Research Tips for Writing What You Don't Know by Jennifer Slattery

Have you ever been typing away on your WIP and come across a need for a tidbit of information that seems illusive? Author Jennifer Slattery provides a few tips to keep you from panicking. -- Sandy

Jennifer: I think writers would be awesome trivia pursuit contestants. Well, if the questions were completely random and less on pop culture or musical history and more on all those strange things that have never crossed most people’s mind. Chances are, those topics never crossed our minds, either, until necessitated by our story world.

Of course, the biggest questions just happen to come when we’re midway through our story, the most inopportune time for sure. And every once in awhile—often, actually—we hit a question whose answer evades us, no matter where or for how many hours we search. Then panic arises as uncomfortable questions flood our brain, like: What if I never find the answers to this? Will I have to start my story over completely? Or worse, abandon this plot thread all together?

We’ve all been there, most likely numerous times! Here are some things I’ve discovered:

1. God’s always got the answer, and yes, sometimes that does involve gutting an entire novel. But revisions are simply part of the process, and things always get done. So, when a complete rewrite is in order, I simply need to remind myself that everything is fixable and I’ve done it before, so I can do it again. Besides that, God’s still sovereign over my career. That plot hole didn’t surprise Him. It didn’t throw His plan for me for a loop. To the contrary, if He allowed the struggle in, He’s using it for a good, hope-filled purpose.

So, I take a deep breath, pause to turn to Him in prayer, then get to work. Because fretting, about it is a waste of time and energy.  

2. There are numerous people out there willing and able to help me. I just need to locate them. I’ve talked to insurance agents, medical personnel—including an organ procurement coordinator and hospital chaplain, mental health professionals, soccer players, El Salvadoran translators, prison guards, restaurant owners, and many, many more, and I’ve found there’s nothing like chatting with a real-live person to get the creative juices flowing. Plus, as I share my ideas, they can let me know which ones won’t work, something I may not discover on the Internet.

3. I must keep a detailed notebook, because chances are you won’t get a contract on the book you’re researching now until a few years later, long enough (and with enough other stories in between) that you’ve forgotten many of the facts and details you spent hours upon hours tracking down. You know what that means, right? Yep. You’ll have to start over, only on a deadline this time, or, if you had a deadline during draft one, on a much tighter deadline.

What about you? What are some ways you find information on things you’re unfamiliar with? Or do you try to avoid the unknown and write only what you know instead? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below, because we can all learn from each other. 

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Jennifer Slattery writes soul-stirring fiction for New Hope Publishers, a publishing house passionate about bringing God’s healing grace and truth to the hopeless. She also writes for Crosswalk.com, Internet Café Devotions, and the group blog, Faith-filled Friends. When not writing, Jennifer loves going on mall dates with her adult daughter and coffee dates with her hilariously fun husband.

Visit with Jennifer online at JenniferSlatteryLivesOutLoud.com and connect with her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/JenSlatte

Intertwined:

Abandoned by her husband for another woman, Tammy Kuhn, an organ procurement coordinator often finds herself in tense and bitter moments. After an altercation with a doctor, she is fighting to keep her job and her sanity when one late night she encounters her old flame Nick. She walks right into his moment of facing an unthinkable tragedy. Because they both have learned to find eternal purposes in every event and encounter, it doesn’t take long to discover that their lives are intertwined but the ICU is no place for romance….or is it? Could this be where life begins again?

Intertwined, part of New Hope Publisher’s contemporary fiction line, is a great reminder of how God can turn our greatest tragedies and failures into beautiful acts of love and grace. Readers will fall in love with the realistic characters and enjoy the combination of depth, heart-felt emotion and humor that makes Jennifer’s novels so appealing. Readers will be inspired to find God in every moment and encounter in their own lives!

Buy it:

CBD: http://www.christianbook.com/intertwined-a-contemporary-romance-novel/jennifer-slattery/9781596694439/pd/694430?event=ESRCN

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Intertwined-Jennifer-Slattery/dp/1596694432/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/intertwined-jennifer-slattery/1121268293?ean=9781596694439

Discovering the Story by Marilyn Turk

Author Marilyn Turk compares herself to an archeologist as she discusses how she uncovered the idea for her first novel. -- Sandy

Marilyn: I never intended to write fiction. I thought I’d be writing devotionals and articles. And that’s what I did, so when I attended writers’ conferences and heard others talk about writing novels, I didn’t believe the topic pertained to me. That was before I discovered a story that would be my first novel.

History has always interested me, especially the history of the area where I lived. So naturally, I researched that history.  I’m a southerner, born and raised, and I’ve only lived in three southern states, so my research has stayed in the south as well. But one day after I moved to Florida, I stumbled upon a new subject to research.

You see, like many others, I’ve always admired lighthouses. Majestic and alluring, they represented strength, dependability and tales of adventure. I’d only seen them in pictures, so imagine my surprise when I chanced upon a lighthouse while making sales calls for my day job.

I was astonished to see one so close, and I was immediately smitten. I had to go inside. In a heavy rain,  I followed a van down the road to the lighthouse, and when it parked, I parked alongside. The driver rolled down his window and asked if I needed to get inside the lighthouse which was closed during the week. For the first time in my life I said, “I’m a writer.” Then I added, “I need to see it for research.” Amazingly, he told me to come back in an hour after he did some work, and he’d let me in. When I returned, he gave me a personal tour of the keeper’s house and the lighthouse, telling me the history of them and the roles they played in the Civil War. Standing at the top of the Pensacola lighthouse, I could “see” history playing out before me,  imagining the feelings of those living there at that time.

I know now that experience was a gift from God and He led me down that road to lead me into a new career. Before I even left that day, a story was forming in my mind, and my first historical novel was born. Shortly after my visit to the lighthouse, my company was sold and I was laid off. But God had shown me the new path I would take.

It’s been such a surprise to see how God has continued to lead me down trails in my mind as stories continue to unfold. But to those who ask where I get my ideas, I say, “I don’t think I create them. I find them.”

As my passion for lighthouses and coastal history has developed, the more I learn, the more the stories expose themselves. I find out what happened in a particular area and immediately, I see the characters who lived there, and when I start writing, they reveal themselves to me. In that way, I feel like an archaeologist, uncovering history and finding the story that is told by the discovery.

If there’s one question that I ask myself in finding the story, it’s “what would life be like for someone who lived here at that time?” And knowing people haven’t changed much since the beginning of time, I can relate to the feelings they might have had.

I admire those writers who can invent worlds – they are truly creative. But for me, I’ll just take my shovel and keep on digging.

How you do come up with your ideas? Are you a "creator" or an "archeologist?"

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Marilyn Turk lives in and writes about the coastal South, especially its history. Rebel Light, the first book in her Coastal Lights Legacy series, and her Lighthouse Devotions, will be published in 2015. Her historical suspense, The Gilded Curse, will be published in March 2016. She writes a weekly lighthouse blog @ http://marilynturk.com.