As absurd as this sounds, I’ve found it quite accurate. I don’t know how many times I have found myself sitting at lunch, speaking with my friends as I turn to them, narrow my eyes, and blurt out twenty minutes of explanation on something I had uncovered the night before. I’m a great friend, yeah?
Maybe the new knowledge has to do with nationalistic features among men from the age of 16-25, or maybe it has to do with the suicide rate of young aboriginal children, the topic normally shifts, and is not the spotlight of my blog post.
What is important happens to be the lengths that many author’s go to keep credibility within their pieces. It’s to the point that many authors, especially those of darker themed novels, need to ‘clear’ their browsing history so people don’t think that they are going to kill them after reading an article titled “10 best ways to kill a man without getting caught” along with many side articles backing up the statements made within the first. And this joke is everywhere, almost more prevalent than the porn variant of it.
For my first novel, I had over one hundred pages of in depth research based on character flaws, setting, police interrogation techniques, and car mechanics. When one doesn’t understand how a clock works, but if one needs to write about a clock maker, you don’t want to get jargon and technical terms wrong. Disaster follows when one calls a wrench a plunger, and says you use it to put a screwdriver into a wall. Or, for the ladies, say you put mascara on your lips to make sure the skin doesn’t become dry.
I’ve read once, in an article whose name escapes me, that creating perfect scenes is nearly impossible without outside resources. For an EMT to read a scene where a man is being carted away, incorrectly, and against protocol, could completely destroy a book for them. At this point what does an Author do to adequately represent the people, the others, that will be reading their book? Does one skimp on reality to suspend it? Where is the line that one can say without issue that it wouldn’t matter if it was portrayed incorrectly and still get their message across?
Is it better to take the time, better to be safe and ask those within the niche you are throwing your piece at before it is torn apart?
As an Author, I can’t help but understand that knowing everything will never happen, and an extensive knowledge of how cars run, or why people drink liquor with gold flakes in it won’t be at the top of my to-read list (maybe the liquor thing, because that has to make shitting more worth one’s time). Finding the time to balance educating yourself on the necessary material and writing your manuscript can be hard, but dedication and truth will overcome the time.
B. E. McLaughlin 