Online Resources for Writers: An Example

I'm adding a new scene to the novel, and I decided I wanted it to be somewhere on the eastern seaboard, eventually settling (rather randomly) on the Carolinas. Since my vampires need fairly sizable populations to sustain them while they're young, I had been thinking Charleston. However, a young vampire would be too weak to hold territory in a bigger city, so I needed a suburb.

A Google search for "charleston sc suburbs" netted (ha, pun!) me an article that mentioned Huntersville, NC as one of the fastest-growing and most affordable suburbs to live in. A local real estate website showed that yes, the kind of house I wanted to describe did exist there, and furthermore, the real estate site also listed what year the houses were built. This was very important as my story takes place in 1999. The first subdivision I looked at had houses built in 2006. About 15 minutes of looking at listings got me a subdivision built in 1996.

Then it was on to Google Maps! God, I love street view. I wanted something out of Patio Man and the Sprawl People, and this place fit the bill. Perfect.

Now, since my story takes place on a specific day, it was off to Weather Underground. The archives for Huntersville only go back to 2001, but nearby Charlotte, NC goes back to 1941. So picking the date I needed in the History & Almanac section showed me what time sunrise was (very important) as well as hourly temperature, wind speed, and weather condition information. While that may seem a bit obsessive, it's great for describing what it's like for my characters as they stand outside on this quintessentially suburban street. (The weather is really the only thing that distinguishes one suburb from another...)

And there you are. A little bit of time on the web and I have all the resources I need to recreate in writing a real place I've never been to.

Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

100 Words About: Too Many Books!

I have an impressive stack of books to read at the best of times, but right now my to-read pile is getting out of control! Ever since I started listening to podcasts, I have more authors that I want to read or listen to than I know what to do with. I keep hearing about all of these great books…

And the research! Between the research I'm doing for the Encore expansion and my NaNoWriMo project, plus everything I'm reading about writing, podcasting, public domain, and physics (for world-building), not to mention all the Mythos stuff I just finished (joy!) for the last short story I did, I don't know when I'm going to get to the authors I'm already trying to follow. Heck, I still haven't read the 12th Wheel of Time book, and the 13th is coming out in two months! What's a girl to do?

Image: Catherine Hadler / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tuesday Tip: Internet Research

Researching is an important skill for writers, whether you write fiction or non-fiction. While there are many resources and services available to the writer for research, today I'm just going to talk about doing research on the internet.

The internet is an amazing research tool, but one has to use it very carefully. Since it is unregulated, anyone can post anything, so research can require quite a bit of sifting through the noise.

A good place to start is Wikipedia. Seriously. Most of the time the articles are pretty good and will give you a basic overview of your subject. The thing is, you can't just use Wikipedia. Wiki articles should list references at the end, and those references are also a great place to start delving in deeper. See if any of them are available online or through your local library.

A browser search can net you some interesting results, especially if you are just looking up a word or phrase to find out if it fits your setting. Check several sites to see if they agree with each other, but beware of sites that have the exact same wording as other sites. There are a lot of sites out there that just go out and copy the text from other sites, and therefore do not really count as verification. Similarly, beware of sites that have the exact wording of another site, but with all the adjectives changed.

Don't be afraid to go several pages deep in your browser search. The sites with the best information may be written by folks who don't know very much about SEO (search engine optimization).

Google Book Search is an invaluable tool for the internet researcher, as it gives you access to many books that are no longer available. For example, I was able to find building maps and photographs of a particular site of London's Bedlam asylum in a small press book from the early 1900's through Google Book Search, where I would not have had access to this book through local booksellers or the library system.

Research your sources. Do a search to see if a particular source has reviews or comments from knowledgeable people. Do they think it's a good resource, or do they have criticisms? If a particular source is biased, it may still be worth reading in order to find information that would be worth looking up elsewhere.

Have fun with your research. You never know when you'll come across a great story idea.