Authenticity: Can You Go Too Far?

I actually have an answer to provide for my question today: it’s a big old yes.

And no.

I love contradictions. And subjectivity. Both provide so much clarity.

I need to explain a few things before I go much further or I’m going to confuse everyone and myself. I’m going to be using “research” and “authenticity” interchangeably in my post because authenticity comes out of research and research leads to authenticity. And, by “authenticity,” I mean the feeling that a story doesn’t comes across like it’s standing on a foundation of poorly made up crap. I want my readers to feel a glow of satisfaction when/if they realize the legitimacy of my facts/the sturdiness of my world. I don’t want them to roll their eyes at me.

Now back to my point!

I have to answer my question with an emphatic yes right off the bat because it is far too easy to get so deep into your research that you literally get lost. I’ve talked about getting quagmired before; this authenticity idea is more the other side of the coin.

I’ll admit that I am officially drowning in research notes for my current project. Every time I’m convinced that I’ve looked up the very last thing I need to know, I sit in front of that blank page and it hits me that I need to know 10 more aspects of my world. Kate can attest to this, I had to look three things up before we could get to our first word war on July 1st (the start of Camp NaNo). I decided that day to leave three other items for later just so I could actually get some writing done.

I’m frustrated at my progress, but at the same time I KNOW I need to know what I’m spending so much time researching. Or my story is going to be terrible. There were will be epic craters in the plot and the stench of its inauthenticity will permeate every page. I just can’t do that. My story is set in an actual city that I’ve never visited and involves aspects of that city that a lot of people will know. Hence, my setting needs to be airtight, which means I need to know the culture, customs, laws, and everything else really really well. Oh, and my story is also greatly interwoven into the urban landscape. Why did I do this to myself? A question for another day…

I think authenticity is absolutely applicable no matter if you’re creating your own world or not. If you construct a totally alternate world by winging it people are going to notice. I’ve read books where characters contradict themselves or the narrator tells me something about the world that is noticeably different from what was said to start. I hate it. You don’t have to provide readers with your sheets of research notes –this goes back to the ice burg topic –but major details and explanations need to shine over the course of your story’s plot.

 

I’ve managed to talk myself in circles without coming to a real conclusion, haven’t I? I’ll try to wrap it up. At the end of the day, you’re going to be able to sense if you’ve gone too far. I’m standing on the edge of the precipice of too far with this project right now. I can feel it because every time I go to write I have to backtrack through too many notes to figure out where I was going. Yet at the same time, everything I’ve looked up is going to appear in my stories. Not in as much detail as I have jotted down, of course, but it’s going to be there. And anyone who knows my urban centre is going to know it and, I hope, appreciate it.

I’ve gone too far too many times to count. I think I have finally found a balance and I am so ready to write.

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