I confess. This is about as close as I’ll ever get to deep sea diving. I admire all those adventure junkies out there. Those zip-lining, skydiving, roller-coastering thrill seekers. My idea of recklessness is going five miles above the speed limit. Even as a kid I would look at all those kids at the waterpark climbing 100-foot towers to some waterslide of horror, while I would just shake my head and turn towards the innocent little pontoons in the placid canal.
Well, my WIP takes place in a deep sea cave. The logistics
pose a challenge for me, but I look to the words of the great Nora Roberts for
comfort. A decade or two ago I attended an RWA conference and she was teaching
a class. She said, “Look at my desk. You’ll see little piles everywhere. Neat
little stacks. Look at this pile right here.” She held up three sheets of paper,
and said, “This is my research for THE REEF. Do you think I’ve actually been
diving?”
Neptune's Grotto in Italy
Blue Grotto, Italy
As a writer, have you ever been forced out of your comfort zone in the spirit of expansion? As a reader, do you like to read about things you've never done before, or probably won't do?
7 comments:
Lol! Great post! I write about many exotic locales and enjoy traveling there in my imagination when other factors prevent me from going in person. It is easy to get caught up in too much research, though. It's a real danger!
I've had three copperheads on my property in the past year. That's as much adventure as my heart can take. LOL
This post caused me to think back over what I have and haven't done to boost my writing. One thing I did do some years ago is attend an AA meeting for a book that is yet unpublished. I needed to know how AA meetings are conducted, and I was blown away by the honesty of the people who spoke. They bared their souls. No amount of imagination could have duplicated that scene.
I love stories of arctic desolation and tragedy, both fiction and nonfiction. There's something about that cold, white inhospitable land that scares the crap of out me.
I love it!
That must have been quite an experience, Jean. Now we'd like to read the unpublished work to feel the emotions in it!
Me too, Daryl! I read Lost Horizon when I was a kid, and to this day I believe Shangri-la is still hidden inside the mountains.
Those caves are fascinating! Creepy, but in a magical way, if that makes sense. My writing is very 'domestic' in that I rarely move out of contemporary or my own part of the world. But I really enjoyed researching the remote Scottish island of North Uist for my latest romance novel. The readers seem to like the desolation and the poor weather! :)
I had hoped to see the Blue Grotto when I was at the Isle of Capri as a college kid, but alas our group timed it wrong and the water was too high (or at least that is the excuse we were given). Want to go back sometime. Great post!
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