Authors: Jack M Bickham
As to the social attitudes, nothing was forgiven but a great deal was explained when I began to learn that Oklahoma's land runs were made primarily by poor
southern
whites who had failed other places and went to the new territory for one last desperate try. (Similarly, I understood a later-detected narrow definition of moral acceptability —Oklahoma was still a dry state then, for example —when I read of the early influx of conservative fundamentalist religious groups and their stubborn adherence to their traditional strict, unyielding view of what constituted acceptable behavior.)
A certain air of lawlessness puzzled me at first, and then began to make sense in a way when I saw how decades of prohibition had created a society with laws against liquor —and a flourishing bootlegger business which circumvented the law.
The state's seeming inferiority complex was hardest to understand. Despite everything negative I have mentioned, Okla
homa had a dynamism about it, and clean air, and great freedom and opportunity. Why, then, did everyone seem so angrily defensive?
I learned that John Steinbeck's novel
The Grapes of Wrath
had infuriated and insulted Oklahoma people. I had read the novel as a collegian in Ohio, and thought the Okies portrayed were splendid, brave, noble people, the impression I feel sure Steinbeck intended. But in Oklahoma people were already hurt and oversensitive to imagined slights because of insults from Califor-nians who had not welcomed a flood of homeless "Sooners" who went to that state during the Dust Bowl days. The result was that Oklahomans felt Steinbeck's novel made them all look stupid, dirty, poor and worthless, and they bitterly resented it. This was why they were so defensive and argumentative.
Thus a growing understanding of Oklahoma's history —its land runs, the primary regional background of its people, its youth, its oil booms and busts, and its disastrous part in the Dust Bowl and in Steinbeck's novel —helped me understand prevailing attitudes which otherwise made little sense.
I've told this rather extended personal story merely to make a point: A people will be influenced by their past; a people's general attitudes and moods will influence the world of your story—will be a vital aspect of the setting. If you want a totally convincing setting, you must include history and the feelings and attitudes which come from it.
This does not necessarily mean that you will dump huge blocks of history into your story, or inflict on your reader sociological explanations of character attitudes or behavior. It does mean, however, that some brief explanations may be salted into omniscient passages or casual observations by characters. Such brief comments linking history and attitude will add great verisimilitude to the setting.
GETTING INFORMATION
The best way to get the feel and history of a region, of course, is to visit it and stay long enough to get past whatever tourist
veneer may disguise the cultural reality. This may mean an extended stay, or several short ones. If you can afford such an expedition or expeditions, you will be richly rewarded with continuing discoveries that will give your resulting story a vitality and depth it otherwise could not have.
But what if you don't have the time or money to spend days or weeks in your desired regional setting? Then you are reduced to studying books, maps, brochures and possibly video or film about the region.
This is not as much fun, but it's a possible alternative.
There are many "remote" sources available for learning about a region's history and attitudes. As you begin your inquiry into an area, you will likely develop specialized sources of information in a short time. Appendix 1 makes a number of suggestions on developing such sources. You might want to read the few general comments that follow here, then turn to that appendix for a fuller discussion.
Here are some of the possible sources you may check for information about your setting:
1. Your public library. A regional or area history will almost surely be available off the shelf or via interlibrary loan. Consult your librarian if a search of the card file or computer database doesn't suggest a few titles. Remember that most states require a grade school or high school course in local history; such textbooks should be available, and often include the kind of general information you seek. Also, social and cultural historians began contributing valuable state studies during the 1930s, when government projects funded them, and such work continues today. Many states also are the subject of a "roadside history" book, designed so motorists can visit historic sites on the highways, and state or local magazines and special periodicals may be a gold mine of information.
2. Your college library. If you can gain access to a college library, further resources are available to you. More specialized histories of towns, religious groups, etc., may be found here. Don't overlook master's degree theses and doctoral dissertations in such areas as history, sociology, economics and social work.
3. Your state or area historical society. Although these specialize in your own area, you may be surprised to learn what resources are available through interlibrary loan, on microfilm or microfiche, or on computer disk. Genealogical collections often reside in state libraries of this type, too, and could include basic genealogical references for other areas of the country. Such materials may provide valuable insights into long-standing attitudes and values of a region.
4. Government documents. The United States has studied and analyzed virtually every aspect of life in this country, from agricultural history and practices to sexual behavior and consumer spending. Most cities of moderate size or larger have a telephone number listed for assistance to citizens. You can order documents this way, or procure a guide to many documents available by mail order from Washington.
5. Your local bookstore. Most will have a variety of magazines. There probably will also be a "travel" section, and browsing here may uncover a specific guidebook or history you will find relevant. Be sure to consult the bibliographies in the back of such books for leads to other source publications on the subject.
6. Correspondence. Even small towns these days have Chambers of Commerce and/or tourist bureaus. Don't hesitate to write for historical or cultural information. These offices exist to answer such queries, and some material you may receive free of charge. States have tourist bureaus, too, and industrial development offices designed to provide demographic, attitudinal and all sorts of other information for potential tourists, PR firms or businesses considering relocation. This material may answer many questions for you.
7. Computer sources. If you have a CD-ROM drive, you may already have a source of historical information on compact disk. Whole encylopedias are available, and many regional histories. There are several fine commercial products for sale on floppy disks, including some which show historic trends, industrial production, religious groupings, financial standings, and many other aspects of an area's attitudinal life. To find out where to obtain any of these materials for your computer, browse through any of the top monthly computer magazines for a wealth of ads for them.
8. Interviews. Don't forget to ask about them among your friends and associates. You may often find that a friend has a
friend who was raised in the area you're interested in. If you get lucky this way, by all means seek out an interview. People usually love to talk about places in their past, and you will get not only information but a real insight into the attitudes of the person you are interviewing; such attitudes may be typical of the region.
USING THE INFORMATION
Having consulted some or all of these possible sources, you'll be ready to take the same steps another writer would take after visiting an area to study its history and attitudes. Essentially, you will ask yourself:
• What in the history of this place is uniquely formative of prevailing attitudes and feelings?
• What are these prevailing attitudes and feelings?
• How can I present the characteristic area attitudes and their background cause in my story?
• What part does this aspect of setting play in the working out of my story?
If you have done your homework and then honestly decide that there's nothing especially significant in the historical background or regional attitudes of the people as far as your particular story is concerned, well and good. Your effort still will not have been wasted because you can proceed confidently, knowing you aren't likely to make any factual errors such as having a Dallas cabdriver view the world the way one in New York might, or having upstanding citizens openly frequent a roadside bar in a small town in the heart of Southern Baptist country. And more likely you won't just prevent such obvious setting errors. You will also get a keener feel for your entire story world because you will know where the story people have come from — what makes them and their peers "tick."
That's why history and attitude are such an important part of your story setting. Getting them right will not only prevent
mistakes damaging to credibility, it will also help you better plan the events likely to motivate your characters . . . stir them up . . . make them feel passion. Your story will be made more believable at the same time it is drawing additional feeling and even fervor from the historical background and prevailing sentiments of the place.
As an exercise, pause here and consider—on paper—your own area, the place where you live now. Briefly write down what you believe the general feeling of the place is in terms of how people feel about themselves, their setting and their lives, and what they believe in and care about. Then try to find and write down some of the historical background for the area that tended to make people the way they are. Can you identify the attitudes? Can you define any of them as special to your area? Can you find the historical or perhaps sociological reason for them?
Such practice on an area that you know well should help you prepare for checking out an area that's relatively unfamiliar to you.
If you haven't done so earlier, this would be a fine time to consult Appendices 1 and 2. These go into further detail and other aspects of researching a setting and may provide you with additional ideas for investigation of how a place was, and how the past influences the present.
CHAPTER 14
SETTING AND STYLE
Athoroughly detailed study
of writing techniques in presentation of story setting is well beyond the scope of this book. But questions often asked —and errors frequently seen in student manuscripts —suggest that a few observations and bits of advice would not be out of order.
Your style as a fiction writer may have already developed over time, or may just be in the process of developing. In either case, it is likely that you will write best if you force yourself never to try to be "fancy" or "inspiring" or anything of that kind in developing your writing style. The best style usually is
no
visible style at all —prose that is crisp, clean, clear and transparent: a pane of glass through which your reader experiences the story directly, without ever being aware of the words. Far too much "stylish" writing is really affected writing, and while there may be a few readers out there who would appreciate such stuff, the fact is that your story has been lost the first moment a reader starts noticing your style rather than following the story's events.
The bottom line: In handling setting, as in all other parts of your fiction writing, strive for directness and simplicity. Such writing is the most graceful and effective of all.
SOME TRUTHS
It is also a fact that handling setting often involves description of some kind, and it is in description that writers most often fall
prey to the temptation to write "pretty" or "poetic" passages. Therefore, it's vital in talking about setting to begin any discussion of verbal technique with truths which have been stated before, and will always be true:
• Write simply and directly, and don't get fancy.
• Never use a big word when a small one will do.
• Write short sentences. Write short paragraphs.
• Never strain for an effect, and never try to be poetic.
• Remember that clarity is your bedrock stylistic goal.
These rules might all be summarized briefly: When in doubt, take it out. If you are not absolutely certain that a turn of phrase is accomplishing the desired effect—and the story can go on without it—then don't put the phrasing in at all, or if it's in your draft, delete it on rewrite. Few things will disgust a busy editor — or more quickly brand you an amateur —than overwriting.
You know what that is: a seemingly endless round-and-round the verbal rosebush, trying to pile more and more adjectives on something in the setting so it will be "clearer." Or tacking a batch of weak adverbs onto a verb that was wobbly to begin with, in an attempt to make the verb more forceful.
Here is an example:
A warmly cheerful and welcoming fire was burning brightly inside the large, dark, sinister cavern, while slow-moving shadows could be discerned on the high, pale walls of rock.
What's wrong with this? Just about everything! Consider: The writer wants to show the setting in a vivid way, but the approach is all wrong. Instead of seeking out strong basic words, the writer stuck on all sorts of qualifying adjectives and adverbs ("warmly cheerful," "welcoming," "large, dark, sinister," etc.) instead of trying to be simple and direct. You may come up with a better rewrite, but here is one possibility: