Research: Does Inaccuracy in a Novel Bother You? By Connie Vines
April 13, 2016 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Connie Vines, Gems in the Attic, GothRom RWA, Native American Romance, OCC Blog, OCC RWA, Research for WritersI blog weekly on two sites (in addition to my own) and monthly on four website, I thought I’d post a topic from my Round Robin Series.
Topic: All story genres take some research for establishing details in the setting. What type of research have you had to do? Does it bother you when you read something happening in a story that is inaccurate historically, socially, scientifically, etc?
Does it bother me?
Yes.
However, in my case, there are varying degrees of irritation. If it is an easily found fact, or a fact that any functioning adult should be aware of then, yes—I am very irritated and will probably not finish the novel. On the other hand if current verbiage is used or the description of an item of clothing is more modern, that could be the writer’s choice. The writer may feel that her ‘readers’ wish to have the ‘flavor’ of a historical story without the genealogy charts or gritty reality of the era. Then I am okay. But to pass the facts off as accurate/ or marketed to make the reader believe this is not a fictionalized story—as in “The Other Boleyn Sister†or Disney’s “Pocahontas†animated movie (with what I like to call the Vulcan-mind-meld when the Hero and Heroine suddenly speak and understand each other), I do become angry. Apparently, I clamp my teeth, and my husband will swear that I growl when these movies become a topic of conversation.
We all make mistakes, I remind myself. Alternatively, the copy-editor adds/ deletes a needed fact. Moreover, sometime we simply ‘thought’ we removed it from the final draft. Still sloppy research makes for sloppy writing. If you do not like research, build your own world/town/or, do not give the reader a date or place to hang her hat on. You and add a statement: liberties were taken; the mistakes are my own, etc.
Researching
Any professional writer knows there is a lot more to the job than simply writing. There is also revising, editing, promoting, and much more. Before I even consider typing: Chapter One. Whether I am writing, historical, or fantasy, I conducted days—if not months or even years, gather my research material and scheduling interviews.
Research is vital to every writer. Contemporary novels required daily research to keep up-to-date on the latest tech item, hairstyle or whatever relates to your storyline.
Every encounter with a new person or visiting a new place is an opportunity for better, more descriptive writing. Writers never truly take a vacation, or turn off the research part of her/his brain.
So how do I organized my research material? (Tossing everything into a large bin is oh-so-not-the-way to be organized.)
#1: Keep a File Folder for Ideas
I have files where I stash clippings of articles on specific topics I feel will come up again, or will one day make great short stories/articles. I have plain colored folders for “shared†topics (I write multiple genres), cute folders (for YA/Teen topics), action folders for supernatural stories, etc.
These clippings are often story generators or prompts to open a chapter/create a pivot point. How many times have you heard something on the radio or watched something on television and thought, “Wouldn’t that be so great in my next novel�
Story prompts can be anything that you find interesting, anything that relates to your genre or area of writing interest. Because my books are character driven, I tend to be drawn to articles that talk about the human condition (i.e., why we do the things we do) or specific topics that I feel relate to my particular ‘character’.
#2: Story Premise Research First
When you start a new project, you must make some decisions. What is the theme of your book? (We might also think of this step as “what is the premise of your book?â€) The answer to this question will guide your starting research.
My third book, Whisper upon the Water, focused a lot on the living conditions and societal attitudes about Native American children. I already knew that Native American children were forced to attend government run boarding schools after the Indian Wars, but I did not know about the process, and how it affected the children or how they adapted. Therefore, I began with interviews, tours of the schools still in operation and trips to historical archives and reservations.
Before I wrote a single word, I looked into this, and the answers I found are what formulated my plot points. I needed this foundation of research to create a convincing plot, otherwise I would not tell the story correctly. I wanted the truth, I wanted historical accuracy and I wanted my readers to have an emotional connection to my characters.
Poor research in the beginning often results in a manuscripts dying at the halfway point. Think of this step as the foundation of your novel.
#3: First-Hand Accounts
As a rule, I set my stories in placed I have lived or visited. However, a writer does not have to go to a city/country to get a feeling for it.
Online Resources
Travel sites, local blogs, and YouTube all have a place in a writer’s arsenal. In particular:
• Travel Sites often have detailed maps and downloadable audio walking tours that can give you context for notable buildings and directional substance for urban areas to include in your book.
• YouTube is a major resource, often underutilized by writers. Those seemingly normal videos are great for providing local terminology, dialect, visual perspective and even minor details like the amount of traffic at a particular park or on a particular street.
#4: Details
• Using Google Maps and Streetview, for my upcoming release anthology at BWL: Gumbo Ya Ya—for women who like romance Cajun & men Hot & Spicy! I was able to get a street view of that area and I could ‘walk’ the streets as they appear in New Orleans. The Streetview feature setting on Google Maps plops you down right at street level and gives you a 360-degree view of everything including traffic, crowds, and architecture. While I do have my personal photos and memories of the city, it is always good to make certain the details are ‘just right’.
#5: Remember to Write
You can always do a fact check on the smaller items as part of the final revision process.
When I am dictating or typing my story, unless an earth-shattering event is in the works, I do not stop the process. I will type:** research time line of Spanish Flu or ** insert the popular song year, and keep writing. When I go back over the material, I will have time to add the particulars.
Research is fun. Unlike may authors, research in my favorite part of writing. Like a method actor, I immerse myself in the process. Hobbies, Music, Books, and Food (well, not food when I wrote my Zombie novella, “Here Today, Zombie Tomorrowâ€. right now, however, it is shrimp Creole, pecan pie and coffee with chicory). Research need not be cumbersome. If you are interested in your subject matter, then it is not work. It is just another part of writing a book.
I believe it is writing a book that is rich in research helps to separate the writers from the multi-published authors.
Readers, how do you feel about this topic? How important is historical accuracy to you?
Happy Reading,
Connie Vines
How Can We Write More? by Kitty Bucholtz
April 9, 2016 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz tagged as It's Worth It, Kitty Bucholtz, Speedwriting
Most of the writers I know want to write faster. They want to get more words down on the page during every writing session. I’ve been one of those writers for as long as I can remember…and I probably always will be!
Over the years, I’ve gotten faster – and without learning how to type faster! Now, I’ve had friendly arguments with writers about why your typing speed does matter. You can think faster than you can talk. You can speak faster than you can type. So if your thoughts are in the writing flow, they are moving fast. So the faster you can physically type, the faster you can get those words down on the page.
So the fact that I learned to write faster over time was more about getting my thoughts deeper into the writing flow. If I also learned how to type faster, I would be able to get even more of the story down in each sitting.
Okay, so let’s say you’re not going to update your typing skills, and you’re not ready to try dictation. How can you write faster?
There are several ebooks for writers that have focused on or touched on this one main idea: organize your thoughts before you sit down, then set a timer and write as fast as you can for a set length of time.
Let me break it down.
Why organize your thoughts first?
Even if you’re a pantser, you probably have some idea of the very next scene you plan to write. Now, what if you spent 5-10 minutes and closed your eyes or doodled or whatever you do, and you really saw the scene fully in your mind? What if you didn’t start typing until you could really see it?
You’d probably write faster.
Why set a timer?
If you have an hour and that’s it, have you noticed that you tend to really get those words out on paper because you’re hurrying to beat the clock? (Let’s assume that you’ve organized your thoughts and know what you wanted to write at the beginning of the hour.) Or if you have 30 minutes, and you know what you want to say, and it comes rushing out – partially because you have to go do something else soon? That’s why setting a timer works so well even when you have 4 or 5 hours to work.
You end up getting more words on the page.
Why pick an arbitrary time to stop?
For the same reason you set the timer in the first place – you’re pushing to get your thoughts out on the page before something (the timer) tells you to stop. You don’t dawdle. You don’t take a bathroom break and then a snack break and then answer a text during that hour (or 20 or 30 or 40 minutes). You type. Then you can take a break, answer a text, check emails, and then come back to the next timed session ready to do it again.
And write even more than before.
I hesitated to try this until recently because I hadn’t fully understood the answers to the three questions above. Once I realized how and why the whole thing worked, I haven’t been able to stop using this method! I went from a record high of 5000 words in a day to 7157 words in a day – both at writer retreats where the only thing I had on my schedule for the day was to write.
On my previously record high day, I started my writing day at 7am, took a break a few hours later to exercise and shower, wrote some more, took an hour for lunch to watch TV and give my brain and eyes a rest, then worked again until dinner around 5 or 6, and sometimes put in another hour after dinner if I had the energy.
On my new record high day at a writing retreat with my friend Elena Dillon last month, I wrote in five 1-hour sessions between breakfast and dinner and wrote 43% more than when I worked more hours!
I hope my explanation here has helped you see why this is a method you could try. If you want more detailed explanations from other writers, try Chris Fox’s book 5000 Words Per Hour (all of his books are really good) or Rachel Aaron’s book 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love. If you know of a book that could help people write faster, please mention it in the comments. 🙂
Kitty Bucholtz decided to combine her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher. Her novels, Little Miss Lovesick, A Very Merry Superhero Wedding, and Unexpected Superhero are currently available on Amazon. The free short story “Superhero in Disguise” and the new short story “Welcome to Loon Lake” are available wherever ebooks are sold. You can find out about her courses on self-publishing, marketing, and time management for writers at her website Writer Entrepreneur Guides.
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
April 6, 2016 by Linda O. Johnston in category Events, Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston, Reading tagged as Linda O. Johnston, Mystery Writers of America, RWA, The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
by Linda O. Johnston
Sorry to say that, once again, I’ll be missing this month’s OCC meeting. The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is the same weekend, and I’m doing things there both days.
Of course they’re predicting rain, maybe even thunderstorms, for both Saturday and Sunday. During almost any other time I’d be thrilled about that. Not next weekend, though.
I’ve been attending the LATFOB for many years, starting when it was held at the UCLA campus. Now it is at USC, which in some ways is more convenient for me since I can take the Metro there rather than drive.
There are a lot of interesting-sounding speakers and panels this year, although I probably won’t hear any of them. I’ll be busy signing at a couple of booths for mystery writers, helping to staff the booth promoting the Mystery Writers of America, and volunteering at the romance writers’ booth. It’s always fun to walk around and see what else is going on, too. And buy a few books? Why not!
I always think it’s fun to attend any kind of book event, and the LATFOB is always huge and enjoyable. I’m sure it will be this year, too–depending on the amount and timing of any rain.
And as an author, I find it very helpful and productive to attend these kinds of events and meet potential readers and other authors. How about you?
I hope the OCC meeting goes great–and I hope to get there again soon. And in the meantime, even if you attend OCC this weekend, you can always head up to the USC campus on Sunday to check out the LATFOB.
12 Titles in 12 Months [Part Two]
April 5, 2016 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as Edgy Christian Fiction, Tracy Reed
First of all, Happy Birthday to me.
It’s time for an update into my fun challenge, 12 TITLES IN 12 MONTHS. I think now that I am entering the second quarter of this challenge, people don’t think I’m insane or nuts after all.
[Writer Tip: Never discard good chapters that don’t work. Just because they don’t work with that book, doesn’t mean they are good. (Thanks Kitty Bucholtz for the ides.) Keep them and use them, re-work them and use as a short story, novelette or novella. Make them perma free. This way you’ll always have a freebie you can use to gain readers. That’s what I did with the discarded chapters from “What My Friends Don’t Know.†Those six chapters became a free prequel.]
I went to work on those drafts, but nothing worked. I thought if I re-read them, they would get my juices flowing. Nothing. Then I got a revelation. I had rewritten book two in The Alex series and remembered there was this great part I omitted because it was too long. I went digging through my old drafts and found it, but it didn’t work as a stand alone story, not like the chapters from book one. However, when I read them, they gave birth to an idea. Around the same time, I had this great two lines replaying in my mind, but when I tried to turn them into a story, nothing clicked. Let me take that back. I wrote about eight hundred words and trashed them. It was too difficult and felt forced. But when I took those two lines and mixed them with my other idea, it clicked. YES! I had my story.
When I started this challenge, I had it in my mind to do three full-length novels, one poetry book, about six novellas, a boxset and one short story. I had been asked to contribute a short story to a boxset, but I had to back out. If things had worked out, that would have been my one short story. Now I was short a title.
I revisited my production schedule and without thinking added another novella. I think at that moment my writer conscious went into shock. I did little research on story lengths. Let me clarify something. I like seeing my work in print. I knew from having done a few things with Createspace, there’s a page minimum for a print project. So I discovered that if I got creative with my formatting, I could have a nice little print book. Voila! I went back to my production schedule and changed some of those novellas to short stories. But a really cool thing happened, as I started writing, they words flowed and my cute little short stories turned into novelettes. YEAH! So now, my production schedule doesn’t look as daunting. It’s a nice mix of novelettes, novellas and full-length novels. So far, I haven’t written a short story per se, but I still have three titles that have yet to be born.
A cool thing about this challenge is that I get to experiment with genres. I have always wanted to try writing a RomCom [Romantic Comedy] or something with a little snarky humor. I got a little nervous about my RomCom, when I had my mother read it and a few pages in she said, “I don’t get it.†I was offended, because I thought it was funny. I immediately took it as criticism instead of what it really was, the truth. So I went back to the drawing board and rewrote the beginning. I have to admit I like it better. Is it funny? I think it is, but only time and readers with verify that fact. Hey, worse case scenario, it’s not funny and I learn from my mistake. Best case scenario, it turns out to be funny and possibly the beginning of a new series. I hope it’s well received because I have an idea about what happened next.
Here’s a sneak at the second quarter releases:
Title: INTENTIONAL CURSE
Length: Novella
Status: Completed
Release Date: April or May
I haven’t decided if I’m going to release this one in April or May. This novella is in response to requests from readers wanting know what happened to Kyla’s lover Eric. Instead of telling the story of what happened to him, I thought it would be more interesting to tell you how he met his wife and his mistress.
Sales Outlets: eBook – KDP Select *
Print – Amazon, Createspace, B&N and my website
Marketing Campaign: Posting on my blog and social media outlets [Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest], blast to my mailing list, GoodReads Giveaway and a possibly a Cover Release Blast tour. And miscellaneous blogs.
Title: THE FIX UP
Length: Novelette
Status: Completed
Release Date: April or May
I haven’t decided if I’m going to release this one in April or May. This little story happened during my writing block. It’s also my first attempt at a RomCom [Romantic Comedy]. I like the characters and hope this does well, because I see a second and possibly third tome with this group…especially the Nana character.
Sales Outlets: eBook – KDP Select *
Print – Amazon, Createspace, B&N and my website
Marketing Campaign: Posting on my blog and social media outlets [Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest], blast to my mailing list, GoodReads Giveaway and a possibly a Cover Release Blast tour. And miscellaneous blogs.
Title: THE FLING
Length: Novelette
Status: Almost Complete
Release Date: June or July I haven’t decided if I’m going to release this one in June or July. Because the second book in The Alex Series has a wedding and June is a big wedding season. It might be best to market based around that season. This story is the result of two ideas. The deleted pages from The Alex Chronicles Book Two and those two lines I mentioned earlier. I really should have titled it “The Rollercoaster.†This story is started out one way and then made a dip and then did a wrap around. Because I’m a Pantser, I not quite sure where it’s going to end. I hope it ends where I want it to. If it doesn’t, then I’ll take that ending and use it for another story. However, I’m not sure about the title.
Sales Outlets: eBook – KDP Select *
Print – Amazon, Createspace, B&N and my website
Marketing Campaign: Posting on my blog and social media outlets [Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest], blast to my mailing list, GoodReads Giveaway and a possibly a Cover Release Blast tour. And miscellaneous blogs.
On a side note, I love my covers. I’ve been taking a marketing course for my other business and keeping the word “Branding†at the forefront of my creative mind. Which can be both a blessing and a challenge. Because I want to be known as a writer of Steamy Christian Fiction, it means I have to always be cognizant of my brand or style. I want to push the envelope while not crossing the line. For me, that means every project I do has to fall in line with the look I’ve established.
I’m sure you noticed the asterisk [*] next to Sales Outlets. Let me explain. This is a huge undertaking. With that said, I didn’t plan the marketing, in detail. I planned the concept, but forgot to plan the marketing. Originally, I was going to make all of the titles available in every outlet. Problem with that is also what led me to do this, no one knew me and I have a small readership. When I started this, I had about 114 people on my reader list. So there really wasn’t a need to do a pre-order. Although I did offer pre-order with my January release. I got less than 10. Hey, it’s better than nothing. From that I learned, it was best to wait until I had a better readership before offering another pre-order.
But I did test out something I had been hearing. It’s sort of like that line from Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they’ll come.†[Writer Tip: If you write it, they’ll buy it…hopefully.] I had been reading on a lot blogs and podcasts that even if you do minimal marketing, and have a nice sized inventory, not only is it possible for you to make some sales, it could also produce sales with your other books. [The other reason or main reason I’m doing this challenge, I wanted to build up my inventory. More inventory equals more sales.]
Last week, I released The Good Girl Part Deux. I was in a hurry to get the book up by the end of the month and forgot to book an ad. However, I had just participated in the Romance Readers SPRING FLING Massive Ebook Giveaway. This event generated a lot of free downloads of my perma free book, The Alex Chronicles: Girlfriends & Secrets sending me to the #2 spot in one of my categories. It also produced a huge boost to my mailing list. So once The Good Girl Part Deux, was live, I sent an email to everyone on my mailing list thanking them for taking this writing journey with me. [Thanks for the email idea DeAnna Cameron]. Then I sent another email to my email list as well as a post to my blog list, offering them first dibs at The Good Girl Part Deux. Not only did those two things produced decent first day sales for GGPart Deux, it also produced sales for my other ebooks.
So for the duration of this project, I’ve elected to put all the titles in KDP Select. Towards the end of the year, I’ll figure out a more detailed marketing strategy for the following year. Unless of course, this one proves to be the best route for me.
As for how the writing is going? I am three titles away from having every month covered. Praise God!!! Every morning in my prayer time, I thank God for the words, because I really haven’t got a clue what those last three stories are going to be.
I’ll check in with you next month with my progress.
Soldier, Nurse, Spy: The Women who won the Civil War
March 11, 2016 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as 1862, Civil War, Confessions of a Podcast Goddess, medical drama, medicine, Mercy Street, PBS, romance, time travel, Virginia
March is Women’s History Month.
Writing women back into history. Many times we forget the Civil War wasn’t fought only by men, but women, too.
Did you watch the recent PBS Civil War mini-series “Mercy Street?”
I was glued to my TV every week watching the fascinating story of a Virginia hotel turned into a hospital for both Union and Confederate wounded in 1862.
What did you think of Mercy Street?
I enjoyed watching the story unfold and how it paralleled my Civil War time travel romance, Love Me Forever, which also takes place in 1862 Virginia. It was like watching my pages come alive with Civil War medicine, a visit from Mr. Lincoln, hoop skirts, women’s roles in both the North and the South, and of course, hot romance.
What I loved so much about that show was the prominence of women’s roles during the Civil War and how they changed nursing with their daring and willingness to tread into what was then a male profession.Like Mercy Street, I have two heroines:
Liberty Jordan, a time traveler from the future who goes back to Antietam dressed as a Confederate officer.
Pauletta Buckingham, a Tennessee belle and a spy bent on revenging the death of her beloved, a Texas Ranger.
An odd couple in every way. One is a strawberry-blonde, the other raven-haired. One believes in the Union; the other will do anything for the cause. One is in love with a man she can’t have…the other is engaged to a man she doesn’t love.
But these two women have one thing in common: believing in women’s equality. Here my time traveler, Liberty in LOVE ME FOREVER, questions her involvement in the war with belle Pauletta Sue.
“Liberty couldn’t stop questioning how she got mixed up with this crazy secesh woman and her insane scheme. She’d never seen a woman so passionate about a cause, so truly believing what she was doing was patriotism. The war had unleashed a fire in her, and the more Liberty understood about the protected, delicate lifestyle these women led, the more she knew a great movement was underway that went beyond their cause.
It wasn’t until 1866 that the American Equal Rights Association was founded, but this was the beginning of the movement leading to women’s freedom and that she could understand. What bothered her was that Pauletta Sue was on the losing side of the war and because of that, she might not benefit from the changes women embraced afterward. She worked so hard at her cause, Liberty believed she deserved better, but the belle wouldn’t listen to her.â€
I love how these two women bond over the course of the story as did Union Army nurse Mary in Mercy Street with belle Emma. But as much as I enjoyed the series, I kept hoping they would touch on the role of women in the ranks. Brave women who fought and often died as soldiers because they believed in their cause. I’m hoping the series will be renewed and we’ll meet up with a female soldier in Season 2.
My hero, Major Flynt Stephens, a Union Army physician, ponders the idea of female soldiers when he finds out his Rebel prisoner is a beautiful woman (Liberty).
“The Rebel prisoner was a female.
Would his nurse give her away? Or was she waiting for him to say something? He couldn’t. He felt a stirring within him, something he didn’t want to admit, that brought a hardness between his loins. Did he dare imagine that a beautiful woman existed under all that blood and dirt? He’d heard stories about women enlisting in the army, both North and South, and fighting as men. A good set of teeth to rip open a bullet cartridge, a trigger finger that worked, and a firm handshake was all that was required to join up. It was no secret the promise of a steady paycheck was often the reason behind such reckless female behavior.
That didn’t solve his immediate problem.â€
Women Soldiers in the Civil War from “Love Me Forever” from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.
We will soon see women in combat roles in the Armed Forces. Imagine how proud the women soldiers in the Civil War would be knowing they paved the way…
~Jina
LOVE ME FOREVER is available on Amazon
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