Every day this week, we are taking you behind the scenes of I Survived with author Lauren Tarshis and editor Nancy Mercado as they give you the inside scoop on how the latest book in theNew York Times bestselling series was created.
ADVENTURES IN RESEARCH by Lauren Tarshis
When I first had the idea for the I Survived series I thought, great—I’ll whip these books out in no time. I’d already written nonfiction articles on many of the topics. I have four kids, and I figured that they and their friends could be the inspiration for the fictional characters that would star in each story.
So easy, right?
No!
It turns out that for me, historical fiction is the most challenging genre to write, more difficult than nonfiction and way more time consuming than realistic fiction.
Historical fiction packs a double whammy of work. I have to conjure up a whole fictional world in exacting detail, and then squeeze this world inside a true event. All of this requires an enormous amount of research—dozens and dozens of books, articles, videos, maps, paintings, interviews, and, whenever possible, visits to the place I’m writing about. It’s not enough to learn about the event itself. I need to completely immerse myself into the world of my characters so I can make them as realistic as possible.
For my latest book, about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, I began by reading three VERY thick books on the history of the city. From there, I read through the dozens of first-hand accounts of the fire, collected by the Chicago Historical Society. These incredible stories captured the terror of that day, in the voices of those who ran from the flames, choked on the smoke, and felt blessed to have escaped with their lives.
These voices were ringing in my mind when I traveled to Chicago, where I did further research. Little remains of Chicago as it looked in 1871, but I was able to understand the geography of the city, and walk the streets that my characters Oscar, Jennie, and Bruno made their terrifying journey through the smoke and flames. I imagined streets crowded with horses and wagons, sidewalks made of wood and raised up off the ground. I took a boat trip along the river, and plotted out the journey that my characters would take as they ran for their lives. I actually fell in love with Chicago, which is beautiful, and pulsing with the same energy that many early travelers noticed when they arrived there by steam train.
I came back from Chicago with a suitcase filled with yet more books and magazines. I needed to learn about orphanages of the 1870s, train travel across the prairie, early American painters, and gangsters of the American west. Answering even simple questions often takes hours of research.
But the research is actually my favorite part of creating this series. By the time I finish writing each book, I really do feel like I’ve taken a trip through history. And the best part is that I get to take you along with me.
About the author:
Lauren Tarshis is the editor of Scholastic's Storyworks magazine and group editorial director for language arts for Scholastic classroom magazines, in addition to being the author of the I Survived series and the critically acclaimed novels Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree and Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love. She lives in Westport, Connecticut, and can be found online at www.laurentarshis.com.
Want to learn more? Watch this video about how Lauren got the idea for the I Survived series and this one about the differences between writing for a magazing and a book.
For additional classroom resources, visit www.scholastic.com/TeachISurvived.
Author photo © David Dreyfuss.
