When Scott Myers at Go Into the Story asked the readers if they liked research I came to think of an uneasy situation it took me years to overcome.
This was close to ten years ago. What research needed I read from books and the Internet. I never talked to people. First of all I was shy and uncomfortable with talking to people I didn’t know, but also I wasn’t keen to the idea to seem like some form of fascinating animal popping up claiming to be a screenwriter.
I took a class in movie script structure and the teacher encouraged me to meet people. He assured me that people love to talk about their job, no matter if it is a strange thing called screenwriter asking the questions.
So I waltzed into a well known antique shop and wanted to know everything about fakes and fauxes.
Not a good idea.
First of all, I should have made an appointment and made sure that my purpose was clear and I got to talk to an enthusiastic person.
Then I should have worked to overcome my shyness before I marched into that store.
But most of all, the guy was as interested in telling me about fakes and fauxes as the kind police officer in Seattle was in telling me how you escape once arrested. There is knowledge you simply need to earn to get.
I was so proud of gaining courage enough to walk up to the counter and ask a question to an unknown person, that I completely forgot about everything else.
The guy behind the counter was taken aback, my questions got diffuse answers and I left defeated and convinced that I would never talk to anybody again.
2 comments:
Ah, I share your pain. Took guts for you to do it though - and you learned from it. So all good in my books.
Such people are known as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in the learning field, and you should always brief them fully before asking any questions, just to make sure that they know what you want from them - to keep them on the right track and stop them going off on a tangent etc, as well as the guarantee that you won't abuse the knowledge or make them look stupid.
It's funny I speak to such people all the time, but have never conducted formal research for my own writing.
Lee, thank you for your kind and encouraging comment.
"SMEs" eh? I got to remember that term. A little flattering calling somebody a Subject Matter Expert does not hurt when approaching, does it? :-)
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