Beware or Be Amazed

I just got done reading Michael Crichton’s State of Fear, which is just as intellectual as it is roller coaster ride. I won’t give any spoilers if you haven’t read it, but on thing absolutely amazed me when I got to the end of the book… there was a bibliography.

Not only that there were footnotes and references throughout Crichton’s work of fiction (Yes, Fiction not Non-fiction), he goes on to say his take on the global warming subject that is addressed in State of Fear. And then Crichton writes that he spent three years researching before starting State of Fear. THREE YEARS! That is Amazing, and a little daunting if I think through how much research I’ve put into my own WIP.

It makes me question the amount of time I spend researching before I place my characters in the first scene. Would you count your research time in hours, weeks, months, or years?

I think this is an important thing to think about, when joining in the insanity and fun of writing a manuscript. If Michael Crichton didn’t do his years of research would we believe: Dinosaurs can be brought back from the Jurassic Age(Jurassic Park, The Lost World), Time travel is possible (Timeline), or Global warming doesn’t exist (State of Fear). The amount of time he puts into researching his novels is what makes them bestsellers time and time again. His story worlds are so in depth and you can’t help but see them as truth on some levels.

This should be the goal of all writers.

To present a story world that makes us think about our own place in this universe. That is the joy of Fiction, and what I hope to be the goal of all my manuscripts.

Happy Writing!