Write What You Know
I'm often asked the question, "Where do you get your ideas for your books?" That question requires more than a simple answer. Usually, I say something like, "I've never met a blank sheet of paper I didn't like." Many of my ideas come by simply observing life. As Bart Simpson said, "You can't make this stuff up!" Life is filled with stories. Stories of love and hate, conflict and resolution, war and peace, life and death. Most of us have experienced many of these and that makes the stuff of life. So to begin my answer, I would say,
1. Write from your life experiences. Your life story has dips and peeks that are unique to you. Why not write about them? We don't need the gory details (maybe we do), but you could include or refer to them. I met a man the other day who told me he was John Gotti's nephew. What a story he could write. The Prodigal's Return was written from a personal experience in my life. As a result, I bled all over the pages. It was a soul-cleansing effort. Uncaged came after a Blackbird flew directly at my windshield. I asked myself, "What if that bird was infected with a virus and trained to attack people?" That may sound off-the-wall, but it's not. The US government actually had a program called "Bat Bomb," which leads me to my next point. If you don't know or don't know much about a certain topic (one which you want to write about)...
2. Read about it. It's called research. To some of you, that's a dirty word. It calls to mind a high school English assignment. The difference is, this is something you are interested in. Having access to the internet, libraries, books about nearly everything, all you need to do is, read, study, and get informed. As an author, you are expected to be an authority. You don't need to go to college and earn a degree in that field of study, but you do need to know enough about it to convince your readers that you do. If you are writing about a certain kind of gun, you had better do the research. If you don't, and you call a revolver a semi-automatic, your readers will know and will probably not finish your book. All that grulingly hard work, down the drain.
3. Interview people who have lived through that experience. If your novel is of a historic nature, go to a Senior community and talk with some of the residents. If it is of a technical nature, go to a coffee shop and find a student reading an engineering book. You get the idea. You can not imagine the stories you could write about or include in your book after interviewing a first responder, a peace officer, a Veteran, a Doctor, or a nurse, or a teacher.
4. Have experts read your manuscript. As a part of the editorial process, I had a Cobb County prosecuting attorney read, Delivering Justice, to ensure its accuracy. By the way, he gave it a two-thumbs up. The same would apply to having a first responder, a peace officer, a Veteran, a Doctor, a nurse, or a teacher read your manuscript. They would be honored to do so.
5. Visit the location where your story takes place, if possible. This could provide the perfect excuse for a great vacation. As a part of my research for Sins of the Fathers, I drove all around Hoschton, GA., and found the property where the mansion once stood. I took a picture of a mansion similar to the one in my story, I saw Indian Creek, the one that the Jackson children tried to cross. I saw the Masonic Lodge and the school with the words, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, God, and the Lodge written over its door; all part of my story. If you can't go to the site of your story, use Google Earth. When writing Million Dollar Murder, set in Sacramento, CA. I used Google Earth to walk, drive, and visit downtown Sacramento.
6. Write with confidence and flair. Once you've done your homework, pour yourself into your story. Of course, you have developed your characters, and hopefully have the Goal, Motivation, and Conflict firmly in mind. Maybe you've done some Mind-Mapping (see my earlier post). Crank up the old laptop, or PC, legal pad, sharpen your pencil, crack your knuckles, and get busy.