On the Necessity of Road Trips

Writing is alchemy. We take our experiences (actual and vicarious) and manipulate them into a story to share with others. The story must resonate with our experience, or it never becomes real to us. Reality is the key, whether we set our story in an alien world, a galaxy far away, an imagined past or future, or in the stark here and now. If it’s a sci-fi or fantasy setting, we have a little leeway; no one else has been there either, and so can’t call our hand on it. (We still need to do our research, even for imaginary places.) We cannot Google experience. We must walk the road before leading our reader down it.























In Cold Tears, I set two brief scenes in the artist colony/tourist town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Despite having been there several times over the last few years, I wanted to “taste” the place again before setting down the scene in print. My wife and I had a long road trip, driving through the hills of Missouri and Arkansas to get there. We enjoyed a nice meal on the balcony of one of the restaurants on the main street. We walked the town, and took pictures. Later, I drew upon the feelings and the pictures in my mind as I set the scene, not to reproduce my experience, but to portray something believable and authentic.

I like to think of it as a sort of impressionistic portrayal of a real place. That’s what we do, isn’t it? We take our real-life experiences, filter out some elements, embellish others, and try to produce a realistic vicarious experience for the reader. Perhaps the best way I could put it is to tell you about Niagara Falls. I haven't been there, so all I can truthfully say is, that I imagine it’s damp, beautiful, crowded with tourists, and loud. What I can’t do is transport you there because I’ve not “tasted” the place.

We must take the oldest writer's advice that there is: write what you know.