Rob’s a Regular Now
I asked him and he said yes–Rob is now a regular guest on Dusting For Fingerprints, so you can expect to see his posts at least once every month. I’m thrilled because, unlike me, Rob’s a hardboiled crime writer, and I love hearing the differences in the way we approach murder mysteries. In this post, though, we agree down the line–get your facts straight if you want to write credible fiction.
Rob Avery is a sailor who works as a criminal defense attorney to pay for his sailing habit. He has written two full-length mystery novels and
a novella that combine his work experience with his sailing. The third book in the series will be published in early 2019. Read more about Rob and his books at robavery.com.
The Importance of Accuracy
I write fiction. Mysteries, mostly, featuring a sailor who solves murders in exotic tropical locations. Lies, basically. So, who cares if they are accurate or not? “It’s fiction! Make it all up!”
Wrong.
A reader buys a fiction novel hoping to become part of some other locale or lifestyle or adventure. An escape. Readers know it is fiction, of course, but they want to believe the story; even if only for the diversion of seeing something new and different through another person’s eyes. But there needs to be enough truth in the story to allow them that belief. You must deliver a story that is plausible to your readers. You owe them a level of accuracy.
Why? Because the reader wants to connect the dots between their reality and your imagination. If you leave out too many dots—or, worse, give them the wrong dots—you will lose the reader. Factual errors are those wrong dots. Inaccurate information will stand out and jar a knowledgeable reader, taking them out of the story and back into their real world. Do this enough and your book may wind up in the trash.
To illustrate, have you ever read a book from one of your favorite authors and seen a typo? How does it make you feel? Does your mind leave the story and wander off to that spot where it says: “These are published authors with well-paid editors and professional proofreaders. How could there be a typo?”
A simple typographical error is one thing; a factual mistake—even a minor one—can be much more jarring. One of my favorite authors wrote that the main character picked up a discarded pistol and “checked the clip” to find only two bullets left. The problem here is that there are no pistols that use clips; revolvers have a cylinder and all non-revolver pistols use magazines. There is a big difference between a clip and a magazine. Anybody with any gun knowledge will catch that.
Was this bestselling author too lazy to find out how pistols really work or was he in a hurry to get the book finished on time? It doesn’t matter. The author lost a lot of credibility with me, and I came close to tossing the book in the garbage.
You must be credible! You must be accurate. So do your research. Today’s author has no legitimate reason not to do sufficient research. But that subject, research, will be discussed in a future blog post. For now—and this may sound oxymoronic—be accurate in your fiction.
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