Friday, August 21, 2020

What Elements Make Your Writing More Realistic?

 


This month our Round Robin blog asks: To make a story seem and feel more realistic to the reader, what elements do you include in your stories?
 

Oh, where to start? There are so many elements that I like to include but I will start with the setting. I work as much at creating my setting as I do my characters’ backstories. The setting is, after all, the stage you set your characters on.

Because my stories are mostly Regency romance, I tend to have a mix of city and rural settings. My characters spend summers at their country estates and the Season, aligned with when parliament was in session, in London, with the busiest time being between Easter and when parliament adjourned in July. By then most people who could afford to were keen to get out of town because of the smell.

Country estates are lovely to create and many of my imaginary ones come from illustrations in books like Country Houses From the Air or The English Country House and the very useful Georgian and Regency Houses Explained. I have floor plans for country houses and smaller but no less impressive town houses. From these I can create my settings with a measure of accuracy and viability. What might be included on any of these estates as far as farms and crops are concerned, are all gleaned from internet searches for letters and records of the big houses, some of them going back hundreds of years, and depend on what part of the country (being England, Scotland, or Wales) the estate is. Building styles change somewhat from county to county depending on what materials are available, or how wealthy the lord of the manor might be.

Typical Cotswold Stone house Jones&Campbell

Weather with all the light and shade that comes with it, plays a part in my settings, too. For information on that for a particular year I start with a visit to https://premium.weatherweb.net/weather-in-history-1800-to-1849-ad/ and to pin-point where my characters are for what special days to create a timeline I consult https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1818&country=9. The weather can affect so many aspects of my character’s mood. If it’s warm and sunny, then likely she is too. If it’s raining, all sorts of events can transpire from that. Think Marianne Dashwood getting soaked in the rain in Sense and Sensibility. Rain heralded my hero’s arrival in Folkestone in my book His Dark Enchantress. It fit his mood and the seriousness of the situation in which his wife, my heroine, had been abducted.


AVAILABLE HERE

Plants and flowers play a part, too, and for this I use a Reader’s Digest book of English flora, plus Culpeper’s Complete Herbal. It pays to know what plants grow in which part of the country because someone will surely call you out if have a daffodil growing where it never would or a lark singing in central London as this is a bird that likes open countryside.

How I dress my characters also comes into play and for this I use an Illustrated Encyclopedia of Costume, Fashion in Jane Austen’s London and just because, The History of Underclothes. YouTube can be particularly useful as well, especially clips like Undressing Mr. Darcy. I guess I’m a bit of a nerd because I do enjoy research and if I come across a particularly interesting snippet, it makes my day. Whether I can use it or not in a book becomes another thing altogether.

Now I’m off to see what elements these authors include in their writing. I hope you’ll take a look at them, too.

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
 Judith Copek 
http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Diane Bator 
http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Dr. Bob Rich 
https://wp.me/p3Xihq-1ZR
Beverley Bateman 
http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Fiona McGier 
http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Rhobin L Courtright 
http://www.rhobincourtright.com

 

12 comments:

  1. I am SO impressed that you actually check what the weather was at a particular time and place. When I read one of your books, it did feel very real, and now I know why.
    Well done.
    Bob

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    1. Thanks, Bob. Others have mentioned realistic fiction in this month's blog, and I do like to make my settings as realistic as possible.

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  2. Research on the internet is a boon for us authors - I don't think I've checked for the exact weather on a day unless I had a hurricane in my story, but I did spend time finding out if Carl Yazstremski of the Boston Red Sox actually played on a specific day in September of 1972. He didn't so I ended up having my heroine skip watching the game because he was her favorite player. Would have taken hours in the library to get that info without the internet.

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    1. I can't imagine now having to plod down to the library and spend hours there, when Mr. Google is such a great place to start. However, I still do contact historians directly if I want to know specifics of places. They are amazing people and on the whole very generous with their knowledge.

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  3. You do a lot of research, even to the plants! I know your stories reflect this. ! Interesting post.

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    1. Thanks, Rhobin. Each new book presents its own reseach challenge as there is always something different.

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  4. Ah yes, the internet. Where I can check on the traditional names of a particular nationality, and look up some words to have the characters toss in when stressed. Where I can look at maps and check the indigenous critters that live in a particular area of the country the action is set in. What would authors do without it? Write books that weren't as realistic, for sure!

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    1. Maps are a boon! And Google Earth especially gives me views of countries I may never get to visit.

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  5. Interesting post. And I hadn't thought of plants and birds. I'll remember that in my next book.

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    1. I read a western romance not long ago where a snake came into the scene. The first thing I wanted to know was, is this a poisonous snake? Then, for my own satisfaction I had to Google what snakes were common in the area where the story was set. But I guess that's just me!

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  6. I can only imagine how tricky it is to write historical romance and have to be so precise! My books are more contemporary and set in fictional locations so I can take more liberties. That said, I still have to remain true to the region and bring the area to life for readers. Thanks for the nudge about the plants and animals!

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    1. I don't make life easy for myself, Diane! My one contemporary is Loving That Cowboy. Now, what does an English, city girl at that, know about cowboys, and ranching, and rodeos? Mind you, I have to say that research was a breeze as who doesn't love a cowboy in tight jeans?

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