Bob Calverley | Deep Research

Writing blogs are rife with tips and advice. There are countless books about writing as well as workshops, webinars and conferences. They promise to upgrade your prose to bestseller status. I have found much that is useful in the blogs, have purchased some of the books and attended a few workshops and conferences. Haven’t hit any bestseller lists yet, but I continue to dream.

“Deep” seems to be an operative word. There’s deep POV (point of view) and I’ve seen deep characterization and deep narrative. Eric Maisel, a psychologist who’s a creativity coach, wrote an entire book, Deep Writing and conducts deep writing workshops.

This week I came up with a new “deep.” I’m calling it “deep research.” My two (soon to be three) Sunshine books are set in the late 1960s, which makes them historical fiction. Historical fiction requires a lot of research.

I’d been working on a short scene where one of my characters suffers serious head trauma. Taking a break, I walked my dog late in the afternoon. We were coming down a steep hill when a neighbor’s dog in a fenced yard started barking furiously at my dog. Naturally, my dog, in full protective mode, lunged at the other dog, jerking me into the curb where I tripped and pitched head first into the wrought iron fence.

A big contusion, multiple lacerations and a puncture wound, and that’s only my head. I also suffered abrasions and bruises to my knees, hands and elbow. When I woke up Saturday morning, my neck hurt more than my battered head. Whiplash. I spent many hours getting stitched up and trundling around the hospital for scans and x-rays.

But this was all good. It was research that went far deeper than Google and Wikipedia. So I’m grateful to my dog, whom I’d never thought was especially smart, for pulling me into the realm of deep research. Apparently she’s smarter than I thought.

And for you readers out there, know that there is no limit to what I will do to provide you with accurate and exciting prose.

Bestseller status, here I come!