Research: Making the Time to Get it Right

By Lynette Eason, Author of Vow of Justice  

When I decided to write a book, I wanted to be the kind that I liked to read. Suspense, law enforcement, military, mystery, some romance, and definitely, a happily ever after. The problem was, my background wasn’t in any of that—except maybe the romance since I was married when I started on this writing adventure. Although, to be truthful, my husband tends to be more of a romantic than I do.

Anyway, I decided that I was intelligent enough to do the research so I started writing the story that had been swirling inside my head for about six months. The thing about research is that you can only get so much off of the internet. The best thing to do is to find someone who actually does the job you have your character doing and interview that professional. The great thing is, most people are really excited to help. They WANT the author to get it right. So, how did I find these people?

Simple. I put myself in places where I’d run into them. And yes, that’s mostly at writer’s conferences. I know a writer’s conference can be an expensive venture, but I was looking at it as an investment—not to mention the tax write off.

Just recently, I’ve started a new series involving military vets. These heroes and heroines have all been in the military, but are now out for one reason or another. In order to portray these characters accurately, I need to talk to people in the military. And I tried. I talked to someone who is currently serving in Afghanistan, I talked to someone who’d been in the Army and was now retired. I talked to about six different people. And the funny thing is, none of them could really answer the questions I had, but I wrote the scenes based on the information I had. About two weeks before my book was due to my editor, I was at a weekend conference on marketing. A young man was there teaching and in passing mentioned he was in the Army. You can bet I jumped on that. “What do you do?” I asked him. “I was in Special Ops.” I nearly fell over. My hero, who I was trying to write as accurately as possible, was in Special Ops. That guy at the conference read my scenes, gave me feedback and a lot “inside” lingo –stuff that I never found on the web, and I’m now one hundred percent confident that if a military person reads those scene, he or she will go, “Man, she knows her stuff—or at least took the time to do her research.”

That’s important. Why? Because I don’t want that reader to throw the book aside because he or she thinks I didn’t do my research. I want them coming back for more stories. I’m an author. I need repeat customers!

Some great resources for me have been:

American Christian Fiction Writers

Killer Nashville

Thrillerfest

The Writers Police Academy

The Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference

And more.

My point? Take the time to do your research. Get it right. Will you make mistakes? Of course! But the more you learn, the more you investigate, the more people you talk to, the more likely you’ll find exactly the kind of information you need to get it right. Your agent, editors and readers will thank you.

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Lynette Eason is the bestselling author of Oath of Honor, Called to Protect, and Code of Valor, as well as the Women of Justice, Deadly Reunions, Hidden Identity, and Elite Guardians series. She is the winner of three ACFW Carol Awards, the Selah Award, and the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award, among others. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and has a master’s degree in education from Converse College. Eason lives in South Carolina with her husband and two children. Learn more at www.lynetteeason.com

Write When You Don’t Want To

By Lynette Eason

What do you do when you don’t feel like writing? Gasp! Not feel like writing? Is that even a real feeling?

Um…yes. Unfortunately, it happens. At least to me. Don’t get me wrong. I love what I do. I adore my job, the people I work with, and the flexibility being a self-employed writer affords me. Believe me, I don’t take it for granted. But I don’t wake up EVERY SINGLE day thinking, “Oh boy! I’m just so excited, I can’t wait to hit the keyboard!”

For those of you who do this, we are not friends and you can go away.

Ha-ha. Just kidding.

Sort of.

Anyway, for those of you who are occasionally afflicted with this “I don’t want to write today” thing, I have a few helpful tips on how to get past that.

1. Sit down in front of your manuscript and edit. Sometimes when I edit, I’ll get a new idea to flesh out. That will generate some excitement about moving forward with the story.
2. Get your voice recorder out and start brainstorming the next part of the story. Just start talking. It’s okay if you sound like an idiot or you stutter and stumble your way through a scene description, you’re the only one who will hear it. And you can edit it when you get it in the computer.
3. Do something physical. But read the last part of your manuscript before you go. Then while you’re working out or walking around the block, you can be thinking about the next scene, fleshing it out in your mind, getting it ready to be put on the screen.
4. Email a brainstorming buddy and tell her the story in a stream of consciousness telling. Don’t stop to breathe, just talk. When you’re finished, say, “Now what happens?”
5. Sit down in front of your manuscript and tell yourself you can’t get up until you write at 10 words. Yes. 10. Then you’re allowed to go do something fun. Because I can’t write just 10 words. I always write more. Granted, sometimes it’s only 20, but at least I met my goal! Ha. Seriously, I’m willing to bet that would happen to you too.
6. And last but not least, adopt the Nike slogan. “Just do it.” (Most necessary when deadlines loom.)

Yes, I know you think that that last one is not really the most helpful suggestion, but it is. I look at it this way. Everyone who has a job has days where he/she doesn’t want to go in to work—even when they love what they do. Writing is the same thing. It’s your job.  Unless you’re sick or otherwise incapacitated, you go to work. Although I will say this, like some dedicated people (who are unappreciated in the office environment) sometimes you go to work when you’re sick. The good thing is that, at least if you’re a writer and you work from home, you won’t spread the yuck.

Honestly, I really do love writing. I’m very excited about each project God lets me work on. Like I said earlier, I don’t take it for granted that I get to do what I get to do. I’m not whining or complaining. I’m just being honest. Some days it’s just plain hard work and some days I’m just not in the mood to go to work.  And that’s okay. As long as it’s the exception and not the rule.

And I would like to also point out that these suggestions are great for pre-pubbed writers as well. You may not have publisher deadlines, but if you don’t get a manuscript finished…you won’t have publisher deadlines.

So, what are some other suggestions you could add to the list? What do you do when you MUST write, and you just don’t want to? I can ALWAYS use more ideas!

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Lynette Eason is the bestselling author of Oath of Honor, as well as the Women of Justice series, the Deadly Reunions series, the Hidden Identity series, and the Elite Guardians series. She is the winner of two ACFW Carol Awards, the Selah Award, and the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award. She has a master’s degree in education from Converse College and lives in South Carolina. Learn more at www.lynetteeason.com

Scene Building

By Lynette Eason

I’ve been writing for about twenty years now. It took me eight years to catch an editor’s eyes with a cold submission. That first year, I sold three books. Then a year later, sold five more. When I first started writing, I wrote off the top of my head—or by the seat of my pants. Now, my brain is much older! LOL. I need to do a little more planning to work my way through a book and have it actually make sense. One thing I was working on the other day was content for a workshop that’s coming up. I started looking at how to teach someone how to craft a scene.

I came to the conclusion that scenes were mini stories. They all need a beginning, middle and end, just like the full novel. Someone else may have already pointed this out somewhere, but it’s the first time it occurred to me.  You see, I write mostly from instinct. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve studied the craft, I’ve attended the conferences and the classes and even had one of the best mentors a writer could have.

But because I write instinctively, it can be harder for me to put into words exactly how to convey a topic about writing to an audience. I have to look at exactly how I craft something and then put it into words other writers can understand. Yesterday, I was working on Scene Building and trying to put a name to the elements that every scene needs.

I finally narrowed it down to these things:

1.      Purpose or motivation: This is the scene’s reason for being. Why are you including this scene in the story? How is this scene going to move the story forward? What are you trying to accomplish with this scene?

2.      Suspense – It doesn’t matter if you’re writing comic relief, a thriller, an historical or a women’s contemporary novel. Every book needs suspense and intrigue. This creates tension and causes the reader to ask questions and desire to know more. It’s really what keeps the readers flipping the pages to see what happens next.

3.      Fluidity – The scene has to make sense. It has to flow and not jar the reader out of the story. This is where a lot of writers make their biggest mistake and the scene doesn’t flow or there’s something illogical about it, then the reader gets frustrated at constantly being jarred out of the story.

4.      Relevance of content – This is a bit different than the purpose of the scene. You can have a scene with a great purpose, but the content of the scene needs be there for a reason. If it’s not important to the scene leave it out. Start your scene in the middle of the action. Leave out the nonessential stuff and boring narrative that the reader doesn’t need. However, that doesn’t mean you don’t want your scene rich with details that give the reader a sense of time, place and being right there in the story. It’s all about balance.

5.      Transition – The end of every scene must lead the reader into the next using some of that fluidity I just mentioned. Yes, you need fluidity inside your scenes, but also at the end of every scene. The transition must seem like a natural, chronological segue into the next scene or chapter. This is another even bigger mistake some writers make. When there’s no transition, then we get what editors call episodic writing. Meaning, you may have some great ideas for scenes, but that’s all they are—separate scenes that don’t seem to have any kind of connection.

6.      Hook or cliffhanger – Be sure to have one of these at the end of the scene. This is what’s going to keep the reader coming back—and is also part of that whole suspense thing.

I hope you found this helpful! Good luck with all of your writing projects. Now go craft the most amazing scenes ever!

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Lynette Eason is the bestselling author of Oath of Honor, as well as the Women of Justice series, the Deadly Reunions series, the Hidden Identity series, and the Elite Guardians series. She is the winner of two ACFW Carol Awards, the Selah Award, and the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award. She has a master’s degree in education from Converse College and lives in South Carolina. Learn more at www.lynetteeason.com.