Recently, our wildlife expert Willem and I were discussing moths. Now, I know nothing about them, but Willem's an expert. He'd been doing some research on Thomas Harris' novel The Silence of the Lambs, which famously features a couple of species of exotic moths. Willem's verdict: Thomas Harris made too big a deal out of the amount of work involved in identifying those moths. According to Willem, any good entomologist would have been able to spot those moth casings in half the time it took the 'experts' in the story.

My take on it was that the research probably impressed Harris, who wasn't an entomologist, and he wanted to make sure the audience followed the reasoning. So he slowed down the process. Fair enough. But that made me think: when do you want to do that in your writing, and when don't you? It probably depends on what you're trying to get across.

Obviously, if you're writing instructional material, you want to 'show your work', as my chemistry teacher used to say. The process itself is what you're trying to illustrate. Don't leave out steps, and don't expect the reader/learner to make intuitive leaps with you. In fact, it's a good idea to model the process more than once.

In fiction, you probably want to avoid that. But you'd also do best to avoid skipping the process altogether. Say, the way they sometimes do in science fiction. The 'wave your magic wand' approach can be insulting to the reader, and tedious in the long run. Just as over-explaining the process can be – especially if the process is hard to visualise. So, what to do?

I think one good approach is one Willem and I agreed on: ask an expert. Go do the research yourself, with a knowledgeable informant, if possible. Then, try to take your reader through the same process you went through. It probably won't matter if the reader ends up feeling, 'Hey, I knew that already.' It will probably just make them feel smug and clever.

If you're writing a humorous story, you could even get a lot of comic mileage out of the research. Who knows? That might even become someone's favourite part of your tale. And when all else fails, try adding pictures. A good diagram is worth a thousand words. And keeps you from having to spell so much scientific terminology.

Wherever you do your research, try to make it accurate without being overdetailed. Integrate the information-gathering process into the narrative. And try not to exhaust the reader's patience.

Writing Right with Dmitri Archive

Dmitri Gheorgheni

24.11.14 Front Page

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