By Bruce Memblatt
How many times have you been watching a movie or
reading a novel in which a character has a magic gun that never runs out of
bullets? How many times have you scratched your head and said “WTF?” Those head scratching moments are the “aha”
moments that every writer should dread because those are the moments readers
are being taken out of your story, and, they are being taken out of your story
by you.
Research in fiction writing is pivotal not only to
your credibility as a writer, but it is the thing that makes your work ring
true. Everything about your story is
false - it is a creation of your imagination-it never happened- but in order
for you to get a reader to feel like it did, it must appear real. It takes good
research to make the Impossible seem possible.
Research can assume many forms. They can range from
factual to the speculative. If a revolver can hold six rounds, that is a fact
beyond dispute. In comparison, if you’re researching an historical event, usually
there is an array of opinions and views regarding what happened. You have to
use your judgment, and chose what is best for your characters. You also have to
remember you are writing fiction, not a term paper. Your use of facts should be limited to those
which help move YOUR story forward. I had to perform exhaustive research for my
story, “Abandoned,” which will appear in SHADOW MASTERS - the
soon-to-be-released anthology from The Horror Zine, because most of the action
takes place aboard a slave ship. I also had to use a lot of restraint to stop
myself from allowing the facts to overwhelm the fiction. As a great man once said, “God is in the
details.” Too many details can run your ship into the ground. The key to everything is good judgment; make
your research work for you, not against you.
From New York City, Bruce Memblatt joined the staff of the
Horror Zine in 2012. A member of the HWA, he has been published over one times
in zines, magazines, and anthology books in publications like The Horror Zine,
Sam's Dot Publishing, Post Mortem Press, Danse Macrabe, Parsec Inc, Dark Moon Books, Yellow Mama, Bewildering
Stories, The Feathertale Review, and
many others.
His story" Destination: Unknown" was cited for an
honorable mention in the 2013 L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, and his story "Dikon's
Light" is a recipient of Bewildering Stories 2012 Mariner Awards.
Coming up he has a piece called," Abandoned" in
Shadow Masters from the Horror Zine and Imajin Books, and one called, "Stranger than Life : A Post
Mortem" soon to appear at Namless
Magazine.
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