GUEST POST TIME!
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Writing
Hi! I’m Darlene. I write science fiction and romance. A
funny thing happened on my path to becoming a writer. I took a detour through
religion, private investigation, and anthropology. I’d like to talk with you today
about the last because it can help you with your research.
I’m a dragon at research. My love of deep history is one of
the reasons I detoured into anthropology. You see, way back in 2011, I took an
anthropology class called Introduction to Anthropology. I blame Indiana Jones
and Stargate for piquing my interest and reminding me that in my childhood one
of my favorite things to do was to research Ancient Egypt.
That class was taught by an awesome anthropology teacher,
Dr. Kathryn Keith, who wore the coolest outfits – one day she would come in wearing
high heels and a blue wig, and other days she’d be wearing outfits from various
time periods and always had fun hats. It was one of the toughest classes I took
because although it was a 101 class, she taught it like it was a 300 level
class, but it ignited the kindle in my heart for research. It also set me down
a strange and winding path.
How can this help you, the writer, staring at your keyboard
and wondering what the Yanomamo or !Kung have to do with current writers? You
know why – we are inspired by the events we experience and the books we read.
I read “Doing Fieldwork among the Yanomamo” by Napoleon A.
Chagon and was inspired to look past my cultures. This same paper would trigger
a cascade of cultures that inhabit the universe of my work in progress, The Divantinum Project.
In that same class, I read “Too Many Bananas, Not Enough
Pineapples, and No Watermelons at all. Three Object Lessons in Living with
Reciprocity” by David Coutis. Long story short, it tells the tale of
reciprocity and how sharing is encouraged in some societies. This article
triggered a look at what would happen if humanity lived on the moon and not
everyone shared in my short story “Barista on the Moon.”
One of the most interesting cultures I came across in my
anthropology studies was the !Kung bushmen who live in the Kalahari. Not the
tv-version you see in some movies from the 70s or 80s, but the real bushmen and
how they live. When Richard Borshay Lee and his wife traveled there to study
the bushmen, they brought Christmas with them, and thus began an exchange of
culture. He learned about the culture based on the exchange.
In that class, we learned of several cultures, and the
reasons why anthropologists want to study them. We learned valuable lessons
like how anthropologists see the world, how they think, and their code of
ethics. I learned that anthropology is the study of humanity in all our forms –
from childrearing to taboos and all concepts of culture.
Anthropologists look at things from a holistic perspective
and a comparative perspective. And it was here where I met Steven Lansing who
had an experience with the Green Revolution and Bali. [I would later write an
awesome paper and give a presentation on Lansing’s research and the Green
Revolution.]
But there were things that Anthropologists saw that I didn’t
see until I took that class. It opened my eyes to different perspectives. Anthropology classes are like chips: you can’t just take
one.
In 2012, I took Ancient Civilizations with Dr. K. I dove
into research. Here I learned about the difference between pseudoarchaeology
and scientific archaeology. I learned about Eric Von Daniken and Chariot of the Gods. He was one of the
first to claim a link between ancient humans and aliens. Now, scientific
Darlene knows the difference between the two, but it also had a really
interesting effect on my sci-fi writer brain. I was thrown back to my childhood
when I did everything I could to learn about Atlantis. Bouncing back and forth
just before November, I turned this fun mix of information into a first-draft
novel for NaNoWriMo. It’s sitting in my computer, waiting for edits.
Bouncing back and forth between anthropology brain and
writer brain had some interesting effects. I got my B.A. in anthropology and
minored in creative writing…then I went to Goddard where I wrote my thesis. But
this mixing of science and writing came up with a fantastic world full of
unique creatures and places for my character, Gaia, to explore. But I couldn’t
do it in a normal way. She had to look through the lens of an anthropologist.
You could say everything from the first moments I stepped
into college to the last, I was preparing to write the thesis I did with the
aliens, gods and goddesses, and historical notes.
What insight can I give you for research?
Follow your gut. I couldn’t have known back in 2011 that I
was preparing to write my Thesis. I couldn’t know that I would get so sucked
into this world, I would create worlds, spaceships, and cultures. When I read
Bonvillain’s Cultural Anthropology, 2nd
edition, I was reading it for myself, but a small part of me was creating the
character who would become Gaia.
I have been told by many people that you don’t need to go
deep into research (you may or may not agree), but it is my experience that the
only way I can write deep, meaningful characters in a world all their own, is
through research.
So dive into Buddhism. Read about Baseball Magic. Learn the
Secrets of Haiti’s Living Dead. Explore how Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate
Events. Learn about Totemism and the A.E.F. Then go learn about the Mystique of
the Masai. [These are all titles of articles I read during my 101 class]
I would request that as you research, keep a notebook (or
twelve) with the information of your research –the notebooks I have from 2011
made my current research easier and I return to them often for inspiration and
cultural facts I couldn’t get anywhere else.
I hope this has encouraged you to think about cultures and
the connection between science and fiction. I like to write at the place where
science, anthropology, romance, and literature meet.
If you liked this and I’ve piqued your interest, I have a
suggestion. I’m giving a workshop on Anthropology, Archaeology, and Romance at
FF&P. It lasts the whole month of May and will explore all four fields of
anthropology. Come join me on an exploration of humanity.
Write on,
Darlene Reilley
My workshops and latest links:
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