fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment:

shannahmcgill:

• When it’s a scientific field. If you want to include lots of biology in your book, you’d better know more than ninth grade biology.
• When it’s another culture, or even your own culture in the past. If you rely on only prior knowledge and you get something laughably wrong, you can offend a lot of people.
• When you want to include the best item in a large category, such as dog breeds or guns, for a specific job.
• When you’re making an allusion to a book you haven’t read (not a good idea in the first place).
• When you’re talking about the human body in extreme conditions

you’d better know more than ninth grade biology.

you’d better know more than ninth grade biology.

you’d better know more than ninth grade biology.

Study guides, quick reference charts, history timelines, photocopiable PDF handouts, classroom posters, and more. Great for visual learners.

Dang.

sunshineboi94 asked: How important is location to a story? I’m asking about specific location, not setting. I know landscape, climate, and environment can all be important details but is it necessary to give an exact location to your story? Personally, I feel like it makes it less relatable, but I could benefit from some outside opinion. Also, if you are to give it a location does it have to be a real place? Not a fantasyland but a fake place such as Mayberry?

Figuring out your setting is a little frightening; it can often feel like you’re locking yourself into a decision. Location details are important as they often inform your plot and characters and create the story’s backdrop, so it’s worth it to explore this topic.

Whether or not you decide to use a “real place” (such as New York City) or a fictional place (such as Fictionville) is a complicated decision, so here are a few things to keep in mind.

First, let’s talk about the advantages of real locations.

• No world-building required. New York already exists. In this circumstance, you don’t have to worry about laying out an entire location. This gives you liberty in the sense that you can spend energy and time on other parts of your story, but it has limitations that will be explored later in this article.
• Strong cultural roots. As something of an extension of the world-building point, when you use a place that really exists, all of the information about that point is at your fingertips. This means research, but it also means that nothing can slip through the cracks. If you want to refer to something in your story, you can refer to it without having to think of its world-building ramifications. For example, if your characters decide to go see a musical, you can research whether or not the town in which your story takes place has a theater, as opposed to having to ask yourself, “would this town that I’m inventing logically have a theater?”
• Name recognition. Everybody knows about New York. If your story takes place in New York, they know what that means and they probably know about it on some level. Using it as your location will allow all of the reader’s knowledge about the place to fill in the setting. This is not, however, an excuse to not use strong details in terms of your setting. (We will talk about details in a jiffy).

Now that we’ve gone over some of the more general advantages to working with a real location, here are a few things to keep in mind while doing so:

• Get it right. This means research. Even if you live in this place, it means research. Misrepresenting a place, whether it’s a matter of geography, culture, or something in between, is a travesty and will be a failure in your story. Make sure, when you include a detail or piece of information, that it makes sense, is credible, and contributes to the image of the place that you are trying to express.
• Go to there! The best way to research is to experience the location. Look around for concrete details: what do the buildings look like, how do people get around, what sort of slang do they use, what are the more interesting or prevalent aspects of the culture. Of course, research is critical in representing a place accurately, and the most accurate way of research is going there and learning about it first-hand.
• Understand the culture. If you cannot visit the place for whatever reason, find resources. Use the Internet, books, film, television, and anything you can get your hands on. Try to immerse yourself in the place as best as you can. Looking something up on Wikipedia is cool, but not enough. Listen to music that came out of that place. Read the books. Watch the films, the local news, the sports teams. Check the weather. Talk to the people. Get primary sources. Get to the heart of that place’s culture.
• Google Maps. Even if you live in a place, you can still mess up. It happens all the time. Which side of the street is that café on? Are you positive? Completely? Might as well check. Google Maps (especially street view) is a resource to which writers of older generations did not have access. Take advantage of it. Also make use atlases, maps, and anything that can clear up any geographical confusion. There’s no reason to make a mistake in the age when everything is instantly knowable.
• Be convincing. Now that you have all of this information, you have to write it in a way that builds the place for the reader. They haven’t done the research that you have, and so it is your responsibility to create the world as you know it. There are a couple of ways to go about this:
  • Use concrete detail. Show them the place. Giving strong sensory detail is the best way to get readers involved and interested in a place with which they’re unfamiliar. If the reader is familiar with the place, using concrete details will make them feel like they know what’s going on and they’ll feel that you are portraying it accurately.
  • Use dialect. What do these people call a long sandwich? Is it a sub, a hoagie, a hero? Getting in touch with vernacular can make or break how convincing your story is. Dialogue should blend in with landscape; make it convincing. A misplaced slang word can throw off your reader’s sense of place. Be careful.
    In this vein, here is a helpful article regarding writing accents in a story.
  • Let the story fit. Stories aren’t built for every setting. Setting is a living part of the story that interacts with characters, plot, and everything else that goes on the page. If your story does not make sense in your chosen setting, choose a different setting or choose a different story. A disconnect between those two ideas will cause a collapse.

Now that we’ve explored real settings in some depth, let’s take a look at fictional settings. First: why use one?

• You are in total control. Nothing shows up without your consent. You can construct anything and put it in your story, as long as it doesn’t feel too far-fetched (and even if it does!). If you need to include a boarding school, or a café, or a societal norm or value, then you don’t have to worry if such an institution already exists, because your place is fictional.
• The research is all on you. If you don’t understand the Subway system, for example, you might have to do a lot of research if you’re writing a story that takes place in New York. If you’re building your own place, you can design whatever public transportation system that you like, which runs on your characters’ schedules. Perks. By not having to conform to a real place, you don’t have to worry about your story being an accurate representation of anything.
  This does not preclude the fact that your story should be realistic in terms of how certain kinds of places operate. If Fictionville is a rural area with a population in the low hundreds, you still need to make sure that you are accurately portraying that kind of place.

There are a few things to focus on while developing Fictionville:

• World-build. Even if you are not writing fantasy, any created fictional place should be planned well. Treat it like you have to create a universe from scratch, because you basically are. The more fully you think about Fictionville and the more you understand its history, culture, and people, the richer it will come across on the page. Here’s an article on the basics of world-building. Applying its principles to your own place will be helpful. 
• Understand geography. You don’t have to make a map, but you should know the ins and outs of your town on a geographic level. If making a map would help you, do it, but you should at least know how large Fictionville is, how many people live there, what is located in what place, how to people get from one place to the next, etc., so that you do not make logistical errors in your story.
• Place it. If applicable, try placing Fictionville somewhere in the real world. Maybe it’s in northern Ohio, or just outside of London. This, like many aspects of the planning and development process, does not have to be included in the narrative itself, but will help give Fictionville cultural roots.

Finally, some general remarks about writing any kind of setting.

• Use concrete details to your advantage. Your setting, no matter where it is, will live or die by the details you use. You do not have to describe every element of a setting, but using certain ones that trigger the sense can familiarize readers with the location. This is a somewhat lengthy post on detail that includes a section on setting in the middle.
• Assume unfamiliarity. Writing your story with the assumption that the reader has never seen your setting in person forces to you try even harder to bring it to life. Knowing that the reader is unfamiliar can make it daunting and difficult to write setting, but this notion should motivate you to represent the place as faithfully and richly as possible.
• Bus schedules aren’t enough. There are two sides to setting: logistics and soul. If a character gets on a specific bus route, it’s probably a good idea to research if such a bus actually exists, but this is only one side of writing about setting. The part that is infinitely harder is understanding the spirit of a location, what makes it tick, what motivates its citizens, and how this culture matches your story. Whether your place is real or made-up, this will be your greatest challenge in writing setting.

And so, which one should you pick? Like always, there is no single, correct way to write something. Hopefully this article explained some of the advantages and requirements of either writing about a real place or a fictional one. At the end, the reader should not be able to tell.

Further Reading:

• Our Setting Tag
• Writing Somewhere You Haven’t Been
• Creating a Setting

Favorite Books for Real Settings:

• Dubliners by James Joyce (for Dublin)
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (for the American West)
• Typee by Herman Melville (for Nuku Hiva)

Favorite Books for Fictional Settings:

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (for Maycomb, Alabama)
• The Harry Potter Series (for Hogwarts)
• Rabbit, Run by John Updike (for Mt. Judge, Pennsylvania)

We appreciate the question; if you have any queries, comments, or concerns about this post or writing in general, please send us a message via our ask box!

- O

Anyone?

emptymanuscript:

So, I just realized that I’ve wasted about an hour trying to look up something that 99.99% of everyone who will ever read my work will simply not care about. Yeah, I want to get it right. But seriously, how much writing could I have done in that time? Now you could argue, well I should have known better than to look it up if it is so miniscule but to steal a phrase: it’s all small stuff. This is one of the reasons I love the advice to portion off your research, do it before you write or do it after you are done with a draft.

Admittedly I say I love that advice and then I go right ahead and look things up whenever I need something. Yesterday it was Clozapine vs. Respiridone. Which is vitally important in my mind. And you know, most people just aren’t even going to care. I’m going to say a pill name, I’m going to say what it is for, and unless they deal regularly with Schizophrenia they’re just going to take my explanation. Still that was a short look up since I had looked up Clozapine and Respiridone before and I just couldn’t remember which one Zephyr was on before and which he was on now. Today though I was trying to find the tax dates of the Song Dynasty. <_< I’m relatively certain that the number of schizophrenics vastly dwarfs the number of people, even Chinese people, who would know when tax day was in the late 12th century. And why the hell do I need this?? Just so I can have JJ say how long it is until she has to pay her taxes. >_<

>_< Wow what a waste of time and I’m no closer to answering the question than when I started. Not to mention that she’s dead. It’s the tax code for the world of the dead, no one is going to call bullshit on me for making it up whole cloth. Ugh. So please let me be a valuable counter example to you, segregate your research or at least don’t let it take too long when you are actually writing. You are probably wasting your time to avoid writing (Because writing is hard). Though if anyone does randomly happen to know when tax days were in either the Song or Yuan Dynasties, would you be so kind as to tell me?

Hello fellow writers!

WriteWorld has a new policy on questions about research that we would like to share with you:

WriteWorld reserves the right to decline to do research (especially basic, single-search research) for fellow writers.

Questions posed to WriteWorld regarding research topics that appear to be unique to the writer (i.e., research required not for writers or writing generally, but for a particular story or on a specific non-writing related topic) may be answered by directing the writer to a page on how to do research.

If a WriteWorld admin would like to create a post addressing a question about non-writing related research, that admin is welcome to do so, but they are not obliged to research any topic except writing.

Thank you very much for your understanding!

Love from,
The Team

mccooze:

courtenaybird:

The Get More Out of Google Infographic Summarizes Online Research Tricks for Students

welcome to being a future librarian

(I hope you don’t mind my posting this publicly.)

First of all, thank you for your message. I really appreciate you coming to us with your thoughts on this post. I knew when I posted it that it would be bound to catch some flack, so I’m glad to have the opportunity to explain my reasons for posting it in the first place.

Speaking as someone who has some experience creating a pantheon of Gods for a story as well as someone who owns bookshelves full of reference books on mythology, folklore, and religion, I completely understand your concern.

In the interest of being thorough, I agree that we could have included something to the effect of, “This information can be wildly inaccurate, sometimes to the point of silliness, so make sure you use GodChecker as a launch pad for your research rather than as your sole source” to the end of the post. But, and this might seem totally naive, we kind of feel that goes without saying.

Of course you don’t use one website as your only source of information on a subject. Of course you don’t. In case anyone reading this didn’t know that already, now you do.

I think GodChecker is a great way to get people interested in pantheons they may never have heard of before. It’s an awesome site to just browse and enjoy for the labor of love it is. I’m not overly worried about people going gunge-ho over a God or Goddess with only GodChecker’s source material in mind.

It’s true, though, that writers using the site as a quick reference might come upon a few not-so-great entries. I think that’s also true of WriteWorld. And pretty much every website and book and person and other source of knowledge in the world.

If you truly believe in being part of the solution to this problem, I suggest that you do as I did and contact GodChecker to recommend improvements to their content. It would be wonderful if we could all help them improve their website as a resource.

Mostly, I think that this information is a great wellspring of ideas. Ideas for stories, characters, settings, and themes. To talk of mythology is to talk of humanity, and even if the finer points are fudged a little, well, isn’t that just like humans? Always fudging the details.

That’s alright. I’m sure the Gods won’t mind. :)

-C

We understand that trying to do research on something for your writing may be daunting. Here is a simple way to start doing research on a topic.

First, what do you want to learn about? Let’s choose three examples:

• Japanese Evil Spirits
• The definition of the word modicum
• Medieval Battles

Google each topic. I’m just going to put the topic word or phrase into Google and hit the search button. I’ll list the first three results that pop up for each topic.

• Japanese Evil Spirits
  • List of legendary creatures from Japan - Wikipedia, the free …
  • Baku (spirit) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • Shinto - Japan Guide
• The definition of the word modicum
  • Modicum - Merriam-Webster Online
  • modicum - definition of modicum by the Free Online Dictionary …
  • Modicum | Define Modicum at Dictionary.com
• Medieval Battles
  • Medieval warfare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • Medieval Battles, Wars and Conflicts - Medieval History - About.com
  • Medieval Battles

I want to point out that Google will define words for you automatically if you just type in the word like I did. You don’t even have to leave the search results page to get a definition if you don’t want to.

Anyway, it looks like the top three searches for each topic have yielded worthwhile results. I’m glad “Japanese Evil Spirits” and “Medieval Battles” pulled up Wikipedia articles in their results, because that’s an awesome place to head to next.

To be clear: We do not advocate using only Wikipedia as a research tool. Rather, we think that if you know basically nothing about a subject, Wikipedia is a great place to go get yourself an overview. It is a springboard, very much like Google, but it might not be the best final destination on your search for information.

Yes, reading Wikipedia articles will enrich your understanding of the topic, but where do you go after that? Well, as you read the Wikipedia article, you can take notes on some key words to search on Google next and/or you can click the links in the article itself to learn more about the key words right on Wikipedia and/or you can scroll down to the bottom of the Wikipedia entry and look at their References section.

Let’s examine the References section for the Wikipedia article titled Medieval warfare:

Bibliography [for the article]

• Archdeacon, Thomas of Split (2006) (in Latin and English). History of the Bishops of Salona and Split – Historia Salonitanorum atque Spalatinorum pontificum. Budapest: Central European University Press. ISBN 963-7326-59-6, 9789637326592.
• DeVries, Kelly (1992), Military Medieval Technology, Broadview Press, ISBN 0-921149-74-3
• Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (1999), “Naval Warfare after the Viking Age, c.1100–1500”, in Keen, Maurice, Medieval Warfare: A History, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 230–252, ISBN 0-19-820639-9
• Gillingham, John (1992), “William the Bastard at War”, in Strickland, Matthew, Anglo-Norman warfare: Studies in Late Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman Military Organization and Warfare, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, pp. 143–160, ISBN 0-85115-327-5
• Goffart, Walter (1977), “The date and purpose of Vegetius’ De Re Militari”, Traditio xxxiii: 65–100, JSTOR 27831025
• Liddiard, Robert (2005), Castles in Context: Power, Symbolism and Landscape, 1066 to 1500, Macclesfield: Windgather Press Ltd, ISBN 0-9545575-2-2
• Nicholson, Helen (2004), Medieval Warfare: Theory and Practice of War in Europe, 300–1500, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-76330-0
• Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus (1996), Milner, N. P., ed., Vegetius: epitome of military science, Translated Texts for Historians, xvi, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press

Further reading [on the topic]

• Contamine, Philippe. War in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984.
• Creveld, Martin Van. Technology and War: From 2000 BC to present, 1989.
• France, John, Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000–1300, London: Cornell University Press, ISBN 978-0-8014-8607-4
• Keegan, John. The face of battle: a study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1988.
• Keen, Maurice. Medieval Warfare: A History. Oxford University Press, 1999.
• H. W. Koch: Medieval Warfare. Bison Books Limited, London, 1978, ISBN 978-0-86124-008-1
• McNeill, William Hardy. The pursuit of power: technology, armed force, and society since A.D. 1000. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.
• Oman, Charles William Chadwick. A history of the art of war in the Middle Ages. London: Greenhill Books; Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1998.
• De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History
• Kosztolnyik, Z.J. Hungary in the thirteenth century. New York: Columbia University Press: Stackpole Books, 1996. (Parts of which are available online)
• Parker, Geoffrey. The Military Revolution: Military innovation and the Rise of The West, 1988.

fuckyourwritinghabits:

There’s no shame in sitting down, wanting to write your story, and not knowing where to start when it comes to research. Even if you have experience in doing research for school or work, researching your story can seem like a whole other realm of ‘omg what am I doing.’ I gave this more thought after the last anon questions, and thought I’d compile a better list.

IN GENERAL

• Your library. I was quite fortunate to have an excellent library system to choose from, but not everybody has the same chance. Still, libraries are worth checking out. Many now have ebooks and audiobooks, and librarians themselves are experts at helping you get a start.

• Wikipedia. Don’t use wiki as your final source don’t use wiki as your final source. It’s great, though, for a general start, and the source links will help you move on to other places to look.

• Google. Never be afraid to google something, no matter how stupid it might sound. Try a few different phrases. I think we live in an age where it’s more common to use google as a first step, but it’s still easy to forget.

• Little Details. This is a great resource for those specific, non-googleable (that is so not a word) questions. Scroll through their archives before diving in, and make sure you follow the format when asking any questions.  
  

BOOKS

• Read books from people writing for the location, genre, or job field you want to write about. You don’t have to read everything in a particular genre, but it’s nice to be familiar with what’s been done before. You can also try free epub websites like Project Gutenberg, or check Amazon’s free selection, or try any place from here.

PLACES

• Google Street Maps is a dream for anyone writing about a location they haven’t been to or cannot go so easily. Many of my stories are based in the city I grew up by and - being shit at description from memory - checking the street map helps me clarify colors, locations, almost anything!

• Business Websites (and their reviews!). You need a shady hotel, a kitschy diner, or a laundromat stat. To the internet! Many businesses post pictures (and can be found on street view!), but if you want the real dirt, read the reviews. You’ll find the complaints will give you all sorts of ideas. LEGAL NOTE if you are basing your shady underground gambling den in the back of a real life business, change details to avoid being sued. Don’t be shitty to somebody’s real business (no matter how bad their reviews are).

• Tourist blogs, city websites, and urban photographers. Again, if you need go get that ‘actually there’ feel, check as many of first hand accounts as you can. City websites can range from decent resource to horrible - but make sure you check them!

JOBS

• Blogs. HUGE CAVEAT: Someone’s personal blog is not ‘free’ for you to take material from or base your story on. This is someone else’s work. DO NOT TAKE ANYONE’S WORK WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION. Don’t base events around other peoples’ stories! Also, take care to check a range of blogs, especially about jobs that are frequently misrepresented (such as sexwork) or unique. Now that I’ve scared the hell out of you, the reason I’m recommending blogs of people who work in the field you’re interested in so that you can get a general idea of process, daily activities, and frustrations. You can also directly contact bloggers to ask about specific information.

• Actual for serious Real People. Talk to somebody! Be they a blogger, a friend of a friend, or a journalist you admire, sometimes it’s best to just talk directly to someone about their job. E-mail them and be honest and polite. Most people would like to be helpful. Make sure you have specific questions, especially about things you can’t find out about anywhere else.