The Dirty O word...Organizing!

Photograph by Steve Jurvetson

**Repost due to NaNoWriMo insanity**
Organizing is an often maligned idea when it comes the writing process. 


Particularly by "Pantsers" or people who just go with the flow of their story or characters...


I have no idea how this works because I tend to plan EVERYTHING...just check my refrigerator for the monthly menu...yeah, that's me.


Research is one thing you should really try to stay on top of though, whether you're a seat of the pants writer or not.  


There's when to do it, how much, where to keep it and how to access it efficiently, why you shouldn't skip it -- its a serious matter for a writer.  But it's not as intimidating as it seems and the pay off for proper research usually comes in spades.

• First off, WHEN do you do it? - I asked a few authors this and the overwhelming response was BEFORE you need it.  Don't wait until you're on the plane, your MC struggling to keep the nose up, glancing with wild-eyed panic at the instrument panel....only to stop and have to look up what an altimeter looks like and where it is, not to mention how to read it...You don't want to ruin the flow of writing so do your research AHEAD OF TIME.

• The second question is HOW MUCH research do you do? - Well, that depends on what you're writing. If its Historical, then probably a lot unless you already hold a degree in  your genre or have another interest that overlaps information.  You'll need to understand the in's and out's of a particular profession if your MC's career is outside your experience. Maybe the setting is a place you haven't visited or lived in, so you'll need to do some research. DETAILS are what make a novel believable, so don't skimp on pictures or GOOGLE EARTH.   On the other hand, you don't have to describe the origin of every bead on the bodice of your heroine, so be careful not to overload the reader.

• WHERE TO KEEP IT - Close at hand, is my experience. I tend to bookmark sites that are helpful under a file name with my novel's title. I print out pictures and articles that I need and put them in my novel binder (I'll totally get to what that is in a minute.) Often saving PDF and other files directly in a file marked with your novel's name on your desktop works well. The point is to file it...FILE IT...as soon as you get it. Why? Because when you need it, searching through every scrap of paper on your desk, in your desk, or in the trash, is a pain and disrupts the flow of writing.  Trust me on this...FILE IT.

• WHY YOU SHOULDN'T SKIP IT - Nothing throws a reader out of the fiction dream you've created faster than a blaring mistake. What's worse, nothing screams unprofessional like being caught 'winging it'  in the facts department.  Take the time to know your business...details like interstate numbers, landmarks and local landscape details are important. The most annoying mistakes for me as a reader are TIME WARPS, especially in historical fiction. Don't talk about zippers, if they haven't been invented yet...its just rude.

Finally, I've found that a three-ring binder with dividers, the kind you used to have in high-school, is very helpful for keeping all of your research in one place.


So when you have written your 50,000 Nano behemoths...take a few days to really make sure you've been accurate. Your readers will thank you for it. 

Duck...No, Weave!

So, I do a lot of research on things that I will (hopefully) never encounter or need in my real (housewife) life. To do this I have tons of books on strange subjects. I wrote about them in a past post called, Trickery, Deception, and Other Essentials.

Today we are learning how to dodge bullets! Yay for survival books!

The Worst-Case Scenario, a survival handbook by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht, is one of my  "Go To" texts for situations that I know nothing about.  There is a chapter about surviving if you are in the line of gunfire where they have diagrams and everything.

In our scenario, our hero, let's call him Survival Stan, fresh from stealing a secret government vial of uber-doom, is confronted with evil henchmen-guards and fired upon. In the movies we would see him running across the courtyard a trail of bullets churning up dirt at his heels as he bee-lines it for the door...WRONG!!

See, according to my trusty handbook, running in a straight line across a clear open area is a sure fire way to get gone!  You are instead supposed to run in a zig-zag pattern while putting as many obstacles between yourself and the henchmen's bullets as possible.

Zig-Zag, people.  It doesn't look cool, kind of like an ostrich at a ballet, but most people do not have the training to properly track a moving target, much less a wavering one, to hit it.

Also, if there is a corner, use it.  Hide behind cabinets or doorways. Untrained shooters usually cannot hit a target more than sixty-feet away, so start running...fast.  Don't wait...run.

Also don't bother pulling a Dirty Harry  and counting the bullets. There is no way of knowing if the shooter has more ammunition and we all saw The Matrix...there's ALWAYS more ammo hidden in those trench coats.

If you are outside and there are cars around, get to a car on the opposite side of the street and get behind a tire. They will stop small caliber bullets, but armor piercing rounds will punch holes in the car like it was made of paper....so keep that in mind.

Finally, I want to remind all of you that this is purely a hypothetical situation for your characters...I'm in no way an expert. The point is to get you thinking about research and how the details of a scene can really pull the reader into the experience and make it believable.

I'd love to hear of any great books or research techniques you've used to create a vivid and riveting universe for your story.  Until next time...Go Write!