Kathleen Neely – Almost An Author

Writing Research: Enhance Your Fiction with Facts

Welcome to The Efficiency Addict column, helping writers work more effectively every day. This month I’m pleased to welcome back Kathleen Neely to share what she’s learned about writing research and how this new knowledge is enhancing her stories.

Happy Writing! ~ Cynthia Owens, The Efficiency Addict

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When I read a novel, I want to escape to unknown places, adventurous experiences, and pursuits that my real life isn’t brave enough to follow. The old adage, write what you know, sets extreme limits. The need for research isn’t limited to historic fiction. Your reader will appreciate time spent developing occupations, settings, and hobbies. Legal and medical scenes can hold great intrigue. Give your readers something they don’t know.

Writing Research–Ideas for Each Writing Stage

Research can be accomplished during prewriting. Identify the central theme of your story, then research the topic so you can gently weave authenticity into every chapter.

Research occurs during the process of writing. While it isn’t ideal to stop the flow, sometimes inspiration strikes that wasn’t part of the original plan. I have a protagonist that plays the violin, an afterthought as her character developed. Never having picked up a violin, I went to the most immediate source, the Internet.

Research continues post-writing. After gathering legal information for a novel involving a law suit, upon its completion, I sent scenes to a friend who is a lawyer. He clarified a few facts and provided better legal language. I’ll be doing the same with the violin scenes. Upon completion of my current work-in-progress, I’ll send them to an acquaintance who plays that instrument.

Sources for Your Writing Research

We have many sources of research available to us. Let me tell you a few, and then I’ll tell you my favorite.

The hands-down best source is primary experiences. If you can visit the city of your setting, ride along with a paramedic, live among the homeless, or whatever your novel includes, there is no better research than experiential learning.

The most readily available is clearly the Internet. Today’s writers have the advantage of unlimited resources through videos, articles, and newspapers at the touch of their fingers. One of my novels includes information about a drum circle. I had never experienced one, and didn’t have the time to travel. The YouTube video provided a great secondary experience that allowed me to capture the essence of an evening of free-style rhythm.

Personal interviews tap into primary sources. We know people in many different fields of life—lawyers, doctors, accountants, teachers, builders, mechanics. I could go on and on. They are great, reliable sources of information, and generally love to talk about their specific field, especially when their feedback leads to an acknowledgment in your book.

Regardless of your timing or method of research, make sure you have a good cataloging system. Today’s world of literature includes many sequels and series. You never know when you’ll need that same information.

There are many apps available to catalog research such as Zotero. Additionally, there are many Social Bookmarking sites like Delicious. They allow you to search, organize, edit, and store helpful links found on the Internet.

And my favorite? Personal interviews. I always prefer talking to people. I choose a grocery store clerk over a self-scan. I’d rather make a phone call than use the ‘help’ icon on my computer. I have used the various sources available, but I love to phone a friend.

Research for novelists is an in-depth subject, and I’ve only touched the surface. I’d love to hear your tips.

Shareables–Because sharing is fun!

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[bctt tweet=”Enhance your writing with facts. Tips for #Writing research. @NeelyKneely3628 #AmWriting” username=”@EfficiencyADict”]

Bio: Kathleen Neely is an award winning author, receiving first place for her debut novel, The Least of These, in the Fresh Voices Contest through www.AlmostAnAuthor. She won second place in a short story contest through ACFW-VA. You can read two of her short stories in A Bit of Christmas – 6 Christian Short Stories Celebrating the Season, available on Amazon. Along with numerous guest blog appearances, Kathleen is a regular contributor to www.christiandevotions.us. She lives in Greenville, SC with her husband, Vaughn, and enjoys time with family, reading, and traveling.

You can contact Kathleen through:
KathleenNeelyAuthor.com
@NeelyKNeely3628

Problem Solve POV with Color

Welcome to The Efficiency Addict column, helping writers work more effectively every single day. For the next few months, I’ll be taking a break from posting here, but until I return, I’ve lined up some great guest bloggers to share their best writing tips with you!

This month we’ll hear from Kathleen Neely, a retired educator who wrote and sold her first book in just 9 months. To read about her experience from start to sold, visit her website at KathleenNeelyAuthor.com, but first see below where Kathleen shares a simple method to problem solve POV with color.

Happy Writing! ~ Cynthia Owens, The Efficiency Addict

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Point of view (POV) problems have a way of sneaking into my writing. I begin a solid scene, identify my character, and write the action through his or her mind. Then when I re-read the passage, I discover POV gone amuck.

Types of POV Problems

First there are the omniscient POV errors.

She can’t know he was thinking about baseball.
He couldn’t know that she was deliberately tuning him out.

POV characters can observe another character’s demeanor, body language, or expression. POV characters can make inferences, but they can’t know.

Then there is the issue of author intrusion. My opinion on the beauty of a floral arrangement is irrelevant and interrupts the flow. Everything must be told through the eyes and ears of the character.

Another POV fault is found by allowing your POV character to narrate. When we speak, we don’t announce that we think, we feel, we said, we asked or we wondered. Remove dialogue tags and telling words. Turn this sentence – “He felt the pain when the baseball bounced off his shoulder.” Into this sentence – “Pain shot through his shoulder when the baseball made contact.”

How to Problem Solve POV

As a former teacher, I coached my students to be problem solvers.

“Mrs. Neely, I don’t have a pencil.”
“That’s a problem. Be a problem solver. “

“I forgot to write down the pages we need to read.”
“That’s a problem. Be a problem solver.”

(A little author intrusion right now—parents and teachers, never stop doing that. It moves dependent students to become independent thinkers.)

So now, faced with a dilemma, I needed to be a problem solver. I created a visual memory aide to help me keep on track – Color Coded POV’s.

The idea is simple. I choose a color for each of my POV characters. When I write a scene from his or her point of view, I turn my font into their designated color.

Will this technique avoid POV problems? Definitely not. They’ll still squirrel their way into your writing. But now they’ll be easier to locate. They should shout, jump, and wave their arms at you, begging to be seen. No longer will you have to wonder whose POV you’re supposed to be in.

Making Your Colors Count

Color coding not only provides a visual reminder, it can also reflect the nature of your character.

Red – power, energy, passion, intensity

Green – nature, outdoors, generosity

Yellow – joy, optimism, idealism, hope

Blue – loyalty, truthful, security

Purple – royalty, wisdom, noble

Orange – enthusiasm, flamboyant, warmth

Gray – age, maturity, grief

White – reverence, virginity, cleanliness

Black – formal, elegant, sophisticated

When you change scenes and font colors, stop to re-read what was just written. Do all elements of the scene match the correct POV? When you log-off for the day, let the words rest, but revisit them fresh when you log on the next day. Reviewing them will help you catch intrusions as well as prepare your mind to pick up where you left off. And when you finally say “The End,” a simple click, click, click will change the brilliant, colorful text back to its automatic boring black. Now all the brilliance will be in your story not the font.

Sharables – Because sharing is fun!

[bctt tweet=”Problem solve your POV issues with color-coded characters. #HowTo” username=”EfficiencyADict”]

[bctt tweet=”A simple trick to write in deep POV. #WritersLife #AmWriting” username=”EfficiencyADict”]

Bio: Kathleen Neely is an award winning author, receiving first place for her debut novel, The Least of These, in the Almost an Author Fresh Voices Contest. She won second place in a short story contest through the Virginia Chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers . You can read two of her short stories in A Bit of Christmas – 6 Christian Short Stories Celebrating the Season, available on Amazon. Along with numerous guest blog appearances, Kathleen is a regular contributor to ChristianDevotions.us. She lives in Greenville, SC with her husband, Vaughn, and enjoys time with family, reading, and traveling.

You can contact Kathleen through:
KathleenNeelyAuthor.com
@NeelyKNeely3628