Lynette Eason grew up in Greenville, SC. Her home church, Northgate Baptist, had a tremendous influence on her during her early years. She credits Christian parents and dedicated Sunday School teachers for her acceptance of Christ at the tender age of eight. Even as a young girl, she knew she wanted her life to reflect the love of Jesus. 
Lynette attended The University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC, then moved to Spartanburg, SC to attend Converse College where she obtained her Masters degree in Education. A couple of years later, she met the boy next door, Jack Eason—and married him. Jack works with Xtreme and Sound of Light and is her web and marketing guy. Lynette and Jack have two amazing children. She and Jack are members of New Life Baptist Fellowship Church where Jack leads the worship and Lynette does whatever she’s asked to do like take pictures for the church directory.Lynette loves to ice skate, go bowling, walk on the beach, visit the mountains of Asheville, NC, watch American Idol, Law and Order, A & E channel, and surf the web—and of course, read. She is often found online and loves to talk writing with anyone who’s interested.
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Five Tips for Better Research:
1. Figure out what it is you don’t know.
Research is a crucial and necessary element when it comes to writing. Unless you’re an expert on everything you write, at some point, you’ll have to do research. Usually, when I get an idea for a story, I spend about a week fleshing it out, trying to decide what it is I don’t know that I need to know in order to effectively write the story and not sound like an idiot. Then I spend a LOT of time figuring out how to work it into the story.
2. Use your research effectively.
For example, I recently submitted a proposal to my editor and she sent it back saying, basically, she didn’t think I’d done my research and it needed some major changes before they could issue a contract. Was I embarrassed? You bet. Because I actually had done the research, I just didn’t use it effectively—or even correctly. BIG MISTAKE. Fortunately, they allowed me to fix it and resubmit which ended up in a sale, but if I’d been a new author trying to break in to the business, I would have blown that opportunity. And the crazy thing was, once I read back through it, I realized exactly what my editor was talking about. {Hanging my head in shame.}
3. Organize your research
Whenever I’m writing and I’m into the flow of the story, I try not to let one piece of needed information bring the writing to a grinding halt. If, before I started working, I have the information that I need in a file on my desktop, I can immediately go to it and pull it, insert it in the story and keep the flow going. However, if I’m working on something and I have to stop and look it up, I can get distracted as one topic leads to another or one idea feeds something else. I have icons on my desktop labeled, “Current work”, “Future Idea for story” “Interesting medical research” “Crime scene research” etc. (You would insert whatever you’re interested in.) I love having a filing system. When I come across something interesting that I might want to come back and study all I have to do is file it in the appropriate icon.
4. Make your research easy!
There are writers groups all over yahoogroups. I belong to a fantastic group of writers called crimescenewriters. It’s a yahoogroup that specializes in writing crime fiction. A diverse group of people from firefighters to homicide detectives to everyone’s favorite Senior Crime Scene Analyst (Retired), I have access to incredible amounts of research right at my fingertips. All I have to do is post my question and I get a plethora of responses almost immediately. It’s an incredible network of professionals. Also ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) is a wonderful resource. A great group of writers ready to help out anyone with a question. The list is endless.
5. Everyone is different.
There’s no right or wrong way to do research as long as you come up with the right answer to your questions. I tend to do a lot of my research online, but I also try to find books at the library or through an online bookstore that enable me to enhance my story. The point is, do the research, incorporate it into your story in a subtle manner then send it to a professional to read and point out errors for you to fix. If you do that, the final result will be a well written story, guaranteed to catch an editor’s interest.
To learn more about Lynette, check out her profile at http://www.shoutlife.com/ or http://www.suspensewithatwist.blogspot.com/
1. Figure out what it is you don’t know.
Research is a crucial and necessary element when it comes to writing. Unless you’re an expert on everything you write, at some point, you’ll have to do research. Usually, when I get an idea for a story, I spend about a week fleshing it out, trying to decide what it is I don’t know that I need to know in order to effectively write the story and not sound like an idiot. Then I spend a LOT of time figuring out how to work it into the story.
2. Use your research effectively.
For example, I recently submitted a proposal to my editor and she sent it back saying, basically, she didn’t think I’d done my research and it needed some major changes before they could issue a contract. Was I embarrassed? You bet. Because I actually had done the research, I just didn’t use it effectively—or even correctly. BIG MISTAKE. Fortunately, they allowed me to fix it and resubmit which ended up in a sale, but if I’d been a new author trying to break in to the business, I would have blown that opportunity. And the crazy thing was, once I read back through it, I realized exactly what my editor was talking about. {Hanging my head in shame.}
3. Organize your research
Whenever I’m writing and I’m into the flow of the story, I try not to let one piece of needed information bring the writing to a grinding halt. If, before I started working, I have the information that I need in a file on my desktop, I can immediately go to it and pull it, insert it in the story and keep the flow going. However, if I’m working on something and I have to stop and look it up, I can get distracted as one topic leads to another or one idea feeds something else. I have icons on my desktop labeled, “Current work”, “Future Idea for story” “Interesting medical research” “Crime scene research” etc. (You would insert whatever you’re interested in.) I love having a filing system. When I come across something interesting that I might want to come back and study all I have to do is file it in the appropriate icon.
4. Make your research easy!
There are writers groups all over yahoogroups. I belong to a fantastic group of writers called crimescenewriters. It’s a yahoogroup that specializes in writing crime fiction. A diverse group of people from firefighters to homicide detectives to everyone’s favorite Senior Crime Scene Analyst (Retired), I have access to incredible amounts of research right at my fingertips. All I have to do is post my question and I get a plethora of responses almost immediately. It’s an incredible network of professionals. Also ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) is a wonderful resource. A great group of writers ready to help out anyone with a question. The list is endless.
5. Everyone is different.
There’s no right or wrong way to do research as long as you come up with the right answer to your questions. I tend to do a lot of my research online, but I also try to find books at the library or through an online bookstore that enable me to enhance my story. The point is, do the research, incorporate it into your story in a subtle manner then send it to a professional to read and point out errors for you to fix. If you do that, the final result will be a well written story, guaranteed to catch an editor’s interest.
To learn more about Lynette, check out her profile at http://www.shoutlife.com/ or http://www.suspensewithatwist.blogspot.com/
Great article, Lynette. Research is a stumbling block for me, so these tips are a great help!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE research! And with the Internet, there is so much at our fingertips. But I really enjoy the hands-on kind.
ReplyDeleteIn my WIP, my protagonist is a potter. I've been having fun going to local galleries, interviewing a few potters and then watching them make their pieces. :)
Thanks for the informative article, Lynette.