Melanie Nilles

Sometimes I wonder if getting a cat was a smart idea. I sat down to post about writing, but she wants my undivided attention. The cat’s not the only one to demand it either, but she’s the only one to shove her face in my hands while I’m trying to type. Her motor is running, the gentle vibration of peace and contentment. Soon she’ll be off to play, since she can’t settle in my lap.

What would life be like without all the people, animals, and others we encounter? What would our writing be like? Without the experiences that challenge us and aid our growth as people and, more specifically, as writers, our characters and plots would be flat and boring. We draw on those experiences to enrich the lives of our characters. We may not experience something as our characters do, but because of our experiences perhaps being similar or our ability to incorporate the stories of friends, family, acquaintances, and others into our imaginations, we breathe life into the characters.

As writers, we already have great imaginations, whether they carry us across the desert on a camel caravan or put us behind the wheel of a race car or provide us the gentle reprieve of an ocean beach while savoring a marguerita. Incorporating the lives of others is something that drives us. It’s why we read, and why writers write. However, that requires that writers have the tools to make it happen. Those tools are experience and age. I’m not saying a young person can’t write a good book, but I know that in looking back on my writing from my younger days, I can see the difference that time has made.

Research is great, but unless a writer has the frame of reference to incorporate research on a subject, writing about it doesn’t do it justice. In some cases, we do what we can because it’s all we have access to. When we can find a way to experience something firsthand, it makes a huge difference on the believability of our characters and plot.

Along those lines, keep these things in mind. If you’re using a real setting, make it an excuse for a vacation to visit before you write about it–talk to the people who live there, visit the places you may not necessarily use, observe daily life. If you want to write about a particular profession or field, talk to people in that field. Ask the hard questions. If you don’t have access because, like me, you work in a world that only exists in your imagination, do the research in this world. You can always modify it to fit your world, within reason.

Now the cat is attacking bugs. She sits at rapt attention, her eyes big and focused on the flutter of wings taunting her. Her tail lashes side to side and she squats lower and lower, her muscles bunching into a tight spring, until she releases them in a pounce. Although her paws reach the bugs, she hits glass. The deck doors are closed, but she thrills with the chase as much as she does the catch when those flying bugs sneak in. (Flies and moths don’t last long in our house )

Stories should have that thrill. The best way to provide it is through preparation and understanding. Just as the cat observes and anticipates, so must we as writers, by understanding what we wish to convey so that the reader experiences it as we do.