 |
 |
|
|
9.
AOTW: Many of the situations and scenarios in horror novels are so, well, horrible, it seems impossible they could all be products of pure imagination. Do you ever research real events to get ideas? Does the Internet ever come in handy?
Whitley Strieber: My website --- unknowncountry.com --- is news oriented. It explores the edge of reality...and so has in recent weeks been heavily involved in mainstream news. As I have said before, when it comes to my horror fiction, it is so intimately connected to my life that the two cannot be separated. The gray predators of the Wolfen with their brilliance and their huge eyes were the gray aliens of Communion. The blond being of the Hunger and The Last Vampire is the blond messenger who haunts Communion and Transformation and Breakthrough. My nonfiction is my fiction is my nonfiction. I don't think that my work is a product of imagination at all. I don't think I even have an imagination.
Tananarive Due: I rely more and more on research as I become a more mature writer, and the Internet is invaluable. It's also invaluable to listen to people's stories because life experiences are chock-full of scenarios that can be fashioned into horror stories.
Christopher Schildt: Research is required in any good writing. I spend time visiting sites, creating images for the reader from my experiences, and developing inspirations that come from other books and movies. Real events are far too often not suitable for my books. The Internet is a great source for the science and technical details that make the work believable, but is not the source of inspiration.
Kelley Armstrong: Basing story ideas on real events is a writing exercise I like to use, which occasionally leads to a short story or novel idea. Instead of researching the event, though, I take a provocative headline and invent a set of circumstances to go with it. The Internet is a great place for coming up with story ideas. After hours of surfing paranormal and occult sites researching my current novel, I know that if I'm ever stuck for a story idea, there are plenty in cyberspace. Much stranger stuff than I ever encounter in a newspaper!
Douglas Clegg: No, I make up the stuff. The only research I do has to do with location, or how a house is put together, or where you can buy a can of tomatoes at 3 AM in a small town in Virginia. Otherwise, I just make it up.
Darren Shan: Well, of course, this question isn't really relevant in my case, since THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN is a true story ... :) heh heh heh!!!!!!
Ameilia Atwater-Rhodes: I research people. Though my characters may be witches and shapeshifters and vampires, they are still just people. They think the way people think. And the fact is, people can be pretty bad. They can be amazing and wonderful, but they can also be horrible. You don't need to research them to be exposed to that horror. You don't need to look any further than CNN, or sometimes your own classroom or workplace.
R.L. Stine: I have to admit I do almost no research. Almost everything comes from my twisted imagination.
David Searcy: I think the tricky thing is not so much imagining the horrible as sympathizing with it.
|
|
|
|
|
(c) Copyright 2001, AuthorsOnTheWeb.com. All rights
reserved.
|
|
