All language subtitles for Masterclass - David Baldacci Teaches Mystery and Thriller Writing - 04.Research Methods and Sources. Part 2

My first novel was Absolute Power. I was

working, you know, full-time as a

lawyer. I I had a family. I couldn't fly

off and, you know, go somewhere to do

anything. I just couldn't do it. What

did I need to know about? Okay, I need

to know kind of how the Secret Service

did their thing. My office was near the

the White House back then. I think

George Bush 41's president back then.

And I would walk past the White House.

You'd see some of the Secret Service,

uniform Secret Service. They didn't have

the um the barricades up. They put those

barricades up after Oklahoma City. So

you could walk up to the white, you

could drive your car in front of

Pennsylvania Avenue back then. What I

would do is I would, you know, anybody I

would meet along the way, you know, it

could be at a meeting with different

lawyers, it could be at a party or

whatever. I would talk to people about

the background and stuff. And that

really what I was trying to dig was

anybody here know a secret service

agent, you know, married to one, father

is one, knew one in high school or

whatever. So, and that's the way I did

it. I just kind of dug into people that

I knew, you know, that my my surrounding

of friends and acquaintances and because

I lived in Washington DC, you know,

eventually somebody knew a secret

service agent and I was able to contact

the person and they agreed to meet with

me. Um, and not everybody can do that.

Not everybody lives in Washington DC,

but you can use your periphery of

friends and acquaintances. And nine

times out of 10, you're going to get a

connection somewhere.

Once you have a contact, um, don't just

go in cold turkey with that person. Uh,

I'll give the example of the Secret

Service agent again. I knew going in um

that I didn't want to waste their time

and I wanted them to show I wanted I

wanted them to know that I respected

what they did. And the best way to show

that you respect what these people do is

to learn about them before you go in to

talk to them. So I wasn't going to go in

and ask stupid questions to the Secret

Service. You know, what kind of a gun do

you carry? How do you get to be a Secret

Service agent? You know, and all that.

What do you are you just, you know, you

protect the president, right? No, most

agents are doing dealing with computer

and financial crimes, you know, and uh

um and money laundering and things like

that. It was it used to be part of the

US Treasury Department. Um and that's

what they did after a Abraham Lincoln

was shot. That's when it became a

protection detail. So I I wanted them to

know that um the questions I asked are

based on a lot of homework that I did

before I even sat down in front of them.

One, you gain their instant respect. And

because you they you have their in

respect. They will tell you things they

would not have otherwise told you. And

then when you go in, I don't have these

static questions that I want to ask

them. I have a series of things that I

would like to discuss with them. If you

ask static questions, you can ask static

answers back. Yes, no, I don't know. Um,

but if you have a dialogue, you know,

you ask these sort of broad open-ended

questions, then all of a sudden you get

sort of broad open-ended answers back

that again feeds more questions for you

to to ask about.

You know, I've been interviewed by a lot

of journalists over the years and um I

see how they approach their work and

I've tried sort of tried to mimic what

they do too. So, for instance, you go

into a room and I don't care who you're

meeting with. It could be somebody from

NSA, it could be your next door

neighbor. Um and courtesy is sort of

key. I will always ask, you know, if I

pull out a recorder, do you mind if I

record this? if they I don't want it

recorded, recorder goes away and that's

just the way it is. Um then I just open

my my notebook and I got my pen or my

pencil and off we go. And and you really

do have to play fair. I would never

dream of recording someone without their

permission. It's just not the way I

would do something. And I would

encourage any of you to do that. Don't

because that will destroy any

relationship of trust you might have

otherwise have with that person. So, if

you are lucky enough as a as a

first-time writer to be able to talk to

somebody who works at the NSA, for

instance, or the CIA, which would be

really kind of cool, uh, don't go in

there expecting that they're just going

to open their hearts to you and tell you

everything you need to know. Um, but

they will be be able to give you a

flavor for the work they do, the agency

that they work for, their backgrounds,

and how they approach their work. Um,

and they may throw a few nuggets in

there that most people don't know about,

but it's not like it's classified

information either, particularly with

people who work for the government. And

this is not something that maybe not be

so apparent to a lot of people.

Don't assume that you can just ask them

questions and send it to their

government email about stuff. You know,

if I send somebody a question who worked

at the CIA and said, you know, that we

were talking about killing the guy last

week. Here's a few follow-up questions I

had. Not good. Not good for me. not good

for that person either. Um, so I will

ask them, do you have a private email

you you would prefer me to send it to?

Would you prefer just to call on your

cell phone? I would never call you at

work, obviously. Um, because I don't

want to put you in in a different

position. People who work for these

government agencies, their computers,

their government phones are monitored,

email accounts are monitored. Every

keystroke they write and every keystroke

they receive is is known by the agency

they work for. Treat them the way you

would like to be treated with courtesy,

disclosure, transparency. Um and I think

in turn that will be reciprocated to you

and just be professional about it. And

always at the end of an interview don't

assume anything. Just in interview

always ask you know if I have any

follow-up questions there might be some

of the stuff you told me would it be

okay if I uh talked to you again.

I take the world as we know it and um I

build up the facts that I need and all

that. And then after that, I have a

whole layer of creative liberty that

allows me to do whatever I want to do.

As a novelist, my rule of thumb is I'm

only bound by plausibility. Um if it

could happen, not that it has happened

or that it, you know, if it could

happen, if it can happen, I can write

about it. The great thing about, you

know, writing about the world that I

write in, military, government

organizations, politics, police, and all

that, they're made up of people. You

know, I don't care how many rules you

have in in an organization, people make

mistakes. People who are given really

important positions screw up. Um, and no

one would find that implausible because

history will dictate and tell us that

it's happened all the time over the

course of our history that people do bad

things, people go against the rules.

People make mistakes, they fall down.

I'll give you one one last piece of this

that both I felt liberated by and scared

the hell out of me. I had was writing a

book one time dealing with the

intelligence field and I thought I had

pushed beyond the bounds of possibility.

I just thought it's crazy. It's nuts.

So, I had a friend of mine who worked in

intelligence field called him up said,

"Hey, you know, can I can I email you

these pages? I'm writing this scene. I

just think this is nuts. Never could

happen, and I just want you to kind of,

you know, vet it for me." He said, "No,

you know, I don't have to read it." I

said, "No, I just, you know, just this

few pages, read it, and let me know. And

I think I've, you know, I've gone right

through the envelope. I just This is not

He goes, I don't have to read it." I

said, "Why won't you read my pages?" He

goes, "Because if you can imagine it,

we've already done it."

So, ever since the guy told me that, I

was like, I can write about any damn

thing I want to write about. And I could

just point to people and say, you know

what, they've already done it.

Writers can be really great

procrastinators. And one way to convince

yourself you're actually working hard on

the book is to just go too heavy in the

research. You know, you're out there.

Yeah, it's going to take me a few months

to do this research and I'm I'm having a

good time doing it. Oh, maybe it's going

to take me an extra month because you

really don't want to sit down and write

the story. Research is fun. It's hard

work, too. No research is as hard as

actually writing the story. It's not

even close. That's why I like to do not

a huge block of research ahead of time

and then write and that's it. I like to

do write a little bit of research,

right? A little bit of research, right?

a little bit of research and that breaks

it up. You will get to the point where I

think it's more instinctual or not that

you realize research is done. I've got

the whole world I need to write this

book and if I'm getting near the end,

there's another question that pops up, I

can always go and get that answer. I can

talk to somebody or go visit a place.

Um, but just balance that. I know it

it's just so attractive to just keep

researching. It's almost like being a

permanent student going back to college.

You got 16 degrees because you don't

really want to work in the real world.

So at some point mom and dad like no you

know you got to you got to grow up just

as a writer just realize you got to grow

up and uh stop the research and write

the