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The devil is in the detail when it comes to writing fiction.  Small tidbits of detail can add much needed depth to your story.  I’m all about making each and every detail relevant to your story.  If my hero is drinking a can of soda, I have to mention which brand.  And understand WHY he is drinking a Mountain Dew instead of Coke or Pepsi.  But there’s a catch, you must research why… you must have some basis in fact or you’ll push your reader right out of their suspension of disbelief.

For the love of Pete and all your other readers please do not use movies as a source for information. Directors and screen writers use creative license to tweak facts in order to create a story people will want to watch on the big screen.  Writing fiction is a bit more subtle. Those little details need to be accurate or they can break the spell that binds the reader to your book.

Examples of how poor research lost a reader:

A couple of years ago I picked up an Oprah’s Book Club book.  I’ll be nice and not mention the name, but that’s also because I can’t remember it or the writer. You don’t want this to happen to you.

The book was historical fiction set in the late 1800′s about a poor girl in Appalachia.  I had read about half the book at this point. It was a good story, not great, but good.  Until I got to the part where the girl is making homemade Christmas ornaments out of aluminum foil*.  Now I’m not a history buff.  But somewhere in my brain I remembered reading about a medal that was given to Abraham Lincoln that was made of aluminum. Because at that time aluminum required so much energy to produce it was considered a precious metal.

When I read the about the girl and the tin foil stars I was immediately jarred out of the story.  Like someone cutting holes in my mental movie screen. Not only could I not pick the book up again but I couldn’t read anything by that author again.  I felt that they hadn’t done their homework**.  And it was something so small.  She could have made rag doll angels instead and the story would have been fine.  But the author chose a detail that didn’t fit and it ruined the story for me.  Obviously it didn’t ruin the story for Oprah.  I have other examples*** of similar research gone awry.  Please don’t include yourself and your writing with this group.

Take the time before your story**** to research the subject/history/location you are writing about.  And use multiple resources for accuracy.  For parts of your story that require a depth of knowledge, seek out experts in the field. Many are more than happy to share their knowledge.

Research also has a catch.  Don’t let it eat up all your writing time.  Do some initial research but then write your story. Get that draft out.  You’ll find areas where you’ll need more info.  Make a note of it and conduct additional research when you’re done with the first draft.

Do you have examples where a lack of research (um, besides this blog post) has pushed you out of a story?

Next week: How to start that new WIP, see you then!

* Since writing this article I decided to do some research on aluminum foil which came into wide production around 1926.  Prior to this Tin foil (a different metal, easier to process) was in wide use around the turn of the century.  As some of you may be aware tin foil is a commonly used term for aluminum foil even though it’s not really accurate.  If the author used the word tin foil in her writing she would be accurate (although I still wonder if the underprivileged in Appalachia would be able to purchase tin foil at the time the story takes place).  And so, I have proved the importance of researching BEFORE you write.  As an example, my blog post, although well intended, is completely void.

** The writer obvious DID do her homework.

*** Which I should have used!

**** And your blog post!

This week’s we’ll be touching on Character development, Plot or Arc building and World Building which I realize now is overload for a single blog post.  So we’ll touch on a few aspects of each and how I do it.  When you write you’ll probably have your own way or use some of what I do.  It’s totally up to you and what is the easiest most effective way for you to be creative and get the work done.

I’m a plotter.  I’ve learned over the years that there are 2 different types of writers. Plotters and Pantsers.  Pansters usually (but not always) start with a character.  Meaning their ideas show up as characters and they follow that character by writing about them and seeing where it takes them.

I’m going to use a car driving analogy here.

Pantsers write like they’re driving at night with the headlights on.  They write as far ahead as they can see and move forward.

A Plotter’s idea usually (but not always) shows up as a plot idea or string of events, or a specific character along with those series of events.  That’s how it works for me.  But I can’t start writing about that character until I know where I’m going.  I need a map.

Plotters write like they’re driving at night with the headlights on but with a map in their hand watching for signposts and land marks, all the while, moving forward.

First I come up with the idea. Then I sit around and think about the major plot points this idea needs to have.  This is where Christopher Vogler’s book comes in super handy.  He has 13 guideposts in his book that walk me through my potential story.  His style of story-telling is the type of story I like to read and write about and that’s why I use his methods.

This is where character and character arc show up for me.  I have to ask myself WHO would be the best person to carry out this heroic journey?  I start to develop some type of character at this point.  Someone with issues… problems of his or her own that they need to face. It’s important that the journey I send them on test their beliefs in themselves and their world.

I have to admit I am very aware that my character development is weak when I begin a new work in progress (WIP).  My characters grow deeper as I write about them, as I put them through their trials in the story.  At the end of my first draft I review my character arc and make sure it follows the plot line as it should.  But this I’ll cover when we get to Revisions!

I feel like I’m being very vague about everything.  I think that’s because there are so many details at this creative point that I can’t enumerate them all.  Perhaps I’ll start another series of posts that will delve deeper into each aspect, let me know if you’d be interested!

To sum up, after I come up with the idea, I sit down and outline my plot and come up with my main character and subsequent characters that I’ll need.  This outline is very much like a synopsis.  It’s a couple of pages long (single spaced) with Vogler’s plot points labeled and ideas written in paragraph form for each of the big scenes.  Including the last and final scene.

Yes, I like to know my ending.  It does not, as some suggest, make me bored with the story.  On the contrary, it excites me to know where I’m headed.  I love building up my story to the final climactic conclusion.

Next week we’ll discuss Research, which is the final thing I do before starting the FIRST DRAFT.  No matter what you write, from SF to Romance, you’ll need to know details about the world and characters you plan to create.  Happy Writing!  See you next week!

Don’t forget to click the blue banner above and learn from other writers, HOW I WRITE!

Today I am interviewing Jennifer Carson about her wonderful book To Find a Wonder asking her questions about her creative career in both writing and creature creation!

Q: Jen, you’ve written To Find a Wonder and have had it published.  But how did you start your creative career?

I’ve always been a creative person. Art was my favorite class, as well as English and History. I started teaching younger kids how to draw when I was 16, my first summer job. Even when I started having children, I never lost the desire to create things and often these things would have a way bigger story in my head then what I could create with a pencil or out of craft materials.  The summer before my second son went into first grade we were outside on the deck. The boys were playing and I was drawing dragons. He asked me how dragons learned to breathe fire and I couldn’t answer him. Being the technological age mom that I was (ha!) I went on the internet looking for an origin story. I didn’t find one, but I did find a desire to create a story about it. My son’s question was the beginning of a writing career. I was always good at writing, but I never really realized how much I enjoyed it until I started doing it every day.

Q: Some writers start out doing a million different creative hobbies and then realize they’re meant to write. Many writers continue to have other creative pursuits that they call hobbies when they aren’t writing, what are yours?

My hobbies still include drawing and painting and creating other bits and baubles. I like to sculpt with clay and make things from paper, and make things for my kids classrooms—posters and what not. I do those things for fun. I also like listening to music…esp. my boys playing the piano.

Q: Your soft sculpture creatures are gorgeous in detail and I know you write about most of them in your stories.  Which ones have you created after you’ve written a story about them, and which ones did you create before the story?

I based the character patterns for To Find A Wonder from the illustrator’s (P.A. Lewis) images, but most of the time the creature comes before the story. There are a lot of creatures that whisper stories to me while they are being created—like my tattoo faeries for instance. It helps me to create their costumes and pick the right accessories. Great creatures are ones that tell me their name, but my favorite creatures are the ones that tell me their stories.

Q: When and how did you learn to sew/felt etc.  What drew you to it, and how does it help your writing? I feel that for you one is integral with the other.

You are exactly right. They feed off of each other for sure…see above = ) I fought my mom tooth and nail over learning anything even remotely “domestic”, until I had kids of my own. I wanted to create things for them that were special and not the same old stuff Johnny down the block had. So, I taught myself how to sew and made them special bedding, curtains, painted murals in their rooms—the works! A couple of years later I started looking at some of my drawings and thinking, I wonder how I could make this 3-D. I started teaching myself how to design stuffed animals, starting with dragons. Then my high school art teacher taught me how to needle felt. That was the next piece of the puzzle I needed to get my art career moving. Creating creatures gets my imagination churning. It makes me ask myself questions about how things go together and what I want the outcome to be. (See any resemblance to writing a story? ; )

Q: You have a successful side business at www.thedragoncharmer.com and www.jennifercarson.etsy.com how do you juggle both soft sculpture and writing?

Sometimes it’s hard to juggle writing, creating, and family, but I try to take it just one day at a time and I try to use my time wisely. Like, I know on Tuesday I will be sitting at piano lessons for 90 minutes, so I sew on Tuesday while the boys are in school and I take my writing to piano lesson. Now, Saturday I’ll have some kind of sports game, so on Friday morning I’ll write, but in the afternoon I’ll sew some creatures together and I’ll take those creatures to the game and stuff him so that Saturday before the game I can write before everyone gets up and moving. So, it’s really just about good planning : )

I agree with having a plan.  I have always felt that if you want to follow your dreams you need to plan for them.

That’s right. Luck and talent is only 10% of the plan. Perseverance, marketing, hard work, dedication, the willingness to start over or “re-vision” and making contacts make up the other 90% of any creative business. Put yourself out there, what’s the worst that could happen?

Q: Why do you feel it’s important to do other things that are creative besides writing?

It’s not enough to experience the world just through your writing. You have to experience the world with all our senses in order to be able to make your character’s unique world come alive on the page. Plus, while you are in the moment creating something, your subconscious is working out a plot problem, or putting together a scene for you. I don’t always know right away why my character is doing what she/he is doing at the moment—but I do trust that my subconscious will let me in on it…sooner or later. = )

Q: What do you have in the works right now that you’d like to share with our readers?
Well, I have a new story that is being read by two major house (fingers crossed!) and I scripted To Find A Wonder for a musical production this summer. To Find A Wonder, the musical will be performed on August 5th at the New London Barn Playhouse– New London, NH …get tickets if you are in the area! The most fun part of that is that my second oldest is part of the junior intern program and will be part of the performance and they are going to be puppets! Larger than life puppets! It’s going to be awesome = )

I also have a regular column starting in the September issue of Soft Dolls and Animals and I’ve started my own blog. I will have interviews with faerie artist Jessica Galbreth, our own SCBWI author Kat Black, Professor and writer Ari Berk and many more plus updates on my WIP’s and my musings on writing, marketing, inspiration, etc. Stay tuned!

If you would like to read Jennifer’s book To Find A Wonder for FREE check out Kris Asselin’s and Laura Pauling’s blogs for details on their multi-book contests!

To purchase To Find a Wonder please see Jennifer’s site: www.findawonder.com and enjoy this heartwarming story of a young knight and a wonderful dragon.

Introduction:

HOW I WRITE is a blog series where writers of different genres discuss how they go about the business of writing a book.  Like snowflakes, writers are unique and we have unique ways to produce our creative product, our books. So walk with us, learn from us, and help us become better writers in the process.

Simply click the blue How I Write banner to find a list of links to our contributing writers!  If you would like to be added to the blog series just email Ansha.  Happy Writing!

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Where do you get your ideas?  It’s a question that every creative person hears.  People want to know how a writer can create something out of nothing.

Here’s the catch.  It’s not out of nothing.  Something is always happening around us.   If I want to start my little mind rolling with new ideas I “feed the well” a term I learned from some genius somewhere.  It means to take in everything and absorb like a sponge.

To feed the well, I read award winning books.  I read classic books and watch classic movies.  I also go out and have fun!  Fun is so vitally important to a creative process.  Fun is where our motivation comes from.  So I do things that are fun and relaxing.  Things that make me happy inspire me to create something out of nothing.

To create an idea I like to ask myself “What if” questions.  I write middle grade and young adult fiction so my questions can be lofty but they always boil down to how the situation would apply to a teen in a teen’s world.

Coming up with ideas for me isn’t hard.  Coming up with a GREAT idea that I don’t mind exploring for a year or more while I write and revise a manuscript can be a challenge.  I keep a folder on my hard drive with lots of word documents that contain maybe a single sentence.  An idea.  Then if it’s intriguing  I then build on the idea by creating characters with goals and motivations and issues.  You can’t have a good story without issues.  Issues that cause conflict. Lots of conflict creates a great story.

So I’m always looking for ideas that create conflict.

Over the years I’ve learned to let my subconscious do all the work when it comes to ideas and solving the plot problems that occur with them.  I’ve learned to relax and just let ideas “show up.”  They like to visit in the shower.  When I’m half asleep. And when I’m washing dishes. So my word of advice is keep a notebook handy WITH a pen, at all times.  You’ll be thankful that you did.

Now as far as choosing the RIGHT idea, you know, the one that’s going to be great fun to work on and land me a huge book deal?  Well, that might be fodder for another post!

Books or Classes I use at this point in the process:  The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler

My wonderful critique partner Jennifer Carson is holding a contest.  If you haven’t seen her soft sculpture creatures I highly recommend checking them out! It will make you want to send her 50 photos!!

Purchase a copy of To Find A Wonder and send a photo of yourself with the book, in front of the bookstore to jennifercarson{at} thedragoncharmer{dot}com. If your entry is chosen you and the bookstore will win a handmade Booknook dragon, a prize valued at $75.00. Winners will be announced here, on her blog, on November 22nd! Be sure to include in your entry your name and contact information, as well as the name and location of the bookstore. Good Luck!