By Bob McCrillis
In a talk she gave, Anna Quindlen claimed that she only does as much research as is convenient. That’s quite a statement.
My first thought was, “Sure, if you’re already a best-selling author.” A reader told her that getting from Miami to Tampa in three hours by car was impossible, she replied, “Not in my Florida.”
Yay! I don’t have to bother with inconsistencies and impossibilities. Well, maybe not so fast. I remember a person complaining that the book he was reading wasn’t accurate. It seems that he was familiar with Paris, where the story took place, and the places and street names were all wrong. “It ruined the whole book for me,” he grumbled. Continue reading “How Much Research?”
My internal editor pointed out the many deficiencies of my first twenty-five pages. He delights in bashing my fragile ego, doesn’t ever take a vacation or get laryngitis.
Setting aside the options of running down to the local copy shop, you have two possible choices. Traditional publishing or self-publishing – now called indie publishing.
I diligently took notes on such arcana as story arcs, critical turning points, characterization, and the primacy of points of view. According to the books, my next step — the first that called for actual writing — was to prepare my outline. The more detailed my outline, the better. The outline should include major and minor turning points, and the critical conflicts. My next task was to complete detailed worksheets describing my characters. With that done, writing your novel is mere word play.
Being a compulsive rule-follower, I dutifully Googled Query Shark and found the blog. Okay, a blog about queries might have some good information before the pitch for an online tutorial course for the low, low price of only …
Pearl S. Buck Writing Center 