When to call in the experts

[pegkerr]

Spent an hour on the Internet looking for web sites on Hotshot wildfire crews, and getting more and more confused and frustrated. I can't decide whether to abandon this story or not.

The problem is, I'm sinking into the research like La Brea tar pit, and there doesn't seem to be any end to it. I can't write it because I don't know enough, and I can't get enough of a handle on the research. I'm trying to write a story about a totally foreign culture. I haven't felt this bad since I was trying to figure out how to write about Manhattan gay bath houses in the early 1980s for The Wild Swans.

I know someone I could ask: my sister's sister-in-law has been doing wildfire fighting for years. I've met her like once, and I'm sure that I could call her up and say, I've got this story I'm working on; could you vett it for me? Or at least help me kick the idea around so I can figure out how to get it off the ground?

I've never had anyone refuse when I've approached them as a potential expert. In my experience, people are flattered to be asked to lend their expertise. But there are some people I don't have the nerve to ask, and they're generally people who are in fields with a lot of involved technical information. Like I had that story "The Silver Answer," about the woman cop psychically linked with her K-9 partner, and I worked on it as hard as I could for months. A woman I work with is married to a K-9 officer, and I never could work up the nerve to ask him to vett it. I don't know why. Maybe cops are too intimidating. Maybe I was afraid it would sound too much like a bad cop show and he'd laugh at me. Ridiculous. And so I never sold the story (although I marketed it to a lot of places), and I keep taking it out and picking at it every two years or so.

So: do I try contacting Barb or not? The problem is, I don't feel I know enough information to know what to ask her. And so I read book after book after book, trying to absorb an enormous amount of material that people spend their whole careers learning. And trying to hypothesize out the future developments of technology. I'm ready to tear my hair out in despair.

I can't quite bring myself to abandon it, and I can't quite bring myself to contact Barb, and I can't quite bring myself to write it.

Aaargh.

Sometimes I feel like such a greenhorn ninny. Disgusted with myself tonight.



Snarling,
Peg

Comments

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

I'd stick with it - unless it becomes a chore and you're not having fun anymore, in which case shove it in a desk drawer and think of something else. Not that my advice is worth much ... I rip off Harry Potter books and you ... yeah ... well ... nuff said!

And gay bath houses, you say?

:edges slowly out of room in direction of Borders:

I think I left something in my car.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

(Laughs) Now you've shown me up to be a howling hypocrite: it's not fair me to send you a comment on your journal titled "Carpe Diem" and then wibble about hesitating to talk to an expert.

Well, I won't give up on the story yet.

I'd be very curious to know what you think of The Wild Swans. I told the story alternating chapter by chapter between the viewpoint of a young gay man and a young heterosexual woman, and the really surprising thing to me about writing it was that I ended up feeling much closer to the gay man. That was primarily for technical reasons: I was telling Elias's story in limited third person viewpoint, and Eliza's story in omniscient, which is much more distancing. Interesting experience. Anyway, if you do read it, I'd love to know your reaction. Thanks.

Squee!

[(Anonymous)]

Is this relevent? Not so much, no, but it's still fun. I just finished reading "And the Band Played On" by Randy Shilt. Katie said that you'd used it for research in Wild Swans. Your comment on the difficulty about writing about the bath houses made me think of that. I felt a lot closer to Elias when I was reading Wild Swans, rather than Eliza (although when I was reading Eliza's part, I unconsiously felt like I couldn't talk). I think Elias was easier to identify with because his was written in first person, and also because it was set in more modern times. His story made me sad, it felt more real, while Eliza's story made me mad at what was happening to her, mainly because it was through stupidity and jealousy, and witch hunts always make me furious. Okay, am off to go read "All's Fair".
::flits away::
~ Corinne

[flourish.livejournal.com]

La Brea tar pits? Getting mixed up as to where those are - if they are in California, my mother almost certainly has everything anyone will ever need to know about them. She could write a guidebook; she's been everywhere.

Heh. This is the only reason I like living in CA - you have a lot of cool settings in one place.

[flourish.livejournal.com]

Hah. Rereading this, it sounds like I am offering information.

For the record, I am not THAT idiotic... although I *am* approaching that point, because it was an attempt at humor to mask the fact that I am bad at relationships and cannot offer advice.

*meeble*

[ex-mahoney365.livejournal.com]

>>>So: do I try contacting Barb or not? The problem is, I don't feel I know enough information to know what to ask her. <<<

No idea why I'm offering advice, but...I think you should contact her. Out of the scads of research you've done, maybe pick out a couple of things that peaked your interest and have them in reserve. You may not need them. Even though you don't know enough to know what to ask, so many people just like to talk about what they do - what's exciting about it, what's boring, what's frustrating. If you can get her talking, the conversation might develop naturally into something helpful to you; ideas might solidify; questions will suggest themselves. Or, you might discover definitively that it's not going to work for your story. Either way, would be a really interesting conversation...

[lcohen]

unsolicited answer: i'd go ahead and ask Barb--it's respectful and flattering, and if you make it clear that she can say no, then it shouldn't hurt anything between you and you won't be any worse off if she does say "no." and you may be much better off.

have you ever read Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean? (yes i work for the publisher of the book, no i haven't read it, but you might see if it would be helpful since it sounds like it's on topic. get it out of the library so i don't look like some sort of company shill ;-) .