"Holly Lisle - Mugging The Muse" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lisle Holly)

You might think that I'm off on the wrong track already тАУ that maybe this
first rule is sensible for people who are working on historical novels or
science fiction or round-the-world thrillers, but that it doesn't apply to you.
After all, you're planning on writing a novel set in the town in which you
currently live, using thinly disguised versions of your friends and relatives as
the characters, so you don't need to research your background.
Yes, you do.

HOLLY LISLE
MUGGING THE MUSE: WRITING FICTION FOR LOVE AND MONEY 31

In your town, which streets intersect lanes; in which direction do the house
numbers run; what kind of tree is that monstrous thing that grows in the
library's side yard; what are the five most common varieties of birds you'll
find around the bird feeder in January, or the birdbath in July? What is the
family name on that elaborate tombstone that you notice every time you
drive to the grocery store? What color are the handles on the carts in your
grocery store, and if there's lettering on them, what does it say? Are the
parking spaces straight in or diagonal? Which families started the town, and
are they still in control of the place? What material has been used to pave the
streets? How old is the oldest house and where is it? Who built the projects
over on the east side?
I could ask a million questions like those тАУ they're the sort of questions I
always ask myself about any new world I'm creating. They are small,
personal questions, which when answered offer intimate knowledge of a
place. That intimate knowledge is what will make your book come to life тАУ
tiny, perfect details, mentioned so casually that you might not even realize
you have included them.
To get these details you have to look around your world with the eyes of a
stranger before you begin to write. You must become an innocent, asking
silly questions and being willing to make a fool of yourself. And this is true
whether you're using your home town or creating a complete world from
scratch on the fourth planet out from an alien sun. You have to name the
flowers and the trees and the grass, the streets and the houses and the stars,
the animals and the rivers and the clouds тАУ even if you don't intend to use
these names, or this knowledge. Even if you don't think you'll need it.

The act of learning these details will make them part of your thoughts, and
your mind will know they exist even if you don't put them on the page. And
as a result, the book you write will live within a whole world, and not in a
Hollywood set, where if you walked out in the front door of that beautiful
house, nothing would greet you but the parking lot behind the propped-up
set.



тАв Know your characters.
Don't spend half an hour going through your baby name book to pick out a
name for your main character and call that character creation. You want to
have a feel for what your character would do in most situations (though if