One of the most rewarding parts about putting a story together is making sure research is sound. Facts need to be true and correct. At the same time there’s always an element of poetic license that comes into play.
Many readers’ favorite towns are fictitious. Bonus? The author doesn’t need to worry over whether, for instance, a character can actually take a connecting bus from this street to that road, or what a realistic temperature might be at a given time of year. We writers pay attention to those things. J
When I began sketching out my latest Billionaires and Babies book, I wanted it set in Colorado. I’d done some research and had big plans for a snowstorm as well as an interesting forced proximity premise. I knuckled down, fleshing out characters and making sure motivation was right. Plot points were hashed out, too. Even had the ending in mind. Then the scheduled date for release was shifted to a month that didn’t particularly work with snowstorm season.
Time to get inventive!
What about a freak snowstorm? Weather all around the world has been severely off whack. Here on the east coast of Australia we’d been gripped of drought for many years. These last couple of seasons, however, have seen unprecedented floods and even snowfall where there’d been no recorded evidence before. Older folk are shaking their heads. What’s the world coming to...
There’s a saying in publishing: It’s all in the execution!So I lifted my chin and decided that research and facts would join hands with anomalies and conjecture. And I got to write my scary snowstorm. My characters get stranded alone together and –
Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out what happens next.
