 Mystery: September 20, 2023 Issue [#12183] |
This week: Is it believable? Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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Quote for the week:
"Mystery spread its cloak across the sky.
We lost our way.
Shadows fell from trees.
They knew why."
~From "House of Four Doors" by the Moody Blues. |
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Have you ever been reading an exciting book only to have some improbable situation bring you out of the story?
I read one best selling novel that was basically a good story, but it suffered from the author's lack of research. It was a mystery/thriller set in the New Orleans area. The plot revolved around a serial killer who imprisoned his victims in a basement before killing them. He also managed to enter the main character's home through an unlocked basement window.
Those two situations would be believable in many settings, but not New Orleans. In that area, very few houses have basements due to the high water table. The author had never been to Louisiana, and apparently didn't know much about the area, in spite of saying she had always been fascinated by New Orleans. The basement issue might not seem that important, but almost every critical review of that story mentions it. I live more than 1500 miles from New Orleans, and I noticed it right away. There were also a few other problems, such as a body that was dumped in a bayou area being found several days later without being fed on by alligators or other predators.
The basement problem could have been fixed easily if the author had actually known there was a problem. She could have set the story somewhere other than New Orleans. If she really wanted to use that setting, she could have had the killer hide his victims anywhere but a basement and had him gain entry to the main character's house in a different way.
While most writers do not have the time or money to travel to any setting they might want to use for a story, there area still other ways of researching a setting. If you really want to use a certain setting that you don't know much about, go to the library or internet and read everything you can find about the area. Depending on the story, you might need to find out about the history, climate, politics, culture, and common industries. Talk to people who have been there. Read other stories, nonfiction, and historical fiction set in the area. Writer's groups can give you a lot of good information, especially if they are made up of people with varied backgrounds.
In other cases, the setting might not be important, but other issues such as a character's job might be. You don't have to have a degree in the field in which your main character works, but you do need to have enough knowledge of it to make the character believable. For example, if your main character is a police officer, you will need to understand how police investigations work in general, as well as specific situations that might come up in your story.
All this information does not necessarily need to be included in your book, but your knowledge of it will help you to write a more believable story. If all the information you find does not pertain to this story, save it in case you want to use it in another one. Also, it is better to find out that the story will not work as you have planned it before you start writing, rather than after you have done months of hard work.
Something to try: Think of a place you would like to set a story in the future and find out information about it. |
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