Sam's Wattpad and Writing Tips

A Time to Be Accurate

I realize that fiction means not real. And when you're writing something not real, of course you're going to make things up. That's part of it after all. However, if you want people to get into your story some things will have to be accurate. Doing research is a huge part of writing. If there's something you don't know about, look it up. How do you know when you need to be accurate and when you can go wild with making up things?

Clues you should be accurate:

•The subject is sensitive, such as: a mental illness, a disease, abuse, etc.

•The subject is a strict procedure, such as: medical procedures, arrest procedures, etc. Of course if (for some reason) it's done differently in your book people will pick up on it, but if it's a modern day based book and you just didn't do your research, it will show.

There are other things I've noticed people get so wrong. Like pregnancy, for instance. If you're writing a teen pregnancy book, you should probably research pregnancies, because I know for a fact that you don't feel the baby kick right as soon as it's conceived. I honest to goodness read a page of a Bieber fanfic (because someone told me how hilarious it was, even though it was meant to be serious) where the girl banged him, then stood up and was all, "I'm pregnant." Lol. Yeah, honey, do your research.

I also saw someone say that a snake was starving because it hadn't ate in a few days. Well, snakes only eat about once a week. Trust me, I watch way too much Animal Planet. It's an easy mistake to make, because things usually eat daily, but a bit of research could have cleared that up.

If it's anything that you don't know about, I suggest you check up on it. It usually only takes a few minutes and it pays off. Things are usually made up in Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Parnormal. Anything other than that, that takes place in present day time or in the past, need little facts researched before claims are made. And even inside those genres, you still need facts sometimes to make your world more realistic to the reader. You don't want people to get distracted by mistakes like that.

Vote if you hate when someone doesn't do any research and it shows.