It's Okay, I'm an Author

Side note: is there such a thing as method-writing?

When I was 14, my parents cashed in their savings and took the four of us (them, me, and my younger brother) on a once in a lifetime trip to Europe for a month. (All four of us have been to—and even lived in—Europe multiple times since then, but not all together, so it remains a once in a lifetime trip and memory.)

At the time, I already had plans to become An Author, but it was on that trip, specifically during our short visit to Salzburg, that I began to develop some fantasies about Authorship that were maybe not particularly grounded in reality. It started when we visited Hohensaltzburg Castle, the fortress that looms over the picturesque city below.

image courtesy of wikimedia commons, created by S Chakrabarti

The castle is enormous, and I remember very little about it except two things:

1. Considering the amount of castle available, we were able to view frustratingly little. (Their website indicates that maybe more of it is open to the public now.)

2. There was this sluice gate or something which I immediately started imagining as a way to infiltrate the walls (maybe someone actually did—I can’t remember if the tour guide told us about it or if I thought of it myself), and began imagining a story about it.

But in order to write a believable story about an infiltration of Hohensalzburg Castle, obviously I really needed to be able to explore all of Hohensalzburg Castle. I would, I concluded, need to write a few really good novels first—ones which needed less research (Ideally they would be fantasy novels that take place in other worlds so I wouldn’t have to research anything but make absolutely everything up) so I could make a name for myself. And then, I thought, I could come back to Hohensalzburg Castle and say, “Hi, I need to be able to view this entire castle from top to bottom for a novel I’m writing. I’m a famous author.” Then I would show them my bestselling books, and they would be very excited about their historical edifice ending up in my next work, and they would give me full run of the place.

After that I started thinking about all the cool old houses that one runs across on the regular in New England. Those places wouldn’t even require that I travel internationally—although the international travel part certainly had its own appeal. I imagined driving up to the carriage house of one of the fancy dwellings on the North Shore of Massachusetts, say, and giving them the same schpiel I would give to the Hohensalzburg people. Surely some of these places had secret passages and things. And I would be able to see it all! Because I was an author.

For reasons I no longer recall, sometime last year I told Paul about this (really absurdly long-lived) teen writer/house-fantasy I had had. He finds it hilarious, and now periodically when we are on one of our entertaining family drives (us and the dogs), if we see a really cool house, Paul will make up a scenario in which I am discovered ransacking the place, and when the homeowners call the cops I say, “It’s okay. I’m an author.”

So far this has never happened. But maybe it’s just because I haven’t written any bestsellers yet.

You could help with that last part, though—Follower releases in a week! And you can preorder it directly from me right now.

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Okay, but in all seriousness.

(Fine. Maybe not all seriousness. But a little?)

A couple of weeks ago I saw this on Instagram or somewhere:

We know about method acting. But has anyone ever tried method writing? And if not, can we make it a thing?

Here’s what I mean: I really dislike research. (This distaste is not going to stand me in good stead when I start my DMin in August, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, I guess.) At least, I dislike research if it means I have to look things up on the internet and find sources in books—much as I am constantly on the internet and absolutely love books. I like research if it involves getting in conversations with live humans who know something about the thing I’m trying to find out about, or if it involves experiencing a place. What if an author could experience a place for a couple of days and pretend they are their character living in it?

On Monday, before heading to the retreat center at which I wrote this post, I drove down to a park in Rhode Island that is going to make at least one significant appearance in the time travel story at which I am slowly picking away. I know parts and parks of Rhode Island quite well, but not this part or park. And it was good I went there, because the photos and maps I saw of this place on the internet did not give me the experience of what it is like to be there. Also, they didn’t show me enough of what I needed to know to write my scene believably. (I had to rewrite a decent chunk of one moment because what I originally described my character as seeing—or expecting to see—was not what is actually there.)

Even Monday’s visit wasn’t enough, though. Because it was pouring. And this park has hiking trails. And while at some point maybe it would be helpful to know what it’s like to wander around in the woods in this park in the pouring rain, yesterday was not that day and I was not so inclined. But I do want to explore on foot a bit. So I’ll have to go back. I hope to imagine myself as a 14 year old while I’m there (it’s been…a while, but I have been one of those), wandering among those trees for the first time. That part will be true at least.

Do any of you other authors—of fiction specifically—”method write”? Have you ever managed to get someone to let you into their house so you could put it in your novel? Do you have a cool house? Would you let an author stay there for a couple of days for research?