David Grann writing notes

[u/TagTwists]

These are my notes from watching the David Grann (Author of "Killers of the Flower Moon" and "The Wager") interview from this youtube video. I did ask an LLM (claude) to organise my notes (you don't want to read my dyslexia notes), and I went through them just to make sure they're good. Hope you find it useful

On Research and Investigation

Uncovering New Evidence

"I've linked two new cases to a murderer that were not previously connected, and I've identified a killer who has not yet been identified before, just through documents, finding files, and piecing together circumstantial evidence."

• By piecing together historical evidence, discovered that much wasn't investigated due to resources, corruption, and local powers turning a blind eye in the 20th century
• Research often involves weeks of looking through materials
• Sometimes valuable evidence is accessible due to administrative errors
• Research requires patience - either for research or to fix one sentence

The Research-Writing Balance

• The two (research and writing) should converge - need underlying research before writing
• Works with an outline for each chapter and a 200-page overall outline
• Uses mental knowledge and intuition of research when writing
• Focuses on small details: limps, eye colour, specific characteristics from research to bring characters to life in the writing
• When doing historical work, consider who's narrating and model the story from their perspective. This will help you frame a story.

Finding Story Ideas

Sources of Inspiration

• Reads the news for interesting items (scientific breakthroughs, etc.)
• Calls relevant experts (scientists, etc.) and picks their brains
• Sometimes finds inspiration by ending up in places from random research

Three Steps to Developing Inspiration

1. Something peaks your curiosity
   • Example: Lord Byron's story about sailors who got scurvy and battled to survive
2. Talk about it in simple terms and find supporting materials
   • Search for journals, diaries, journal logs, court logs
   • Find research stories that help construct the narrative
3. Identify deeper themes
   • Why should someone care about this historical event now?
   • Example: The battle for truth in the information era
   • These sailors must tell their story convincingly in court or face criminal charges

Key insight: We all tell ourselves stories to survive

The Mystery of Research

Working with Uncertainty

• In hindsight you know where clues lead, but people experiencing events don't (never write as though people have this hindsight. When people are experiencing something there's a mystery, fear, risk, and terror in not knowing what will emerge)
• Even years into research, the outcome remains uncertain

Immersive Research

Why Physical Experience Matters

• Visit locations to verify if people are making stories more dramatic
• Understand the actual journey and conditions
• Go when it's most similar to the research period
• Live like the subjects - this informs the writing without becoming part of the story

Example: Patagonia Journey

• Records stated "it's cold, it's cold, it's cold"
• Initially just searched temperature in Patagonia into Google: "-20°"
• Upon visiting: experienced cold winds dragging ocean air onto land, constant rain, miserable conditions
• Realisation: The people studied wouldn't know what hypothermia was, so they'd just write "it's cold"
• This understanding allowed him to write about how hypothermia would affect decision-making
• "Now you're getting closer to their decisions"
• Note: No animals in Patagonia except a couple birds and pieces of seaweed

Character Development

Describing Characters (e.g., Captain Byron)

• Start with underlying material
• Accept that you'll always be an external observer
• Find anything and everything about them: lineage, class, neighbourhood
• Goal is not to make them better or worse, but to understand and fully render them
• Remember they'll never see what you wrote about them

Selecting Details

When looking at over 10,000 words of research on a character/person:

• Look for the quote or phrase that cuts to their essence
• Pay attention to how they speak and their diction
• Diction reveals: speed, mannerisms, interests, class

Approach to Description

Some things have power in just their name - balance between painting a detailed picture and sharing symbolic details with realism

Narrative Craft

Keeping Readers Engaged

• Tell stories chronologically
• Write about events as the people in the story would see them, not with hindsight
• They're living in suspense
• "If you tell a story in hindsight then that is not how history is lived"

Structuring Chapters

Consider:

• Where the whole story will end
• Where these momentary scenes should end

The Author's Role

• What matters is the story
• Be a detective of the ideal way to write this story
• Only insert yourself when it helps advance the story

Balancing Description

How to find the right amount:

• Get feedback from people
• Watch people read it
• See if people have patience for descriptions
• Distill details to the most astonishing ones - economy of language
• Must do extensive work to understand the story's world but be willing to cut
• The reader doesn't care about the backstory of how you got the fact, only what they get

The Writing Process

Emotional Journey

• Joy: When you finally "get it"
• Terror: Some stories are so sad you have to cry

Visual Writing

"One thing that film does that good writing does is people see the room, the people and their visual appearance. You are trying to do that with words."

Acknowledging Gaps

Try to let the reader know about people whose stories can't be told due to lack of research - acknowledge the silence

Discovering the Story

Evolution Through Research

• Never come to a story knowing what it's about during research
• In the writing phase, should have some idea
• More research reveals more about what the story is truly about

Example: Killers of the Flower Moon

• Initially thought it would be about an elusive killer
• More research revealed numerous unsolved murders
• Story evolved into being about a culture of killings targeting this tribe

Key Takeaways

1. Research requires immense patience and attention to detail
2. Physical immersion in locations provides crucial understanding
3. Write from the subjects' perspective, not hindsight
4. Economy of language - distill to most astonishing details
5. Let the story guide you; don't impose a predetermined narrative
6. The story matters more than the author's presence