Sometimes we can discover fantastic resources for writing while just kicking back and relaxing. That’s what happened to me when I can up with the idea for this article. I’ve been going through some shit lately and so I’ve been watching a lot of relaxing YouTube channels when I discovered Rambalac.
So why did my newest YouTube addiction fuel this article?
Writers often write stories about places they haven’t been. It would seem to break the rule of “write what you know,” but Scriptophobic’s had a complicated relationship with that concept. The fact of the matter is sometimes you just want to write what you want to write, not necessarily what you know.
Locations are one of those major story points that not everyone knows. If you’ve only been in your small town then you would only write about your small town if you follow that old rule. But what if what you want to do is write a story about samurai in ancient Japan fighting against monsters? Or what if you’re telling the story of a super spy that gets caught up in a plot that sees them traveling all over the world?
Sometimes you just can’t rely on your own experiences and you need to research. Most of us know how to search up Google images and find travel guides for the places we want to see. But these don’t do the best job of giving us a feel for the streets. How crowded are they? How does the sunlight play off the environment? What type of sounds does one hear while out walking the streets of … Tokyo? Or how about Paris? New York?
Those videos I found by Rambalac introduced me to a new genre of YouTube video and one that I think Scream Writers should know about. It’s simply people who are walking around a city. They’re not talking or giving you a tour. They’re not even particularly taking the famous streets. They’re simply filming a walk around the streets and countryside of various areas and it is relaxing, plus totally educational for those looking to capture the real feel of these locations.
Here’s a video of a walk through the backstreets of Japan on a rainy night. It’s peaceful, atmospheric and it really gives you a sense of the location. But to prove that this genre of video could be helpful to others I asked two friends of Scriptophobic about areas that they researched for their own books.
Scriptophobic editor Kelly Warner researched California for her kaiju epic In the Shadow of Extinction. I’ve also never been to California but I tried searching for a California walk and found plenty such as this one.
But California is a pretty big place with lots of famous areas, so it wasn’t any surprise that I found videos there. More surprising was when author Marie Deveraux mentioned that she was researching Cordova, Alaska, for a future project.
There wasn’t as much but there were still videos, even in as far out a place as Cordova.
So, next time you’re looking to relax or research, why not do both at the same time and take a video walkthrough the setting of your next story.
