Mining Your Vacation: A Potential Research Bonanza
Author: Susan Peck
Original Publication Date in Love Notes: November 2003

As readers, we enjoy picking up books that can transport us out of our own backyards and into a more alluring or exotic time and place. Books are opportunities to visit cities or countries we’ve never seen and to experience them vicariously. As writers, we often want to set our story in a location other than our own hometown, but quickly discover that no matter how much information we can get through Internet resources, research books or remote friends, nothing can take the place of an in-person visit.

Vacations provide the perfect opportunity to scout out a distant location, to pick up the sights, sounds and smells that will bring the setting alive to your readers. In an ideal world, you would be able to schedule your travel destination based upon the manuscript you were working on at the time. Planning a regency? Take a trip to London. Setting your book in New Orleans? How about a Mardi Gras vacation? Of course, this isn’t an ideal world, and often families or friends may influence your vacation plans. Does that mean your trip along the coast to visit famous lighthouses or the family get-together on the Outer Banks is a bust from a research standpoint? Not at all. Just because you aren’t currently planning to set a book in the location where you’ll be traveling doesn’t mean you never will. If you view every vacation as an opportunity to research a new setting, you’ll be armed with information when that plot idea for a romance set in Peggy’s Cove or Nag’s Head strikes.

By following these simple tips, you can make the most of your vacation, no matter where you might be headed.

READ UP ON YOUR DESTINATION BEFORE YOU GO: Becoming familiar with the general background information on your vacation spot will allow you to focus in on the details once you get there. Is the area significant historically? Is the city known for its musical traditions or for its cultural attractions? Or is the region famous for its natural wonders? Pick up a few books from your local library or bookstore and find out.

COLLECT MAPS AND BROCHURES: When you arrive, stop by the local visitors bureau or tourist information center. Most offer maps and official publications, at little or no cost, which include basic information about the area, such as population and industries, as well as comprehensive lists of local festivals and sites of interest. Hotel lobbies are also great sources of brochures advertising local attractions. Why pick up that brochure on horseback riding in the Catskills? Someday your heroine might decide to open a trail-riding operation in the mountains of New York, and you now have a local source to call for more in depth information.

KEEP A TRAVEL JOURNAL: Record the basics, of course, such as the names of the places you visited — it’s amazing how quickly these details disappear from memory when you return home — but also make a special effort to capture sensory details. Describe the scent of the sea-saturated air as you sat on the weathered deck of that quaint restaurant along the Maine coast. Describe the taste of the lobster roll you ate. Creamy? Slightly sweet? Thoroughly decadent? And how did the mist-laden air feel against your skin? What sound did the water make as it lapped against the pilings? Recording these sorts of details will help you create a richer, more vivid picture when you describe your setting later for your readers.

TAKE LOTS OF SNAPSHOTS: Film is cheap. Years from now when you decide to set your story in that melancholy fishing village or during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, you’ll be glad you took so many. Photos can provide the visual details you need to create a realistic setting. Don’t just snap pictures of Aunt Mabel standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, though. Take shots of the ordinary scenes: a busy city street, workers on the dock, the costumed revelers. Later, you’ll be able to examine these photos for details of architecture, clothing styles, color schemes and other elements that make the place unique.

READ THE LOCAL PAPERS: Nothing quite captures the flavor of a place like the local newspaper. Are you staying in a small, sleepy town with a weekly paper that covers the PTA meetings and the fireman’s picnic? Or is the city a thriving metropolis with a world class daily? And while you don’t want to lift a story from real life, browsing through the papers may trigger a few plot ideas. Are there any ongoing areas of controversy? Local preservationists or environmentalists fighting invading developers? Maybe casinos, or some other controversial industry, are moving into the area. Or perhaps industries are moving out, leaving the area depressed. Is crime on the rise? Is the city known for being a hotbed of political ambition or corruption? Have gangs or organized crime taken over the city? Keep your eyes and ears open — potential stories are all around.

TALK TO THE LOCAL CITIZENS: Staying at a bed and breakfast? Talk with your host. She may be able to fill your ears with the local lore that doesn’t make it into the official travelogues. Taking a tour? Talk to your guide, not just about the sights on your itinerary, but also about attractions off the beaten path. Which restaurants and clubs do the locals frequent, and which are considered tourist traps? Which areas of the city are considered exclusive, and which are considered dangerous? Cultivate contacts. Most people are more than happy to talk about what they know, especially if you explain that you’re a writer and may be setting a book in their region. If you strike up a particularly good rapport, try to get their address or email so you can ask more questions if the need arises after you return home.

Implementing these ideas will help you maximize the mileage you get from your travels. If you think of each and every trip as an opportunity to dig for information, you’ll soon be buried under an avalanche of plot ideas and settings more valuable than silver or gold.

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