Research II

My critique group met last weekend and I had the works of two authors to read. Both writers submitted short stories they intend to use in the next racing anthology that the local chapter of Sisters in Crime plans to publish in 2010.

In both cases, the writing was generally good and the stories were compelling. But I was struck with several lapses -- serious lapses -- that could fatally compromise the credibility of the book. In both cases, it was due to the lack of research.

I admire both of these writers but I think they already had murder stories in mind that they adapted for the book, which will focus on the Brickyard 400, which is a NASCAR event. But tere was a problem. They are not race fans, as far as I know, and they merely added racing-related material without doing much in the way of research into racing or NASCAR.

First in both cases, for example, the writers had NASCAR teams based in Indianapolis. If this were Indy car that wouldn't be a problem but not in NASCAR. There are no NASCAR teams based in Indy and certainly no prominent ones. No prominent team would.

It would be like a major fashion designer basing their operation in Peru, Indiana, instead of New York City.

I mentioned that example and others to the editor of the book so she would be aware and would be looking for problems in other stories. But the main problem still goes back to research.

You should always write what you know. I would never write a paranormal story or a western or a Gothic romance because I don't know anything about them. Even with a lot of research, I doubt I could create a plausible fictional setting for any of those genre. That is why I stick to what I know.

Again, that doesn't mean I pooh-pooh research. Not at all. I do research. I did research for the short story I wrote, I did it for both "Fighting Chaos" and "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal", and I am still doing research for "The Death of Art." But in each of those cases, I was looking for specifics, such as street names in far away places, or, for example, where a church is on the map in relationship to, say, a river.

I hope the other writers pay closer attention to some of those racing details because I think the Sisters in Crime chapter should market the upcoming book more aggressively than it did with "Racing can be Murder" (2007). If we can get it in front of NASCAR fans in the South, we can have a truly big fundraiser.

But the details have to be right. And fans will be critical. We have to be on top of things.

That's all I have for now. Thanks for reading and keep writing.