I once read a short story, which took place in the 1960’s. There was a scene in which a character pulled out a cell phone and made a call…which is odd, considering the first mobile phone didn’t come out until 1973. This character was not a time traveler, which simply means, the writer didn’t do enough research before writing their story. 

How much research and planning do you do, before writing your story or book? Some work requires only a little research. Others, require extensive research.

When I wrote the first book in the Valentine series, I used a road map. Yes, an actual road map. In the story, Val Entienne drives from Chicago to L.A. to find her father, and I wanted her to use route 66. I also wanted to make sure I had her drive through states route 66 passed through. To some readers, this probably wouldn’t matter. To an anal-retentive like me, it matters, and I’ll give you an example of why.

I’m a New Yorker, and if you’ve been watching films or television shows for the past thirty years or more, you’ve noticed how many films and shows are recorded in New York. Take Law and Order, for example. I can watch an episode, and recognize a landmark or a street, because the show takes place in New York. While watching a scene in John Wick: Chapter Two, I thought, “I know The Continnental isn’t real, but I can tell from surrounding landmarks where its supposed to be located”.  Little details like that can make a huge difference. So, if I’m reading a story, and a character says they’ll meet another character in Chelsea, on 125th Street in New York, I know that’s a mistake. 125th Street is in Harlem, not Chelsea.

I can’t afford a slip-up such as having a character appear to be too young during a particular arc of the storyline.

I’m working on a series thats a prequel to Valentine, and one key detail I needed to focus on, are the characters’ ages. I ended up making a chart of how old certain characters were in the Valentine series, so I could calculate how old they should be in the prequel, Lucia and the Saints, should I need to use them. 

Val Entienne is 19 when the Valentine series begins, but she’s only 3 during Lucia, so there’s a good chance she won’t be mentioned in the prequel. Again, this may not matter to some readers, but for those who are paying attention, I can’t afford a slip-up such as having a character appear to be too young during a particular arc of the storyline.

Careful planning went into Our Lady of Righteous Rage’s Righteous, too. In this book, the band goes on their first national tour, via an R.V.. I calculated the amount of hours it would take to drive from city to city, to make the story more accurate. For instance, it takes at least two hours to drive from New York to Philadelphia. Anything less than that, would be incorrect. 

I also keep a list of fake birthdays for my characters, so I can have them age appropriately, as the story progresses. If a character starts out as a fourteen year old, and the story takes place across six years, by the end they should be twenty. If they’re only seventeen by the end of story, there’s a problem. This became very important in the Our Lady series, which begins in the 1990’s and goes from there. 

If you decide to use certain landmarks in your story, such as stores or restaurants, and you’re focusing on a particular time frame, you may want to make sure those landmarks still exist, or existed during the time in which your story takes place. I wanted to use the famous CBGB in Our Lady, but the time within the story I wanted to use it, wouldn’t have worked, since CBGB closed in 2006. 

Just a little food for thought. 

Woolaston Entertainment