Research For Scawy

A friend of mine once told me that he liked writing Fictional stories because he felt that it was easier. "What do you mean?" I asked, "Shouldn't fiction be much harder? In effect, you're creating something from nothing. At least with Non-Fiction you have to adhere to real events."

"Yeah," He agreed. "But you don't have to research for fictional stories." And that was all he had to say about it.

In theory you don't *have to* research for a fictional story. But the very best fictional stories are formed using research based on real events. Stephen King's landmark novel The Shining was based on a frightening hotel he stayed at. Writers who want to write accurate depictions of frightening events like abduction or murder should always look up what these events feel like for the people it actually happened to.

I am working on a story with the working title of "Scawy." In this story a man named Steven finds a strange dark plastic garage bag with a note attached to it. However, as the story progresses, it becomes clear that this garage bag is not just any trash receptacle. By the end of the story, the bag seems to be moving closer and closer to Steven, threatening him. It is obviously sentient and growing. Also growing in the background is tension and resentment that Steven feels against his best friend and roommate Jake. Nothing in this story is based on factual accounts or events.

But how will my research make it feel like it was?

- I will be looking through a selection of paranormal blogs where people describe strange unexplainable events that happen to them.

- I will look around the US for a small suburban city that gives me the right vibe I need for this story and use that location to help give this story's setting a new life. It's hard to get grounded in a story that seems to reside in nowheresville.

- I don't know if I described the albino character who startles Steven in the beginning well enough. I'm going to look at the symptoms of albinism.

Research

My story "Scawy" is based around an unknown, spooky happening in a suburban setting. What ends up causing Steven to disappear is not ultimately revealed so this gave me more freedom in not having to stay within a rigid closed-off attempt at being as realistic as possible. But perhaps my story could be strengthened in the following ways:

- Finding an actual setting. If the reader recognizes the town in the story, or the fictional town in your story feels like it could exist then you do a better job of placing the reader in your story. The town takes a backseat in my story and does not even get a name.

- Reading up on similar cases. Now I'm not sure there will be any real events that happened quite like the events portrayed in Scawy... but there is strange unexplained phenomena all over the planet. I could search for a website of all these stories and find a recurring emotion or feeling these people felt during these strange happenings.

- Add a bit of history. If I looked up some important events in several different locations, I'm sure I could find one that would fit in my story and help add another latyer to the lives of the characters in the story.