Hello! I'm sorry it's been a while since I've updated. My new work schedule doesn't give me a lot of free time lately. I promise I'm still here! Still hard at work on the third installment of the Amethyst Chronicles and on Jackson Gray's origin story. I hope to have information on one of them soon.
Today I want to get something off of my chest. Books are a gateway to another world. You can be anything in a book. Go anywhere. It's an escape from everyday life and means to expand your imagination. And what is a big component in allowing us to do this?
The details. Little things that may not exactly add to the plot but make you feel like you are immersed in the book. It sets the tone, the environment and helps you visualize. A good book can really make you feel like you are there.
It takes work for the author to put the reader in the story. Definitely not an easy task. I know I've researched information for a single line that would never appear anywhere else again, but it was an important detail that would add to the scene. But lately I've been reading some books that I think either the author got lazy with the details or thought they didn't need to research.
Research is important! I can't stand it when authors will make up information or will just put something down. Even in sci-fi, almost all of what I write has some scientific merit or thought behind it.
Liza O'Connor is the perfect example of an author knowing how important the details are. I love her sleuth series and the painstaking additions she puts in blows my mind. I'd love to look at her file or search history. I can clearly picture running around London with Vic, being on a boat with Jacko, or listening to a snarling baby. I can't wait to read her sci-fi series. (been sitting on my app, I promise I will get to it soon!). She goes to great lengths without hitting the reader over the head with the information.
I won't call out an author who I feel lacks where Liza strives. But let's just say I won't be reading them again. Period.
Books are fun. The writing is hard. If I have to stop reading to look up something to see if that could be probable or not...then I doubt I will pick the book back up. I typically don't leave reviews if that's the case. Sometimes I wonder if that's a good thing. Can the behavior be corrected if the author doesn't know? But I don't want to create bad blood between me and another author either. Hmm...something for me to think about, I guess.
1 comments:
Liza happy dances upon reading your blog. You wouldn't believe the crazy things that go on in real life. I am amazed at what I can legitimately get my characters to do. I actually do have a huge, categorized file on the Victorian era, and it gets bigger with every book I write, because the plots always take me to new places. I'm always surprised at how much research is required for my contemporary books. It's as much or more than the Historical era. And now there is my sci fi series, the Mutliverses. Actually, it is easier, because I can easily work within the confines of Quantum physics. It is so weird and uncertain, that you just have to establish a workable, plausible theory and stick with it. Details can be very fun, but they need to be credible. The danger for authors is when they think they know the facts, but they are wrong. Those are the ones that cause problems. My pet peeve: Editors who insist I change facts to fiction because the truth didn't seem believable. Hey! Life is really weird...at least my life is, and if yours isn't, you probably are paying attention to the details.
Post a Comment