Wicked Wordsmith

Ammo Info

Crime authors: Need to know how that ammo is going to penetrate the skin of your character? Find out about velocity and damage at The Box O' Truth, a site dedicated to testing ammunition and sharing results with readers.Technorati Tags: ammo, wicked wordsmith, angela wilson, writing, crime

The Mug Says It All

This site shows just how a life of crime can wreak havoc on a good-looking woman. Check it out. Think about how different the woman looks in the first mug shot and the last. Consider how a life of crime would impact your character. Would it show in the wrinkles on their face, and in their dead eyes? Is their conscience so dead that it has no impact at all?

For each of your characters, think about their physical attributes the more time their are processed by the cops. Use this knowledge for your story - even if they are not criminals. You might be surprised where it takes you.

Research: Article for Your Gun-Toting Characters

Check out this article on a new submachine gun. You just never know when this research might come in handy for a character.

http://content.hamptonroads.com/

Angela Wilson - Wicked Wordsmith

Powered by ScribeFire.

Researching for Historical Writing by Velda Brotherton

Researching is always a must for writers, but those who want to write about historical events, or place their fictional characters within an historical event, are going to be faced with doing a ton of research. If you're lucky, you'll have someone willing to help you out there. If not, plan on spending quite a bit of time doing preliminary research before starting to write, then filling in the gaps during the writing process.

The Internet is a wonderful tool for researching, but it will take up a lot of your time, because it's easy to get sidetracked. While there is a lot of good information out there, you must be very careful to back up what you find on individual sites. Some are papers written by people who may not know as much as you about a given subject, so check it out with other sources. That's never a bad idea anyway. If you haven't done much work on the Net, it's relatively easy. Type a search engine in, Google is good, then when it comes up simply type in your subject being as specific as you can. Google will do the rest.

Your very best tool is a good research librarian who loves her work and will put up with you coming back over and over again. Check out the Bibliographies in books you use for more information on a specific subject.

In historical writing, non-fiction isn't far removed from fiction, in that you want characters who will keep your reader interested in turning the pages. With few exceptions, readers want to relate to someone in their stories. A character with whom they can empathize is better than handing them a bunch of dry facts. Publishers also prefer that approach.

It helps if you have a background in writing true stories, that is, you've interviewed people and written their stories for  newspaper or magazine articles, but this isn't absolutely necessary. Good writers can all learn to slant their stories.

Slant your work to your audience. Keep your finger on the pulse of your readers and give them what they want in the way they want it. Readers of my weekly historical feature want a lot of local history, names of those who took part, locations of sites such as cemeteries, old school houses, settlements. They like a little controversy so they can call me up or write a letter to the editor. I guess it keeps their juices flowing.

Do you want to write essays, thread interviews throughout your piece, or do you strictly want to find an era or happening and write about it as history? Decide what suits your style of writing best.
No matter which you choose, learn to speak directly to your readers. Learn to grab them up by the nape of the neck and drag them through the story so they can't put it down until its finished. To do this you need sympathetic characters to hold the story together. Give your readers a picture with which they are already familiar and you can almost see them nodding as they read. Saying, 'Yes, that's exactly the way it was.' Or, 'I remember it another way, maybe I'd better call and tell her.' In any case, you are getting them involved. And that's what we all want, isn't it? Involved readers.

Velda Brotherton has been writing in various genres for 25 years. Her latest book, Fly With The Mourning Dove, is creative nonfiction and tells the true story of a young girl growing up on a homestead in New Mexico after the turn of the 20th century. It is currently available at Publish America and will be in bookstores April 9. Her new Web site, www.veldabrotherton.com, will be online April 6.

Paranormal Investigation

I found this So You'd Like to become a Paranomal Investigator on Amazon.com this morning. Check it out. GREAT research material for equipment that investigators use.

Click here for the Amazon.com Guide

Angela Wilson - Wicked Wordsmith