Forum: Author Hangout

This is just curiosity on my part to Ernest Bywater

I've never had the pleasure of physically visiting the USA, mainly due to a shortage of the required cash to do so. However, I have spent, and still spend, many hundreds of hours of research on areas, times, and other matters before I write a story. On the Internet I can access thousands of old records, old newspapers, journals, diaries, photos, maps, and even speak to people who live in the areas concerned. Once I've gathered such research together I tend to re-use it for other stories to get the most benefit from it.

I do know if I get something wrong a reader will soon let me know and I then correct the matter. That's why one early version of a story had me change the hospital some people were being taken to in the story. That was due to a misunderstanding by me about who had access to the hospital.

It's like in Play Ball! where I had every single action scene on the field vetted and frequently changed by two baseball fanatics, one of whom is an umpire, before the finished version was written. I even had input about the contracts and how they worked from a professional baseball player.

I spend a lot more time on the research work getting the details right than I do on coming up with the original plot and story action. Then I spend more time merging the two together.