Have you ever been typing along only to discover you've included some element in your book you have no real knowledge of? No personal experience from which to write?
As a member of ACFW, I see lots of emails come across the main email loop asking research questions for works in progress. The subject matter is truly fascinating, some making me want to read the book just because the author asked what grasshoppers taste like. Some questions are mundane things, like whether Jetta remote entries would be operable after being dropped in a water puddle, or which way water swirls down a toilet in which hemisphere (this one really sparked some interest!). These are the nitty gritty details we have to include for realistic portrayals and accurate scenes, but what we're really doing is playing literary Mythbusters.
Did you ever watch that show? Truly unreal, some of the things these guys do...all in the name of busting myths. And we writers have the same dictum: not to include anything someone would even remotely question.
So I'm building my arsenal of contacts to email for different things, like, for example, legal advice. I have a doctor friend I can contact about medicines, I have my own husband for anything I need to know about military life. I guess you could ask, "How many people does it take to write a book?" And the answer is staggering.
Q4U: How many people are in your writing arsenal? Do you have real-life mythbusters who can set you straight about something in your book? Do you email/call your lifelines?
