Diary of a New Writer 5 -You can’t make this stuff up!

October 21, 2015July 28, 2017 ~ Meg ~ 26 Comments

(For past entries of the diary check here: One, Two, Three, and Four)

*Disclaimer: This is not an exhaustive how-to for novel writing, just a few things I learned along the way. Also, for those of you who are worried that I’m going to prattle on indefinitely, don’t panic. This series will come to a conclusion after a few more episodes.

In the last post, I was saying how important it is to choose the right location for your story and to be accurate and consistent in your descriptions. Well, accuracy and consistency should be maintained in other areas of writing, too. This means doing your homework. I’m not going to try and list a whole bunch of sources for you to use as references, because let’s face it, your genre and subject matter will determine the type of research you’ll need to do. Nonetheless, let’s just take a look at some things you should research, so you don’t get caught looking foolish by your savvy readers.

Dates and times– Not exactly research, this is more like record keeping. Have you ever read a story where everything seems to have happened way too fast? And you realize it really did? For example, no one falls in love, gets married and has children in the span of a week or even a month! Make sure you place appropriate time gaps in the plot and keep track of them. This is where your timeline spreadsheet is a huge help. Add in dates where nothing is happening. It’s perfectly ok to say something like, “The whole month of October, we waited for a break in the investigation, but by November, the police had exhausted all their leads.” Now, pick up the action in the beginning of November.
Weather– This is sort of related to dates and times in that, if the story is set in a locale where the weather changes with the seasons, your characters might be sweating in the heat of the afternoon, raking the leaves from the front yard, shoveling snow from the walkway, running for the door in the rain, etc. Remember, you’ll need to dress your characters appropriately. No one wears a coat in June in Pennsylvania for instance. Weather.com has all sorts of weather data for cities all over the globe. It takes a minute to check and make sure.
Transportation– Maybe I’m the only wacko that this would bother but, check train schedules, bus schedules and flight times for airlines if you are using them. Does the airline you’re using really have flights into that city? Are there bus stops on the corner in that part of town? Here’s an example: In Seeing Red, my second book, my group of friends goes into Philadelphia to hear a band play at a bar. Initially, I had the group take the train into the city because I didn’t want them drinking and driving. I realized, however, that the last train leaves the city at midnight for the suburbs. That’s too early in the evening for what I wanted to happen upon their arrival back home. Rather than ignore the fact that the trains don’t run at 2 AM, I changed the action so that one of the friends became the designated driver, allowing them to stay in the city until the bar had closed.
Historical accuracy– If you are writing about an actual event or series of events in history, even if it’s only a backdrop to your story, check your facts. Get the sequence of events straight. And don’t make up statistics! Seriously, in this day and age when we have information at our fingertips, there is no excuse for being sloppy! And it doesn’t have to be exhaustive research, just Google the subject and choose a reliable source. A word about Wikipedia. Even if you don’t fully trust Wikipedia, you can use it as a starting point. The references for their articles are listed at the bottom of the page. Yes, it’s an extra step, but worth the trouble if you’re not sure.
Pop culture– Here’s an area where your story can get a dated feel to it. Mentioning music, film and TV shows will solidly place your story in a particular time period. Paris Hilton is so yesterday. Just saying.
Politics, government and laws– I can’t speak for other nations around the world, but here in the USA, our laws may vary slightly from state to state. For example, in Pennsylvania you can’t buy beer or wine at supermarkets and convenience stores (Fascists!), although thanks to Wegman’s, this is beginning to change. The States all have websites that you can check for the laws in each one.
Culture– This is especially important if you are writing a story set in a country (or even a region of your own country) that may have a different ethnic diversity, political ideology, religion (or lack thereof), standard of living or level of technological development.

Have I covered everything you could possibly need to research? Not a chance. I hope at least this was a helpful start. I guess all I’m saying is, take the time to write the story right. Inaccuracy ruins a book for me, no matter how great the plot is. So do your homework, people! Next time, a few words about proof reading, editing and beta readers.

Diary of a New Writer 4 – Location, Location, Location!

October 14, 2015July 28, 2017 ~ Meg ~ 24 Comments

(Here are parts one, two and three, if you missed them)

*Disclaimer: This is not an exhaustive how-to for novel writing, just a few things I learned along the way.

What does the realtor always tell you when you’re shopping for a home? Yep. Location, location, location! The same is true when considering where to set your novel. Are you a sci fi or fantasy writer? Then you have some extensive world building to do. Planets, terrain, space stations, artificial environments – the components of a fictional world are complex. This is why I am greatly in awe of writers like Frank Herbert who wrote the Dune series and JRR Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy

World building for a contemporary romantic suspense novel, however, is not such an arduous task. Nevertheless, there are some things to consider when deciding the location for a novel.

How important is the location to the plot? In other words, could this same story take place anywhere or only in the setting you’ve chosen? For an overly obvious example, Tony Hillerman wrote about the Navajo Tribal Police on the reservation in the American Southwest. He could not have set those novels anywhere else. Duh.
Are you very familiar with the setting you’ve chosen or not so much? For example, if you live in Dallas, Texas and you set your story in Montreal, Canada, you better be prepared to do your homework. Now, if you lived in Montreal in the past, you should be fine, but if you’ve never even visited, be careful! Nothing can ruin a good story like screwing up the details.
Let’s say you decide to set the story in a fictional location. Not a bad idea. It gives you a lot of room to get creative. However, when constructing your locale, you need to be consistent. You can’t say that the post office is next door to the police station in chapter 1 and then say it’s across the street from the police station in chapter 6. Make yourself a map, keep a detailed list of the businesses and places of interest in your fictional town or city: places like restaurants, parks, the city hall, shops and public transportation (if there is any).
What about the time period you’re writing in? Philadelphia in 1776 versus Philadelphia 2015? Again, do your homework. My worst nightmare: having an expert read my book, find the mistakes and blab all about it in an Amazon review! So don’t be lazy, be thorough!

There are more details to consider, of course, but that’s an overview. In my case, I decided to go with that old epitaph, I mean adage, of ‘write what you know’ and set my story close to home.

I don’t live right in Doylestown, but I live about 20 minutes away. D-town is a quaint/hip town with lots of great restaurants and shops. It has train service to Philadelphia which gave me any easy way to write the city into the story, too. I used actual businesses and made a few up. A good rule of thumb is not to write about a real business if you don’t have something nice to say about it. It you need a crappy restaurant or a nasty shopkeeper, create one and don’t piss off your neighbors!

Anyway, I don’t care who you are, you are not going to possess all the knowledge you’ll need to write your book. There will be a minimum of research you will need to do. So what about that research? Where do you go to find stuff out? That’s next!

Images courtesy: wackenhutco.com, ieet.org, buzzfeed.com

Diary of a New Writer (3) Creating my characters

October 7, 2015July 28, 2017 ~ Meg ~ 21 Comments

(Images courtesy vulture.com and zap2it.com)

(To find part one, check here, for part two, check here)

Where were we? Ah, yes! I had the idea for my basic plot and a main character whose story I wanted to tell. I even had a good opening scene. However, as I began writing, I realized there is more to crafting a novel, than just putting words down on the page. As I mentioned in the last installment, my main character, Jen, had family, friends, a job, and a new man. Where did she live? What did she do for fun?

To get started, I wrote down the general plot outline, a quick synopsis of where I wanted the story to go. My outline would evolve from rather basic, to more and more detailed, as I started writing and new ideas emerged. You don’t have to have every detail of the story worked out before you start writing, but at least have a foundation on which to add layers. Next, I started a list of all the people who would be close to Jen: her father, their longtime housekeeper/Jen’s surrogate mother, her two best friends, her new love interest, and his family. More would be added later.

One primary task was to give them names. How do you choose a name for a character? Some of my names came from deceased relatives, old family friends, and the ever useful behindthename.com website. For whatever age your character is, you can check this website to see what names were popular the year they were “born.” For choosing surnames, I carefully watched TV show credits, paid attention to the last names of athletes, people in the news and even place names. Then, to make sure I wasn’t using the name of someone already famous, I would google the name to see what came up.

Remember how my inspiration for Jen came from Jennifer Lawrence? Well, I figured the same thing might be helpful to do for the other characters in the story. Who would I cast to play Jen’s father? Her best friends Joni and Desdemona? The handsome Tommy Quinn? (That’s Eddie Cahill from CSI: New York; he was just about the only reason to watch that show.) His equally handsome brothers? (Remember Colin O’Donoghue from last week? He’s Tommy’s brother Graham.) To keep track of them all, I started a Pinterest board which you are welcome to check out. Having a face to associate with each character was extremely helpful to me. I could visualize the actors in the situations I created for them.

The next thing I did was break out the 5×7 index cards. I know that’s a little old school, but I also wrote most of the story in my fancy notebook, too! Each character needed a backstory. The backstory wasn’t necessary to the plot of the book, but it helped me determine how a character would act/react in a particular situation. So on the index card, I wrote their age, their physical description, what they did for work, how they related to Jen. Also what was unique about their personality? Were they sweet and kind? Cranky and short tempered? Quick witted and funny? Energetic and capable? Athletic, artistic, shy, outgoing, confident? Each character’s card contained their biography; the more important the character, the more detailed the biography.

The plot outline is filling in, my index cards are piling up and I’m a couple of chapters in! The longer the story becomes, however, the harder it becomes to keep track of what happened when, who said what to whom and so forth. I needed a way to quickly reference the flow of the story. The solution? A timeline spreadsheet. I also needed to decide where my novel would be set. A small town? A big city? What part of the country? Would the location be real or imagined? Those are the subjects for next time.