The Bane of Getting It Right

December 4, 2007 by Chris
Filed under: Research

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Speaking for myself, finding a blatant error in a book I’m reading especially of a topic that I know something about, is truly vexing. It’s like when you watch a movies depicting a desert scene. There will be that stock footage of an eagle flying overhead, with the scream of a red-tailed hawk in the background. I guess movie makers don’t appreciate the deceptively quieter call of the eagle versus that of a hawk less than half its size.

It reminds me too of a botanist with whom I used to be acquainted. A very intelligent man, he knew his plants extremely well. I remember going to a movie with him and some friends years ago. The setting was sometime in the distant past like 1500s or something. We noticed him chuckling during the movie during a not to particularly funny scene showing a man pushing a cart of vegetables. “That is so wrong,” he said. “Squash wasn’t even domesticated back then.” Alas, the botanist was the only one in possession of such esoteric knowledge.

I plead guilty though of the same arrogance when the topic is one that I have adopted. So as I go back to edit my rough draft, I’m starting to notice those little things that I don’t feel I’m 100% sure about. Since my mystery is set in 1985, I’ve had to research when certain items, icons of pop culture were around. I caught myself in a what would be considered a grave mistake. The original gun I used in my work hadn’t been produced until 1995. Oops!

I want to take the time now to research as many of these tidbits as possible. Heaven forbid I receive the nasty email pointing out my quaff or be the subject of a spiteful blog post. I know that bit about glass houses and all. Living in one myself, I’m going to take out the extra insurance now.

Tags: editing, novel, Research, revision

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