I'm curious what others think about this: I feel that mainstream fiction does a better job of "getting things right" than other types of fiction, but all fiction is better when the writer writes things ACCURATELY. Even books about magic or science fiction are the worse for inaccurate details in the things we can identify with. For example, I may have to suspend belief to accept faster than light travel, but that doesn't mean that it's OK for the characters to all be stick figures, for the dialogue to be predictable, or for the details to be wrong. Example: Larry Niven in a science fiction short story writes about a schizophrenic space traveler who stops getting his antipsyhotic when the machine delivering the medicine malfunctions. I was fine with the space travel but his description of schizophrenia was so painfully wrong it ruined the whole story. Had he bothered to check a single description of shizophrenia in any psychology textbook he would seen how wrong everything was. And if it was so important to the plot to have the character behave in that (nonschizophrenic) way, why not invent a new mental disorder?
The point is, some people think that because it's fiction you don't have to get ANYTHING right. I say, to make it believable, to cast that spell that surrounds readers and sinks them into whatever world you have created, you need to pepper the story with as much as possible that corresponds to the world we are all familiar with. A classic example of doing this right was the original Star Wars movie, when Han Solo is about to put the Millenium Falcon into warp speed and it dies. So he punches the dash and it comes back up! Brilliant! How many of us have hit our TVs, our computers, our cars and all these other magical tools of the modern age and had them work? It took an experience that required suspension of belief (faster than light travel) and linked it to an experience everyone could identify with (cantankerous technology).
Bottom line, when a chapter in a book that purports to represent current times starts out, "In Washington DC, on the 30th floor of the hotel..." the spell is broken and the reader pretty much figures that everything else in the book is nonsense, as anyone who has ever set foot in the District knows that building heights in DC are tightly restricted (officially due to the historic skyline but more realistically due to sniper lines of sight). Dan Brown and Michael Crichton are two well-known authors who never do their homework and their glaring errors make it impossible for me to enjoy their work, despite the fact that they are both good storytellers.
I may be a little sensitive to this, as my story mostly takes place in modern day Richmond, Virginia, but there are flashbacks to the Civil War, and it seems that I have to do endless fact checking for each and every sentence. But I still think that writers should strive to get it right. Thoughts?
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38 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2007 - 11 46
I agree
50,021 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2007 - 12 21
Although given the pace of writing we have to maintain this month, I think it's pretty reasonable for nano-ers to wing-it, guess and/or make stuff up and save the fact-checking for after November 30th.
62,474 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2007 - 12 35
I'm of two minds about this subject. If you're writing about something that exists (schitzophrenia or whatever) you owe it to yourself to at least have a working knowledge. Know your facts, know which ones you need to get right and which ones you can flub in service to the story. And then write. Don't change the story to fit the facts, though. I hate it when a novel is a slave to its facts. I want a good story. I don't care if there's something ridiculous. If you really want to put something in, and the facts are wrong, feel free to stretch the truth a little. I've read stories that are ruined because the author spent too much time researching things I frankly didn't care about. We're writing fiction. If you want to tell me all about how something works, write a nonfiction book for someone else to read.
And as a writer, I try to do my research. Though, I tend to just leave things out if I don't know them instead of getting them wrong. My first novel had a lot of boats. Instead of even bothering to waste all my tiem on that mess, I just ignored the whole nautical jargon (most of it, aside from the basics) and focused on the story and characters. It doesn't lack for that. It isn't about boats. It's about story. A novel I'm writing after NaNo deals with a corpse over three days. Unfortunately, for most of three days, a corpse is suffering from Rigor Mortis. This ruins my plot, so I'm going to shorten the time for Rigor Mortis to just the first day, and call it good. The people who care won't mind because it serves the story. The people who don't know won't know I flubbed it and just go on happy.
So long as you know what you're talking about (as much as the majority of your readers, if you're an expert and an author gets something wrong, don't blame them, they have much more on their plate than just the research) and can sound convincing, I don't care whether its right or wrong. I read books for story, characters, and interesting thoughts. If I wanted facts, I'd look for facts.
Just my two cents.
----------Matthew
http://literaryrockstar.blogspot.com
"A Man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery." Stephen Dedalus, James Joyce, Ulysses
7,005 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2007 - 15 03
While I agree that stretching the truth a little in deference to the story is reasonable, I find that knowingly breaking the laws of nature (such as basic medical details) is going too far. As a reader, if I discovered that an author intentionally chose to "flub" facts, then I question everything else the author writes. Where's the line? Are the laws of gravity up for debate? Electricity? How can the reader trust an author's reasoning if he picks and chooses "the truth" as he sees fit?
I struggle with accuracy and rules in my own fiction (admittedly historical fantasy). When I find a fact that disrupts my original story plans, I try to find a way to incorporate both the fact and what I think is important to the story... it's a form of letting the story work itself out rather than my forcing it into a preconceived mold. I've been surprised with some amazing plot twists and character developments because the facts helped shape the story. I don't add all the facts that I discover to avoid boring the reader, but I feel like I'm staying true to the reader by not intentionally misleading him. Usually all it takes to get around an obstacle fact is a bit of creativity and open-mindedness.
Of course, being perfectly accurate is impossible as writers aren't professionals in every (or any) field in which they write. My guidelines on reasonable expectations include the amount of research that it takes to find out about a fact and then how important that fact is to the story.
If the fact is really important to the story and it takes ten minutes to find a couple agreeing online sources, then certainly follow it accurately! If the details are not that important or are very hard to find, then flubbing the facts or leaving them out entirely is more acceptable.
I guess I feel it comes down to personal comfort level. I prefer a strong sense of reality in what I read, so I try to write that way. I can be nit-picky to a fault, though, so take my opinion as an extremely conservative one. ^_^
55,444 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2007 - 10 45
Inasmuch as my story sort of turns around the world of racing, I'll be sending copies to several friends who are crew members (one a crew chief) for teams that ran in this year's 500 for their perusal and comment. But I'll be doing this AFTER NaNoWriMo is over. I've been around the sport long enough that I feel I have a pretty good grasp on what's going on and I've got a pretty dandy little tale going.
Of course, I could be full of beans too, factually speaking. If I am, well, that's what the fact-checkers are for.
----------"Television is often called a medium because it's so rarely well done." Ernie Kovacs
250,736 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2007 - 12 34
I feel accuracy is important, but not necessarily critical.
Speaking more of nonfiction than fiction, if I'm reading a book and come across a fact that I know, from other research or personal experience to be wrong, it makes the veracity of the rest of the book suspect. Sometimes there are mitigating circumstances, such as the book being older than a certian development -- for example, much World War II history written before the mid 1970s has to be revised due to the revaltions about codebreaking that came out at that time. But, for the most part, a gross error is a sign of sloppy research.
I'm willing to cut a little bit of slack in fiction because it is, after all, fiction. For example, most of my stories take place in a town that doesn't exist, on a mental map that is a little skewed to fit it in. That's writer's license, and I figure that's fine. Our characters are for the most part imaginary, and that's fine, too. Some genres are more fictictous than others -- in science fiction or fantasy for example, your reader has a nearly complete willing suspense of disbelief.
If you are writing historical fiction, you have to be fairly close to the facts, but at the same time you're dealing with imaginary characters and situations. So there are limits. It's up to you how badly you want to split the hairs.
----------Visit my web site at Spearfish Lake Tales -- FREE Mainstream Books and Serials Online
65,882 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2007 - 19 20
What I did since my novel contains two actual historical events (September 11th and the German bombing of Coventry, England on November 14, 1940), but all the exact people and situations inside those broader events are my fictitious creations, I put a disclaimer at the beginning of the novel in with the "all people depicted herein are created in my imagination, any resemblance to persons, living or dead" spiel to the effect of "While the historical events depicted in the novel are real, the specific circumstances of the characters are all creations of my imagination and should in no way be construed as fact."
Just to be on the safe side.
----------60,749 / 50,000
Nov 17, 2007 - 00 17
I get very sensitive about anything that will "hit the wrong note" such that anyone who is not tone deaf can tell.
Isn't it obvious in film when the vernacular is wrong? It jars me when someone uses the current idiom but the action is set 50 years ago.
That being said, I just posted some of my story which contains several words in another language. Before I submit this anywhere outside NaNo I will be certain to go over the entire passage with a trusted native speaker, not only to clean up the foreign language usage, but also to make sure the "translated text" or foreign idiom is correct.
It is relatively easy to use the internet to check on everything as you right - but beware your sources! I try to check word definitions to make sure the connotation is not off, and I shock myself by what I think I know that I don't know at all.
50,166 / 50,000
Nov 18, 2007 - 22 06
One of my writing teachers in college said, "Get it 80% right, and the reader will forgive you the rest."
and I've found that to be true. Get it mostly right, and I'll let the rest slide if it's a good story.
128,763 / 50,000
Nov 21, 2007 - 12 32
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Hi, DrTim
I like the quote from Tom Clancy about this. He says, "The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense."
That said, your NaNo novel doesn't. At least not during the November push. Yes, verisimilitude is a key for serious fiction (whatever THAT is). You can't very well have a moon made of green cheese when everyone KNOWS it's Roquefort.
Knowing your facts, getting it straight... good things.
Letting worry about the facts hold you back... BAD thing.
You can touch up your factoids during the second or third rewrite.
What is important, in my humid opinion, is getting your characters, your tone, your pace, your PLOT down on paper or a screen. Letting the words flow. Finding your voice. Writing until your fingers bleed. (or at least until dinner)
I've held back on my "Life's Work" project for years (and I mean YEARS!) because of a fear of trying to push it out the canal before it was fully formed. Now that my hair is gray and my eyesight dim, it still hasn't gone beyond a rough draft and a few cool plot twists. Imagine how embarrassed I'll be to die with it unwritten.
You have the opportunity with NaNoWriMo to just jump in and get something done.
Not knowing you, or your history, I can't tell if this is your first try or if you are an old hat at writing. Based on your question, you certainly handle words well, so I'm guessing you're no neophyte.
Sorry, if I'm getting preachy, but do not let the facts get in the way of your productivity. Unless you are a true genius, you will probably not write a finished work in one draft. The facts can be adjusted in the next version, but that version needs to exist for that to happen.
Best of luck! Now, get in there and slug away!
-r
_____________
----------Richard Scott
-- When was the last time you did something for the first time?
_____________
Richard Scott
-- When was the last time you did something for the first time?
53,215 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2007 - 03 53
I have to agree with the many people that said--leave it for rewrites.
I have to tell you that my novel this year has been MUCH easier to write than last year. This year I am writing a contemporary romance.
Last year I was writing an alternate reality story based in a world with genetic constructs from an earth-based concept. This world is my BABY. I have been thinking about it for years and I wanted to make sure everything was understood. Instead, I ended up with a very hard to write story with too much detail and not enough characterization. That said, I will go back to it one of these days and start over. It will make good source material for some of the details.
I think that writing the first draft should be done without being picky about the details. After you have a sense of what is going to happen and the importance of the details, you have a better place to start your research. Then again, something structurally necessary for the plot should probably be right from word one. :)
eli
50,014 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2007 - 14 50
for my last year's nano, I wrote about a lemon that was sentient and could only be heard by one man, who carried the lemon around during his travels. At the end of the novel, the last scene was the man talking with a psychiatrist and thus I had to diagnose my character for some disease he didn't have. Thank goodness for wikipedia!
There were a lot of inaccurate kind of physical things in my story, but I made fun of them... Like, I had to somehow get an immobile lemon onto a windowsill and so I got a bunch of ants to carry it up, which would have been impossible of course.
One of my favourite authors is Chuck Pahliniuk and I think one of the most interesting things about his novels are all of the 'useless facts' that are all over the place. it just makes his characters so damn believable, and makes me want to test some of those 'useless facts' for myself.
50,205 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2007 - 19 17
I mostly agree with Dr. Tim. Also agree with other posts to leave the fact checking for later rewrites. This morning my mother asked me how my novel was going. I told it was going great because I had just thrown reality to the winds.
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NaNoWriMo - 07 Winner! "Arcana"
Script Frenzy - 07 Winner! "Foward Into the Past"
NaNoWriMo - 06 Winner! "Cosmic Control: Bronwen's First Age"