His bound wrists would prevent
him from using his arms to swim, but with his hands holding onto the wood, at
least he could keep himself afloat while he kicked. Fifty yards. He could do
that.
He grabbed the branch, ran to the
dock, and dove into the dark, brutal current.
Hmmm. Would that work? Is it possible
to make your way across a swollen river wearing handcuffs? It sure seemed
possible, especially for the resourceful, tough-as-nails Sandro, but I couldn’t
let myself run with the scene, not until I knew. So I did what any dedicated
writer would do: I brought rope to my husband and asked him to tie my wrists
together. Yeah, I got a look at that, but he (quite happily I might add)
obliged, and off I went to the backyard. My husband quietly followed. I found a
2x4 to play the role of the stick, then jumped into the deep end of the pool,
fully clothed (couldn’t wear a swimsuit, since poor Sandro didn’t have that luxury.) Then I swam. Kind of. Holding the wood beneath my chest, I kept
my head above water and kicked my way to safety, and voila! Presto! I had my
answer: If I could do it, surely my fantasy guy Sandro could. Dilemma
solved.
Research.
Sometimes there are no shortcuts.
The Internet is a writer’s best
friend. While the thought of research can send you straight back to school and
that term paper you didn’t want to write, the reality is getting the facts
straight is critical. (Just be careful you don’t end up on the FBI watch list.
That’s happened!) We all love making stuff up, but you can’t say a heroine can
free herself from being duct-taped to a chair just because you want her to. You
need to know if that’s possible. That’s the challenge bestselling author Virginia
Kantra faced when she decided to duct-tape herself to her office chair to make
sure she really could free herself. Um…she couldn’t. And it wasn’t even noon
yet, DH was at work, the kids at school, the phone across the room. So there
she sat, in her office, bound to her chair as minutes dragged into hours.
Finally her teenage son came home, followed her voice to her office, and walked
in on something he’d never imagined walking in on! I would have loved to have
seen the look on his face!
Fortunately, being a writer’s son, he immediately deduced that he hadn’t
walked in on a home invasion, but rather, his mom doing what all good writers
do. Research.
But sometimes research means
leaving the house. How else do you find out if it’s possible to escape while
handcuffed to a police cruiser?
When romance author Diana Duncan found herself in line at Starbucks
behind a uniformed cop, she immediately seized the opportunity to solve a key
plot problem. Thrilled, Diana struck up a dialog with the cop and soon found
herself out in the parking lot being handcuffed to his car, while her horrified
teenage daughter looked on.
For my current YA series, the
Midnight Dragonfly books, there’s not one New Orleans locale that I haven’t explored
myself, including a late night sprint from Bourbon Street to the levee, to see
how fast you could feasibly get from one place to the other. I’ve sat with the
psychics and had my palm read, and I’ve climbed the fences and hidden behind
trees and…um….sorta gone somewhere no one was supposed to go. I can’t say where, but the second I
learned about This Certain Place, abandoned since Hurricane Katrina, I knew it
was perfect for a crucial dramatic sequence. And despite the abundance of
YouTube videos about This Certain Place, I knew I had to make a visit myself. I
needed to see the swamp encroaching upon the parking lot and the chain link
fence (to make sure it could be climbed), the abandoned buildings and…well, I
can’t say what else I needed to see, except whether it was true that certain
objects were still there after over five years of abandonment. I needed to
breathe the air and smell the decay. I needed to see the graffiti and feel the
despair.
And I did.
And it was amazing.
I was scared to death, but that’s
okay. Knowing that, how frightening it was to be there, how many places there
were to hide, the realization that there were probably others there,
hiding—watching—only enabled me to add that much more authenticity to the
scenes.
And that’s what it’s all about.
Authenticity.
I do have to add that not all
research involves risking your life (or breaking the law). When I first started
writing Shattered Dreams, I researched the most popular brands of jeans among
teenage girls, and found myself in a Buckle store to see for myself. The next
thing you know, I’ve been fitted for my own awesome pair of Big Stars!!
Research definitely has its perks,
the more extreme the better.
What's the craziest thing you've done?!?
