5 Tips to Writing What you Know

In the past I’ve talked about the importance of doing research for your writing, but there is also something to be said about writing what you know. As a former broadcast journalist and someone who has worked in public relations and media relations, I’ve often used those careers in my books. Using your career is a good way to bring realism to your books, but what if you’ve never been a police officer, or doctor or even a medical technician. That’s where the research comes in handy.

 But you can also use the many things you already know that aren’t connected with any profession. There are plenty of areas where you can use your own personal expertise that others might not have. Often you may not realize how much you actually know about other subjects that you can use in your books.  You may not think of the simple things you know that could actually be important or fun subjects to write about.

1.       Remember time and places you know. 

These elements can play a big role in your setting.  When is your story being set? In today’s world?  In a city? In a small town?  Even if you live in a big city now, what about the atmosphere of the small town you grew up in?  I channeled some of those younger memories as I wrote my Dead Man series and used some of the things I remembered in Dead man’s Rules. Every time I go back to New Mexico I take some time just soaking up the sights, the smells and the sounds from the towns to the mountains.

 

I used my small town past as well. There was the local café where we often had lunch and where my sister worked. I remembered that atmosphere as I brought the Matador café in my book to life. Right now I’m part of a Facebook group – one of those “You know you’re from…” groups and in addition to re-connecting with old friends we’ve also spent some time reminiscing about the old days and it’s helped me think of new subjects I can write about.

 

 

2.      Consider your hobbies.

Do you knit, sew, rock climb, hike or ski? What about bowling or reading groups you may belong to? All the intricate knowledge you get about those subjects can be wonderful writing fodder. If you are writing a mystery novel, why not try the idea of a cozy based around crafting. Those sort of books can be very popular with a certain audience. You can base the murder around your knitting circle. Perhaps the relative of one of the members is killed and she is a suspect. The same can hold true for someone in a reading group.  What about a romance novel where the new entry into a book club is someone who drives the heroine crazy, both in reading opinions and personally? Or how about a fantasy where the reading group is reading a vampire book and a real one shows up?

3.      Vacation visits

Don’t let that vacation go to waste, either when camping in the mountains or visiting Hawaii. Consider setting a story in Washington D.C. if you find yourself spending time in the nation’s capital.  Your protagonist doesn’t need to live there necessarily, but perhaps be visiting there. That can give you a perspective to draw on as a tourist.  Are you frightened by everyone rushing by you because you come from a small town where all the people you see you might know? Or is it invigorating but then you discover some dark secrets about a politician from back home?

 

I took my first train trip in years last fall  and I paid special attention to the atmosphere aboard the train as well as paying attention to the scenery. I know there's a story there I want to work on!

4.      A walk in the park/anywhere

I’ve written about this before. When you take that daily walk in the park or a short hike, wherever you go, don’t just run for exercise.  Spend a few minutes paying attention to the atmosphere around you.  Think of what you are seeing as you run. Pay attention to the people on the street or that you run into in the park.  Are there people you could set your watch by? What if one day they don’t show up?  When I walked regularly I always ran into the same man and I could hear him coming up behind me because he had his audio turned up so loud I could hear him coming even though he wore ear plugs. We’d nod and say hello every day but that was our only acknowledgement. But we always ran into each other around the same time and location. I can still describe him. I can say what he would be wearing in the winter and summer.  Sometime I might still use a person like him in a book.  I used to always notice the differences in smells, temperatures and feel of the mountains as opposed to when walking in the city.  Remembering those types of things can come in handy when trying to make a setting realistic.

5.      Visiting

Do you remember what it was like when you visited your grandmother? Do you recall the scents in the air, like cookies or baking bread? My grandmother lived in a very old fashioned house and they still had a wood burning stove. I can still remember that smell and strangely enough a few years ago when I was visiting a small New Mexico town I came out of my hotel room in the morning and I smelled the scent of wood burning. It not only took me back to my visits with her, but it came in handy when I was trying to show what some of the scents might be in a small town atmosphere when it gets cold and people still wood in stoves.  I always pay attention to those type of unique details when I visit some place new, whether it be a house, a shopping mall in a different part of the country or drive through a new area.

Being aware of surroundings and some of the simplest things around you can be great resources for your writing.

Characters Make the Book

by Becky Martinez

People are always asking about how I come up with characters and this month I am teaching a class at Savvy Authors on creating great characters. Because I think characters are such an important element of any good book, this month we will be focusing on characters here at the Write that Novel blog. We’ll hear from authors on how they come up with their characters and we’ll be interviewing characters from a number of books.

Today let’s look at the importance of good characters as I take a look at the start of my series. The first book, Dead Man's Rules has just come out for Kindle and print. These characters have been in my mind for so long that when I came to write them, they just flowed out on the pages. I felt like I had known them for years.

What is it you remember after reading a book?  The plot twists and turns? The action?  Sometime those can be memorable and you might keep thinking about them after putting down the book. But is it the action or how the main character actually dealt with the events or how that final twist affected the main character that you remember most?

I have always maintained that great characters are part of what stays with us about a book. From my first reading as a child I can remember how characters affected me. Going all the way back to one of the first books I checked out of the library – Horton Hears a Who, I was drawn in by the character. I wanted that elephant to succeed. In later years, I felt the same way about Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, and Pip in Great Expectations. I felt I got to know those characters and I wanted them to have good outcomes.

In the past 30 years I have read a lot of series novels. I enjoy seeing the characters come and go in various romance series, like the Blossom Street people of Debbie Macomber or in the Bitter Creek Series of Joan Johnston. These are characters you might find anywhere but with real problems and they make you care about the people.

My new book, Dead Man’s Rules, takes readers to a fictional town in New Mexico and introduces the characters of Cere Medina, her mother, Lottie, and Freeda Ferguson. These are three very different women who all want different things and are going about getting them in different ways.

When people say where do you come up with your characters, I never have a set answer. They can come from anywhere. Usually they are a big compilation of people I either know, wish I knew or just plain made up.

I also have to admit in some ways most of my characters are a little bit of me too. For instance in Dead Man, all three of these women have tiny parts of me. For Lottie Medina, it was that small town young woman headed to the city. For Cere Medina, it was that competitive woman who wants to succeed, at almost any cost. For Freeda Ferguson, it was that often unconventional character who wants to live life on her own terms.

But for all of them I worked at making them people whom readers would want to see succeed. While Dead Man’s Rules is Cere’s story as she fights to get the story and get her man, the events also help her grow.

And that is key to creating a great character too—character growth. One of the reasons I have always enjoyed the story of Elizabeth Bennet was her growth and that of Mr. Darcy. Their realizations of how their pride and prejudice could be overcome through love was a big revelation to them both.

I’ve used that idea of growth for Cere as well, and I am working on instilling Freeda’s growth into the second book of that series, Dead Man’s Treasure, where Freeda finally gets the one thing she thinks she has been wanting for years – to get to know her father and spend time with him. But things turn out very differently than she ever expected.

Lottie’s story will be at the heart of the final book in the trilogy, Dead Man’s Secrets as she learns the little town and all she thinks she knows may have been all lies all along. It will also be the story of Estrella Tafoya, who must grow and learn to believe in herself.

And at the heart of all three mysteries is the ghost of a man who to me is the most fascinating character – Marco Gonzales – the dead man himself, whose young life and shooting in the first book sets everything in motion.

Marco’s story was the most fun to invent and that to me is what makes a good character – inventing the story around them and then making them live and breathe on the pages.

Who are your favorite fictional characters and why do you think they're special? I'll be giving away a copy of Dead Man's Rules to one lucky commenter.