Retreating to Research
How a research trip helped improve my manuscript
In late September, I went on a writing research road trip for a horror thriller I’m working on. The book is based in Bella Coola, a place I hadn’t been to prior. I chose this area for a few reasons:
I needed somewhere with ocean access.
I prefer basing my work in Canada.
It needed to be somewhere remote and not easily accessible, but still have a town with amenities.
Since I don’t know as much about the east coast, once again I chose to base my work in beautiful British Columbia.
I asked my father to join me for a few reasons:
He is handy and knows more about mechanics than I do. The road trip was long and had some sketchy areas to drive in.
He can entertain himself easily if I needed to work on my writing.
He is more extroverted than myself which is helpful to strike up conversations with people. This was handy to keep him entertained, but it was also helpful for the research aspect of the trip.
He goes with the flow well. I planned everything and he was happy to just show up.
So off we went. We roughly followed Destination BC’s Great Bear Circle Route. Starting from 100 Mile House, we drove down to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal, taking it over to Nanaimo and spending a night, before heading up to Port McNeill and spending two nights there in a small cabin by the ocean. From Port Hardy we took the ten hour ferry to Bella Coola, the last of the season as the weather gets too rough in the fall. The first hour was rocky; my stomach quickly lost hold of my White Spot strawberry waffles. The rest of the ride was stunning though, a once in a lifetime experience.
While visiting Vancouver Island, it’s easy to get a sense of BC’s large rainforest. Driving the highway corridors towards the north end of the island, the word ‘corridors’ that’s noted in a lot of road signs is the best description. The trees on either sides of the highway makes it almost feel like a natural tunnel. Unlike the forests in the Cariboo region of BC, with its thin trees, the rainforest in northern Vancouver Island are dense. They project a shallow tree line of grand Douglas firs that immediately gives way to an inky black wall. With the thick, tall trees there’s no way to see into the forest. There’s no way to see if anything is watching. It’s like a gateway to a different world.
After leaving the island and entering Bella Coola, we realized it was no exception to this. With its low hanging fog, rivers chock full of salmon, and large grizzly population, the rainforest in Bella Coola seemed even thicker, more otherworldly, more feral. Immediately, I was glad I made the choice to see the valley in person. The sense of community and unreal nature is not something that can be easily described in YouTube videos or social posts (or even in this article).
We stayed at a lodge 25 minutes or so outside of the little town for four days and three nights. We had two different tour guides take us on a river drift and then on a nature walk. Most of the guides were flown in from other parts of the world for the season, but I lucked out. Our river guide was a young local who agreed to take me around town to all the places a local may visit. They’d grown up in the area and were part of the Nuxalk First Nations. They explained to me how their community operates, who their family was, how they lived, and what the area was known for. I realized that the many hours of research I had pulled from Google was absolute shit compared to what I was learning from my guide. I also learned what my Ford Ranger was capable of as it bounded with ease through large puddles and muddy ocean banks. It was an adventure, one that my protagonist would need to experience.
Some of the back roads and areas they took me to were not known by Google. Google also wouldn’t have known where the locals hang out versus the hipsters that come and temporarily stay in the area. Google didn’t know about the new restaurant being built on the river that fit perfectly with one of my scenes. Google couldn’t tell me about the hidden waterfall tucked away on some land that was gifted to the Nation after the owner passed away, providing the perfect backdrop for another scene.
Could I have written the story well without visiting Bella Coola? Probably. In fact, the first draft was already written before visiting the area. But the road trip was worth it. I’m now working through a couple of rounds of editing and the world had changed, the locals have changed, the feel of the book has changed. I’ve had to update some things that I know now wouldn’t be possible for the area. Even though it’s fiction, and some sections needed to be fabricated to make it work, it’s become more real.
I’m very grateful that I had the means to be able to pull off the road trip, something that’s not always possible for every writer. I’m also grateful for my little truck and my co-pilot, and especially to my guide.
Research trips are important for writing, but if I wanted to write about an area that I might not be able to visit, I feel comfortable now reaching out in online communities to see if there’s someone who would be available to answer questions. A virtual guide of sorts. It paid off for me, talking to a highly knowledgeable local. And it was the best experience I’ve had this year.