Research, Part 2 (Know Your Stuff)

Elves.

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The following is an imperfect transcript of this episode. A complete transcript can be found on the show’s webpage.

[00:00:00] So let's just settle a debate right now. Tolkien's elves are better than all other elves, right? I'll let you decide. Today. We are moving into part two of our mini series of research, as it pertains to fiction on Writing in the Tiny House. Hello. Hello. Hello. And welcome back to the show. Welcome to Writing in the Tiny House.

[00:00:49] I am your host Devin Davis, and I live in a tiny house in Northern Utah, and I write stuff and tell you how to also write stuff. So the point of this podcast is to give you the steps and the insight and the advice needed so that you can produce a short story in as little as three months or a novel in as little as 18 months, and hopefully have the vision and foresight and wisdom necessary to adjust that timeline if you need to. Most projects are not done in that short amount of time. Last week, we kicked it off with research and fiction and how it is good if you are writing historical fiction and you are including nitty gritty details of a particular event in history that you are adding a fictitious point of view or fictitious related experience, or if you are changing that point in time completely or modifying it somehow. 

[00:01:49] That it is good, it is common courtesy to include resources and references that you might've used to gather your information. With fiction you're not required to do a works cited page, but there's always the possibility of footnotes or even just author's notes at the end of your sections at the end of your chapters or whatever.

[00:02:09] And if your novel does some stylistic stuff, like at the beginning of each chapter includes quotes by an important person in history or current day, it's important to include who said that and possibly when and where. So today we are moving on just with how to research as it pertains to fiction.

[00:02:33] Like I said, if you're doing historical fiction, refer to the other episode, if you are doing something else, then go ahead and perk up the whole point of fiction is to create an experience that can be immersive and believable.

[00:02:48] And sometimes it requires polling knowledge and theory and practices and cultures out of our real world and implementing them in some way into your own writing. So for those of you who are new to the game, I am a part of many different Facebook groups and there has been some debate, it seems weekly, probably not weekly, but monthly on elves. And it seems that everybody thinks that all elves belong to J R R Tolkien and they are tall and they are beautiful and they are immortal. And we forget that before Tolkien did that with the Lord of the rings, elves we're little horrible creatures.

[00:03:30] And they were like little goblins and monsters and they fit into that category. So I bring this up just because sometimes we feel that there are cold, hard rules with how we are engaging our audience and how we are writing our stuff. And there are hard, like there are cold, hard rules. However, when it comes to elves and it comes to magic in general and it comes to any of these other particular things with elves,

[00:04:04] Elves come from basic lore of different cultures in this world. So do dwarves, so do fairies. So do like Druids and such. It can be really good to investigate and to become better educated on your own as to where these things came from and how you want to further run with that, or if you want, instead to just invent your own thing.

[00:04:34] I think about like Percy Jackson and Rick Riordan's implementation of Greek history or Greek mythology and Roman mythology and how he adds a modern spin on how those things come out. And sometimes I think that the books themselves are a little bit heavy.

[00:04:58] Some of the mythology and some of it could be weeded out, but I appreciate what he's done. And it's obvious that he has done research and is familiar with those things. and even though he did not come up with a lot of the things that he mentions in his books and a lot of the iconic characters of

[00:05:19] greek and Roman mythology, you can tell that he's still paying homage to those things. And he brings in some of his own stuff too. So when it comes to like elves and monsters and things, it's okay to know that not all elves are tall and beautiful. Not all elves have to be little monsters. Elves can be what you want, but if you choose to call those monsters, elves, you are representing a certain thing and it is really good for you to know what you are representing as good for.

[00:05:49] To know that those words mean something to someone. And if that is not the picture you are trying to create, it's okay to try for something else. So when you are going through and gathering your information like I said, with fiction, you're not required to do like a work cited page. And for me, I like to be educated in a very general way, just so I can Bring some of these different elements into my own world.

[00:06:19] And so when I say educated in a general way, what I mean is many of my stories in my world of late, or that I am building with these short stories and with some of the novels that I still have in progress, just because it seems as a writer, we get to have like 10 works in progress. They take place in a certain time period.

[00:06:39] That time period is similar to an American or European industrial revolution. And I choose to keep their calendars and their years and stuff. I choose to have that kept in a similar way, just so I can actually have years and dates that represent a specific time period that is reflective of our world too.

[00:07:02] And I wanted dress and appearance and culture to be represented of that. Just. Convey a specific time and place, or at least give a nod to a specific time and place. And so many of the stories that I'm writing in this world take place in what would be a late Victorian or early Edwardian equivalent of time.

[00:07:30] And so. This means I get to know what a frock is and I get to know what Crystalens are. And and just all of these things that pertain to dress the ins and outs of corsets. I mean, I never thought in a million years that I would be researching corsets and I, I do all of this just so I can bring that familiarity and Draw from those ideas and pull the reader into the world.

[00:07:59] It is okay to have some familiar elements in your writing if you choose to. And if you have those things already, it is easier for a reader to relate. So I encourage you to think about your work in progress and to come to a similar conscious decision on how you can pull from those familiar things. I think about the Bobiverse books, which is a science fiction series and how. The author, pulls so much scientific theory into his books.

[00:08:35] And his books are fast paced. They are light hearted. They are a riot, they are fun and they challenge, or at least they show a possibility of what things would look like with artificial intelligence, with sentience artificial intelligence, and it's fun to have a sentient being exist entirely in a virtual world and only express outwardly through machines is.

[00:09:01] A fun idea. And in order to do that accurately, he has had to show his own familiarity with some different scientific theory and with his understanding of chemistry and manufacturing of stuff and the physics of it all in a zero gravity environment. And so when you go through, make sure that, you know, if you are bringing in weapons or specific spells or references to LOR that comes from other cultures, make sure that you are doing that with sensitivity. Some people think that fairies and Fay and faithful and whatever else are all just fairies, that they are all like Sarah J mass fairies.

[00:09:52] And the thing is, that's not right, even though they are like small Woodland creatures and many of them have wings, a lot of these ways to spell fairy or Fe or whatever. Ha. Some cultural background and I personally feel it's important to know what that background is before we just kind of dive into it, like spelling magic with a C at the end or magic with a K at the end, just make sure you know what you're doing so that you're not.

[00:10:23] Blundering into some form of an insensitive situation. So that's it today. Be sure to tune in next week, as we further explore research, as it pertains to fiction, have a good day, guys. We'll see you then.

[00:10:38] 

[00:10:38] And that is it for today. Just a reminder that "Brigitte,"Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor is available on Amazon as an ebook and on Audible and Apple Books as an audio book. And I provide advanced reader copies of these short stories as I release them to my patrons. So become a patron today by visiting patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse to support both my writing and this podcast. And lastly, be sure to follow me on social media. My Instagram is @authordevindavis and my Twitter handle is@authordevind. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today and have fun writing. We will see you next time.