Wednesday Writerly Way ~ Knowledge and Research

This is the last day for my take on the topic of knowledge and the writer. So let's jump on board...

It its often stated to write what you know or write what you love. It's true. If you love something you know it. If you read mostly historical romances or are a history buff, you are better suited to write historical romance than say a hard hitting, detective, murder mystery like Mickey Spillane type novel.

So as a reader what do you know and love? For me it's suspense. I've always been an action junkie. I like the twist and turns of roller coaster since infancy. It was my favorite ride ride at the boardwalk at the beach ask my father. "One more time, Daddy." Later as a young adult, I was at Disney World for the opening weekend of Space Mountain. Is it any wonder that I often compare my life to a roller coaster or write suspense with a soul? Not in my mind. I've lived a very high stress, excitement filled life compared to many others so I don't lack for material or emotions to pull from.

So what happens when there are some elements you are not sure of? You are writing what you do not know? I fell into that gray area when penning, Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption.

I knew some things about the CDC and the research studies they do. I knew the medical side because of my background in emergency nursing. I knew about missile conversions and sites for sale because my husband and I had seriously considered buying one. I knew about sustainability from my lifestyle as a prepper and survivalist. Haven't I planned to live off the grid in the near future, yep. What I had meager knowledge of was zombies which were an integral part of my story.

I had to broaden my knowledge base to include zombies. So I did what good writers in the past had done before me...I researched it. You don't have to be a know-it-all to be a writer, but the information has to be accuracy based. Nothing is worse than a reader calling you out on inaccuracies.

One such point in my book is it taking up to three days for the reanimation to take place. There are varying thoughts of

when reanimation into zombie form take place time wise and I stretched it considerably. Some readers took me to task on that point. It was done intentionally. I knew about the commonly held time frame and chose to ignore it. The novel offers a zombie point of view and a slow digression into mindlessness, or brain dead state unlike many other authors' conjecture that reanimation into the undead was brain dead with no consciousness. It was a creative tool rather than a unknown point.

Some readers and movie goers have no other purpose in life than to catch bloopers and typos. While I don't make it a lifelong profession, I do catch quite a few. So get your facts straight before you choose to creatively twist them.

So to recap...

• Write what you know
• Write what you like
• Broaden your knowledge base
• Know before you twist

Do you know or research before you write?
Keep writing and loving the Lord.