GETTING THE DETAILS RIGHT

Recently I was asked to be a speaker at a writers’ conference—the topic being character and setting description. The chairperson titled it “Getting the Details Right.” Because I have messed up on the details in a few of my books, this is the perfect topic for me.

First off, two of the biggest mistakes I’ve made:

1. Changing the type of car someone drives. In my first Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, the car changed from a Blazer to a Bronco several times.
2. Names of people—giving new characters in a story more than one name.
3. Leaving out an important day of the week in a book that moved day to day through the week. (I fixed that before it got published.)

What I’ve seen in other people’s books:

1. Giving a Japanese character a Chinese last name.
2. Putting in details about a real city that are totally wrong. (And this is why I created my own cities even though they have a resemblance to a real place.)
3. Setting a story in a fictional mid-west town with the wrong kind of geography and kinds of trees.
4. Having too much happen in a much too small amount of time.
5. Changing an important piece of description of a main character such as eye color

Let’s start with setting. I love books that clearly describe the places where the action takes place inside and out and also includes the weather (because this can be an important part of the plot), and different smells (which also can be an important part of the plot, or merely a means to evoke another sense of what the setting is like).

With characters we don’t need to know every detail of a person’s look, but enough to create a picture of the person in the reader’s mind. Along with the outward appearance, the personality is even more important. What in the person’s background would make someone do certain actions? Think about triggers to behaviors and motivations.

All of this is important, but to make sure not to get things wrong as I and many other authors have done, some means of keeping track of all these details needs to be used. Authors do this in many different ways from simply keeping written notes or an elaborate computer system. This is even more important for those of us who write series.

Anyone want to share how they keep track of the details? Or a mistake you’ve found in a book you’ve read

Marilyn

P.S. Though it’s been fixed now, I mixed up some character’s names in my last Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery. No one noticed ahead of time–my critique group, the editor I sent it too first, or the publisher who thought it was my best book in the series.

Yep, this is the one.

After all the work we’ve put into our latest mystery, we’d certainly like to have people read it. At least that’s my hope. In order for that to happen, we have to figure out ways to get the word out. And sometimes we have to keep at it in order to try and reach more readers.

My latest Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, Tangled Webs, made its debut last fall, but so far I only have 4 reviews, good ones, but it would be nice to have a few more. My publisher agreed to make the Kindle version only .99cents for four days, the last day for this bargain is today, January 28^th.  If you want to take advantage of it, here’s the link: https://tinyurl.com/yabj9z9f

In order for people to learn about this price I had to do a great deal of promotion—I found sites that promote .99 cent books and filled in all the blanks and paid the fees. I also wrote blog posts about it, promoted on Facebook and Twitter. Besides hoping to get people to read the book and maybe write a review, of course there’s also the possibility that they may read some of the other books in the series.

Besides all that, and believe me it takes time away from writing which is what I’d prefer to be doing, my calendar is filling with in-person events, places where I plan to have my books for sale. A few are close to home, but others are places where I’ll have to stay over one or two nights. And no, I’ll probably not sell enough books to pay for the trip. (I have to confess though, I really enjoy these occasions, getting to see old friends, fans, and meeting new folks.)

But that’s not the point, as I said in the first paragraph, what I really want is for people to read my books and that’s why I’m doing all these things

All right, fellow writers, I’d like to hear you chime in on this subject.

Marilyn who writes the Rocky Bluff P.D. series as F.M. Meredith

Traditions change over the years. Since we’ve been in Springville, we’ve celebrated Christmas in many different ways—but the last few years we’ve had our family dinner and gift opening on Christmas Eve. Once again we’re doing it different—our dinner will be at 1 p.m.

Several reasons, our grandson-in-law who lives with us along with his family, learned that his grandparents from Mexico will be with other family members on Christmas Eve. So, of course he and his family need to join them

Daughter and her husband are happy because they wanted to get an early start to travel to their youngest daughter’s home to celebrate Christmas with her family.

Grandson Nick is happy because he and his family can get over to his wife’s family celebration earlier than usual.

For Dad and me, it doesn’t matter, we’ll enjoy it no matter when it is. (Plus in the morning we’ll get to see the little great-grands open their Christmas gifts.)

Our dinner will be simple too, honey baked ham, scalloped potatoes, rolls, and strawberry jello salad.

Another change is this year we drew names to buy presents for—cutting down costs for everyone

At this stage in my life, I don’t need presents, being around family is what I love most

So, what are your traditions and are they going to be the same as last year?

This is Christmas long ago with my family, no longer live in this house, that’s me sitting on the piano bench. We opened presents one at a time–took forever. Two daughters and a son are there, but missing a daughter and son.

Marilyn

Some folks say blogging is a thing of the past. Is it? Supposedly, places like Instagram have taken over.

Though I’m not sure blogging is the best promotion tool, I must admit that I love blogging. Many years ago, when I was a teen, I kept a diary right up until the time I started dating that cute sailor I met on a blind date. Though my life had certainly become more interesting, I no longer wrote in my diary. To me, blogging is like writing in a diary and sharing it with many others.

I not only write a post for this blog once a month, I’m a twice a month person on https://makeminemyster.blogspot and I have my own blog, https://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com where I post when I have something to share, and host other writers.

My biggest motivation for doing this is that I like to write. Yes, I write mysteries, and love doing that, but I also like to tell what’s going on in my writing life—and sometimes just life itself. On my own blog I can check and see how many people have taken a look at my posts, and I always respond to anyone who has taken the time to leave a comment.

I have used blog tours (I set them up myself) as promotion when I have a new book. And yes, there is always an uptick in sales. Not sure the sales balance against the time spent planning and writing all the blog posts—but I’ll probably keep doing it as long as I have new books.

Reading other people’s posts on various blogs is also something I enjoy—though I don’t have as much free time to do that as I once did. It’s amazing to me the great ideas different writers come up with to expound upon. Often I learn something, or pick up an idea I’d never thought of beforeSo what is your feeling about blogs? If you are reading this one, what motivated you to stop by?

And of course my most recent blog tour was all about my latest Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, Tangled Webs. https://www.amazon.com/Tangled-Rocky-Bluff-Police-Department/dp/1938436601/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

 Written as F.M. Meredith—who of course is me, Marilyn Meredith