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Several years ago, I wrote an article about setting in fiction for a writing magazine. The angle was how research field trips could enrich your writing. As a longtime journalist, hands-on research comes naturally to me. I’m used to picking up the phone, explaining that I’m a writer, and requesting a tour and interview. I’ve done it for hundreds of newspaper articles, so I have no qualms about seeking out experts to research my novels.
I’ve hung out and chatted with interview sources at a hospital emergency room, childbirth education class, dog training school, prison, power plant, Christmas ornament factory, homeless shelter, haunted inn, and at a psychic’s house; during a police cruiser ride-along, on the firing range, and inside a courthouse, to name a few. I never could have created such authentic setting descriptions without being there in person and asking my list of questions.
However, some authors feel hesitant about e-mailing or cold-calling a stranger for research purposes, especially writers without a publishing track record. Here’s my advice: do it anyway.
Agents and acquisitions editors trust writers who strive for accuracy. Readers love authors who plunge them into settings ripe with authentic details. Field trips can expand a writer’s knowledge base and provide opportunities to gather color, atmosphere, and on-scene information unavailable in a research book or on the Internet.
Sure, the adage ‘Write what you know’ has some truth, yet if that’s all we wrote, our fiction would be boring. Next time you get stuck on a scene, put on your reporter’s hat and go out and find the story.
Here is advice and setting anecdotes from five of the novelists I interviewed for the original article.
Lisa Gardner
Bestselling suspense author Lisa Gardner met with the Rhode Island State Police for her novel The Survivor’s Club and even staked out a Providence courthouse to determine the ideal angle for a sniper shot.
For The Killing Hour, she visited the FBI Academy to learn about the life of a new agent, and she spent a week with the U.S. Geological Survey team, checking out remote places in Virginia for an “Eco-Killer” to abandon his victims.
The Other Daughter led her on a hunt to Texas, where she researched execution protocol.
“I need to be able to picture something to write it,” she said. “Actually seeing Texas’s retired electric chair was so much more riveting than simply reading about it. To walk through a maximum security prison, getting the sights, the sounds, and particularly the smell, made the whole atmosphere come alive in a way simply talking about it never would. Then I can take this experience in turn, and make it come alive for the reader.”
Stephen Coonts
Stephen Coonts, bestselling action/adventure author, took a flight in the F-22 cockpit concept demonstrator at Lockheed Martin in Georgia for Fortunes of War. He talked his way into the V-22 Osprey simulator at NAS Patuxent River, the basis for scenes in his novella Al-Jihad. While research is vital, he advises not overloading the reader with information.
“The first requirement for any writer is a good story,” Coonts said. “Once you see how the story is going to go, then do enough research to give the tale the flavor of authenticity. Salt in a little jargon, but only a little. Write around details you don’t know. The easiest and best way to do research is to find an expert and ask precisely the questions to which you need answers. Shotgunning (or scattered) research is a waste of time.”
Jodi Picoult
As part of her research for novels such as Plain Truth, The Tenth Circle, and Second Glance, bestselling writer Jodi Picoult has milked a cow in Amish country and roughed it with native Alaskans. She shudders when she remembers heading out to an abandoned New England mental institution on a winter night with paranormal investigators. Her group trudged across a field where a building had burned down with patients inside.
“I was walking with a sensitive, someone who can ‘feel’ ghosts,” Picoult said. “Suddenly, all the hair stood up on the back of my neck. Before I could even mention this to my walking buddy, he lifted a digital camera and held it up between us backward, over our shoulders. Although there was nothing visible to the naked eye, in the viewfinder of the camera was a white, misty, wraith-like image.”
Janet Evanovich
Anyone who has read the humorous Stephanie Plum series, about a female bounty hunter sleuth with attitude, knows how much detail bestselling author Janet Evanovich weaves into the books. That all stems from research.
“One time I was meeting a bounty hunter for lunch in a crowded Au Bon Pain in downtown Washington and this guy came in dressed in leather,” recalled Evanovich, whose books include the recent Twisted Twenty-Six. “I was trying to find out what he did and how successful he was. He did this arm thing and reached for something on the table, and all you could see was this illegal Dirty Harry gun. The place cleared out and we were the only two people left. It was important for the Stephanie Plum series as it gave me perspective on crowd reaction, and made me think about how I was putting my heroine in this atypical and unsavory job.”
Deborah Donnelly
Deborah Donnelly, author of the Wedding Planner Mysteries, writes so vividly that her books caught the attention of Hallmark Movies and Mysteries. The channel adapted her book Veiled Threats into the movie the Wedding Planner Mystery.
“While researching May the Best Man Die, I toured the Seattle’s Best Coffee roasting plant,” she said. “I explained myself as a mystery writer when I made the tour request, but apparently no one told the gentleman who showed me around. As he dutifully described all the specialized equipment, I kept asking questions like, ‘If one of those sacks of coffee beans fell on you, would it kill you?’ and ‘If this place burned down, would the coffee smell really good?’ He kept edging farther and farther away from me… Eventually, he learned the reassuring truth about my odd profession.”
Arranging Research Field Trips
Are you inspired to make a field trip to enrich the setting in your book? If you want to tour a site or interview an expert, search the Internet for leads. Larger organizations might have a PR department that handles inquiries.
Cold calls are fine, but don’t subject someone to an on-the-spot interrogation; make an appointment so you both have time to prepare. You could also outline your request in an e-mail.
Before the visit, read up on your subject and develop specific questions. Bring a notebook to the interview and ask whether you can call or e-mail with follow-up questions. Afterwards, be sure to show your appreciation with a thank you note.
What type of field trips have you made to research your books? Share in the comments. If your book is published, share an excerpt that reflects your research and a buy link.

Hi there! I’m Stacy Juba, an author, freelance editor, and the founder of Shortcuts for Writers. I’d love to connect. If you’re a writer, here are a few ways we can work together:
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Great advice, Stacy & ALL!
Good luck and God’s blessings to each of you
PamT
Thanks so much, Pam! Thanks for coming by.
I am writing something on the Duke of Wellington. (So far) I’ve been to his London town home (Apsley House), his country estate (Stratfield Saye), and the site of his death (Walmer Castle). Portugal next. Mainly this makes for fun vacations but I think it helps to imagine him and his life.
Thanks for coming by, Sarah. What a fascinating research field trip! Good luck with writing the book.
Great advice. For THE JAGUAR LEGACY , I visited Monte Alban, a ruined city in Mexico. During our tour, I discovered the guide was an expert on the Olmecs, an ancient race, and peppered him with questions. I hope these excerpts bring THE JAGUAR LEGACY’s setting to life:
A hawk soared overhead with a wild screech. Insects buzzed and whirred in the underbrush. They walked until the main excavation area opened up in front of them, but that wasn’t what captured Charley’s attention. Two disembodied stone heads stared at her with empty, slanted eyes. The monolithic sculptures were round and eight feet in diameter.
“What do you think?” Kincaid asked, his voice vibrating with eagerness.
She absorbed the flattened noses, wide lips, and ferocious scowls. “Those statues are intimidating.”
***
She caught her breath at the sheer size and grandeur of the excavation. Directly across an area the size of several football fields, a pyramid rose, dazzling white against the backdrop of dark cliffs. A double bank of stairs graced the front, and the sides dropped away in a series of steep terraces. Ruins crowned the summit. Earth mounds and crumbling walls in various stages of excavation dotted the perimeter.
***
The soaring cliff rose above the pyramid, dwarfing the efforts of ancient man to bring order into a chaotic existence. She peered up, squinting against the blazing sun, her heart pounding in the stillness of the golden morning. From the bottom, the pyramid was too steep for her to glimpse the summit, but she knew the temple awaited her arrival.
“You’ll have to climb sideways,” he said, interrupting her thoughts. “They built the stairs steep and narrow on purpose, forcing people to zigzag up the face, similar to the movements of a snake. It must have made an impressive sight when dozens of people snaked in a single line to the summit.”
“Let’s do it.”
“Are you sure about this? I don’t want you tumbling to the bottom. Blood tends to stain white marble.” He seemed to think it over. “Though an artistic smear or two of gore might add a touch of realism, don’t you think?”
THE JAGUAR LEGACY: MyBook.to/JagLeg (ebook, Amazon Prime & Kindle Unlimited)
Thanks for sharing that excerpt, Maureen. What wonderful, vivid details!
I went on a tour of a cranberry farm for my Cranberry Cove Series and watched them harvest the cranberries. It was a group tour so I didn’t mention that I was a writer and when I asked the owner what they would do with the cranberries if a body floated up in the bog, he was definitely taken aback.
That is too funny, Peg! I’d love to know what he said.