds of garbage on the shore, the buildings in the distance. A few days later I came back, this time riding up the pathway from the south, and I took 52 reference photographs (a few of which accompany this post). All to write two scenes, one of which is less than 650 words long. A friend called me during one of my excursions and we had the following conversation:

Me: "A drink tonight? I'd love to, but I'm in the middle of something."

My friend: "What are you doing?"

Me: "I'm trying to figure out the logistics of drowning myself in the Don River."

My very understanding friend: "...Writers are weird."

I may have been less nerdily enthusiastic about research if it had been necessary for me to slog through thousands of pages of social history in order to convincingly write about another century or something similarly demanding, but things being as they are, I am happy to say that I loved the research process. I like the chance to learn about bizarre things I might not otherwise be motivated to explore, and I like incorporating things I learn on my own into my writing.

For instance, I took sailing lessons while writing the book, so you'll notice a few sailboats and sailors manage to creep in. And for my story in The Walrus, I had good reason to research foley artists and their practices and terminology, which I might not otherwise have done. In some ways, I think research is a bonus for a writer and can really bring a character to life -- it's almost as if you are listening to them talk about their interests, like a new friend or lover. And if nothing else, maybe it will help with my Jeopardy skills. (Final photo: my trusty bike, Billy. I may have combined my research trip with a grocery shopping excursion, ahem.)