A Mongoose is Not A Mustelid

Picture this: you have an idea for a novel. You want it to be a bestseller. You want it to be enjoyed by anyone who picks it up. You already know how to write compelling action, emotionally investing romance, and richly crafted characters.

Or do you?

This is not to slight anyone who writes. I’ve read a lot of fiction from amazing people. The truth is that no one can know everything about everything, and researching elements for your story is a key component to a good story, otherwise your readers will be picking apart its flaws until the end of time. While that can be part of the fun, you may find it a little irritating that your readers are more interested in you calling a mongoose a mustelid when they’re really a herpestidae (and a member of the feliformia superfamily while mustelids are part of the caniformia superfamily). Granted, I know it’s not possible to have every little detail as realistic as it can possibly be. Creative liberty is valuable, but can’t be overdone, like a spice in a dish.

Even fantasy and science-fiction stories need to have research done. While your magic system can be yours to play with, you decided to set your fantasy epic in a specific time period. The setting needs to be studied to make it believable. Maybe your character suffers an injury, or illness that might not be easily treatable in that time period. The little details can make or break a story. I’ve lost count of how many times my husband and I have watched a sci-fi show or movie and spent most of the time pointing out their poor grasps of physics. Stuff that could’ve easily been fixed with a little research or consultation. Bad logic can really ruin the immersion of a story, even if the premise of the story and the characters are incredible.

I can see anyone reading this and thinking that they don’t need help to do research for their fiction writing novel. Information is highly accessible. I can understand that, but I also understand the frustration that goes into research. Oftentimes, articles for certain fields are riddled with jargon that the average person doesn’t understand. Look at any medical, scientific, military, or law article. Then you find yourself trying to understand what the jargon itself is saying, and you’ve lost time you could have spent on writing. I’ve been there.

My passion overall is writing and sharing my creativity, but I’m also passionate about good writing and helping others become the best writers they can be, and I would like to start with pulling apart the jargon and laying out ways for writers to apply their research. It’s one thing to understand how weather systems move, how an animal behaves, how a mental illness effects someone. It’s another to apply it and make it fit seamlessly. That’s why I’m creating a weekly service that sends articles on various topics to your inbox, broken down in understandable terms, and suggestions on applying it to your writing. I will also be doing some general writing articles, such as tips on character development and grammar.

I will also offer writing enhancement sessions for those who have been members for more than three months. Writing enhancement sessions are weekly assignments that test a specific part of the writing process that you struggle with. Don’t panic, there’s no pass or fail here. Just a chance to help you grow as a writer. If you like sharing your work, I’d be happy to publicly post your assessment to help other writers learn as well.

I should also state that I don’t have any college education or teaching experience. I can understand why that would turn people away, but I don’t think you need to go to college to write. This service is so anyone can write, without breaking the bank (does $10 a month sound reasonable?). Storytelling is universal, as all art is. I love to read as much as I love to write, and I’ve always found my happy place is walking through a bookstore, seeing what every writer has to offer, whether it’s a period piece or a fantasy epic. Little tidbits of real-world knowledge make some stories feel like the author has put a lot of care into their work, such as how the names of some of the animals in Avi’s Tales from Dimwood Forest were derived from their Latin names, or how historic events, such as John F. Kennedy’s assassination, are referenced throughout the film The Shawshank Redemption, cementing its place in time, and also the passage of time.

Personally, I think the idea of research is too heavily associated with projects you had to do in school, where it wasn’t interesting and all you cared about was just passing the class. I’d like to take the boring out of research and help you care about what you’re writing. Perhaps you’ll learn something that changes your writing for the better.