Category — On Writing

I hope this post finds you writing … if not, here are a few things perfect for a little helpful procrastinating.

This post on The Elegant Variation offers advice for writers, which sort of segued into advice for the lovelorn — and shows how interchangeable the words love/writing can be when it comes to advice, from “Love should bother you” to “Every day you will have to recreate your love.”

And Janet Fitch offers 10 Rules for Writers on the LA Times blog — from killing cliches to stretching out your sentences for variety.

I enjoyed reading Charles Stross’s blog on being a working writer, with insights into what the full-time writing life is really like. It’s not all writing, all the time — “we work in bursts, and the rest of the time gets filled up with administrative junk and social fluff” — and the solitary nature of it can be trying –  “I have office-mates, but they’re not co-workers: at best they’ll stand on the keyboard and meow at me.” After outlining the drawbacks of this “wildly unstable, lonely occupation with an insane income spread” — Stross concludes that “it sucks,” a refreshingly honest conclusion about the true nature of writing as a full-time job.

Writers of fiction should check out this post on Alan Rinzler’s blog about how to eavesdrop to help with writing dialogue. I constantly assign fiction students to eavesdropping as a way to practice getting an ear for dialogue — and often they look at me rather strangely. So I loved seeing this post, which points out, first of all, that Norman Mailer did it (and not very subtly either), and offers tips and possible haunts for good listening.

I recently discovered StereoMood, which offers playlists for just about any type of mood (from energetic to sad to sexy) or activity (from cooking to road-tripping to making love) you can come up with. Readers and writers, check out its playlist for writing and playlist for reading.

And finally, I was initially intrigued by the idea of I Write Like, which (supposedly) matches your writing style with famous writers. At first, I was a little confused by the writers I was paired with, which I think would surprise most of my readers, too: I tested out excerpts from different stories and discovered that, apparently, I write like Chuck Palahniuk, David Foster Wallace, and/or Stephen King — all flattering comparisons, of course, but not at all what I’d expect. Oh, and my novel-in-progress is evidently in the style of Dan Brown. (Clearly, the excerpt I entered is a very rough first draft. And too bad this little algorithm isn’t measuring commercial potential.)

Naturally, I found myself wondering: Where are the women writers? So I tried a little experiment and pasted in excerpts of a few of my favorite writers to see what would happen. The results? According to this web site, Ann Patchett and Joan Didion both write like Kurt Vonnegut, Amy Hempel and Lorrie Moore write like Stephen King, Toni Morrison and Annie Proulx write like James Joyce, Jane Hamilton writes like Chuck Palahniuk, and Melanie Rae Thon writes like Vladimir Nabokov. Hmmm.

A few weeks ago, I was meeting a friend for happy hour in one of the more popular restaurants in Pike Place Market. As I waited for my friend and our table, I pulled out my iPhone — just to check email. Then to check Facebook. Then to play a couple rounds of Words with Friends. Then to text my husband.

What I realized later, as I chatted with my friend, a poet, about writing and publishing and technology, was how much I’d missed out on by having my nose buried in my phone. I’d barely registered the couple waiting next to me, growing more impatient by the moment, exchanging irritable whispers in that way couples do so it won’t seem as if they’re actually arguing in public. I hardly glanced at the tourists wandering in, the group celebrating someone’s birthday. While normally I’d have been eavesdropping and otherwise taking mental notes, I pretty much ignored it all.

The gadgets we have are a great way to pass the time while waiting for a table or waiting on line at the post office, but I’m starting to miss the old days, when I had to look outward to pass the time. I find myself wondering what I used to do before I had a phone to play with.

The answer is simple: I used to watch and listen. And more often than not, I ended up with great story ideas or snippets of dialogue.

It goes without saying that the more “connected” we are, technically speaking, the more disconnected we become from the real world — and for writers, this isn’t always a good thing. In this essay in the NYT Book Review, Gary Shteyngart concludes that the real connection (the one having nothing to do with cellular service) happens once we turn our phones off, or get out of range of a cell tower.

I’m not as addicted to my phone as some people — it definitely gets put away if I’m in the presence of real people — but it does away from the normal solitary pleasures I used to enjoy: all those interesting people to observe, all those conversations to overhear. So I’ve decided that next time I’m in line at the post office or waiting for a bus, I’m determined to ignore that enticing little screen, and to look around me instead.

I’ve recently fallen back in love with the idea of writing without any particular goal in mind. Naturally, we writers have to stay focused on our goals if we ever want to accomplish anything — yet at the same time, being too strict about writing can limit the reaches of our work. So this summer I’ve made an effort to spend a little time each day, or at least each week, on writing for no “productive” purpose whatsoever. It’s been not only enlightening but fun — and I’m glad it’s become a regular part of my writing practice again.

Give it a try. It will not only help remind you that writing is joyful (often hard to remember when cranking through a first draft), but it will also allow for the free flow of ideas — and this, in turn, will do wonders for your projects, and you’ll end up meeting those goals anyway.

In the spirit of writing for no reason, I’ll offer an exercise from the recent issue of my free e-newsletter for writers. Take a notebook; leave your house;  sit and write. Do this at least once a week, and do it for no fewer than twenty minutes. It doesn’t matter if you go to a cafe on the other side of town or to a lawn chair in your backyard: The important thing is that you step away from your life and into your writing. You can go with something specific to work on, but it’s even better if you make this a time for generating ideas, for letting your mind be free.

Happy writing.

As many of you know, I publish a free e-newsletter for writers, and I just sent out my annual double issue for the summer, which included a couple of exercises designed to keep you going but not be too taxing in the summer heat (or cold, I suppose, depending on where you live).

Here’s the first exercise: Choose one piece of writing to polish up for submission in the fall. Because many literary journals don’t accept submissions during the summer, this is a perfect time for revision. Whether you’re thinking of submitting a manuscript to an agent or a short story to magazine or contest, spend time this summer revising, polishing, soliciting feedback, and whatever else your project needs to be ready to submit when fall rolls around.

Happy revising!

As the author of a short-story collection, I’m often asked such questions as “How did you decide how to order the stories?” and “When did you know you had enough stories for a collection?” I love talking about these things — and all other story-related issues — and I’ve been fortunate to have had great Q&As with such people and publications as The Short Review, Andrew’s Book Club, and Diana Joseph, author of I’m Sorry You Feel That Way.

But I also love hearing how other story writers do it … and I thought you might, too. I enjoyed these insights from Maile Malloy, who writes about her new collection, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It, in this Amazon article.

And Hobart‘s fabulous roundtable discussion on first books includes several short-story writers — among them Caitlin Horrocks, Laura van den Berg, Kevin Wilson, and Holly Goddard Jones  — and great insights into putting collections together and getting them out into the world.

Enjoy.

I recently received an email from a writer who suggested I devote a column to answering writers’ questions — starting, naturally, with his.  I thought this was a great idea (thanks, Jerry!), and I’m looking forward to making this blog more of a dialogue.

So consider this the first official “Ask Midge” column — and I hope you’ll write with your questions on everything from grammar to characterization to narrative structure. I won’t claim to have all the answers, but whenever I don’t, I will point you in the direction of someone who does.

Please send all questions (on writing, publishing, grammar, and all other things writing-related) through this form on my web site — and please let me know whether you’d like me to use your full name, first name only, or initials only. I’m looking forward to your questions!

And here is our first…

Q: How does a writer make the narrator sound like a juvenile without making the writing sound juvenile? — Jerry Guern, San Diego

A: Voice is one of the biggest challenges for writers, especially when tackling a voice that’s very different from one’s own. And it’s especially important, as Jerry is realizing, to make sure the writing itself is separate from the character, i.e., that the character can sound like a child without the writing sounding childish.

First, I suggest getting to know the character well, as sometimes this is the problem. If you’re writing from the POV of a juvenile, for example, make sure you’re seeing the world from this character’s eyes; try living in this character’s head as much as you can while you’re writing, as if you’re an actor playing a role. Our sense of a character’s age comes from the way he/she sees the world: a teenager will look at something very differently from the way a six-year-old would, or a thirty-year-old, or an eighty-year-old — so think about how your character (from the POV of age as well as his/her unique history) sees what happens around him/her, and describe it in detail. Everything that your reader perceives will come through the details.

Second, choose a POV that fits well what you’re trying to get across in the story — i.e., do you want an intimate, first-person POV (think Catcher in the Rye), or a more distant voice (if the kid is much younger, for example, you may find it easier to use third person to get across things that a child may sense but not be able to articulate in his/her own voice)?

Third, think of your audience — it’s often challenging to create a young voice that appeals to adult audiences, and this appeal (or lack thereof) will depend not only on the voice but on the story itself. There are always exceptions, clearly (not only Catcher in the Rye but books such as The Lovely Bones and the entire Harry Potter series). So try taking an objective look at your story; you may find that if your writing doesn’t sound adult, perhaps your story’s audience isn’t meant to be adult. And if it is, we’re back to POV: third person might be best, as you don’t need to limit your vocabulary as much as in the first person voice.

Also, read as much as you can in the POV you’re going for — this will help you get a feel for what works well. As you read, consider the ways in which these writers succeed in making their characters vivid while at the same time giving them authentic voices.

And finally, make use of a writing partner or writing group to help you judge how well you’ve succeeded. Ask, for example, how old your group thinks your character is, and see how this feedback helps you find that perfect pitch.

Happy writing!

With all that’s going on in the publishing industry these days, self-publishing has emerged as far more than a last-resort option. The stigma of “vanity presses” is giving way to a myriad of alternatives for writers who either haven’t yet found their places in the traditional publishing world — or those who choose to forgo traditional presses altogether, for many different reasons.

Take Steve Almond, for example, who is chronicling his leap into self-publishing in a series in Poets&Writers. And then there’s Joe Konrath, who blogs about publishing his latest thriller, Shaken, with AmazonEncore, Amazon’s publishing imprint. (In answer to the question about whether he’ll “piss off traditional publishers,” he responds, “Traditional publishers had a chance to buy Shaken last year. They passed on it. Their loss. Their big loss. Their big, huge, monumental, epic fail.” He’s publishing the Kindle version prior to the print version, offering it at a price far below what traditional publishers can: $2.99.

Another writer whose book was rejected by a couple dozen publishers has found success in e-publishing: Boyd Morrison reports that his novel The Ark hit number one on the Kindle store’s technothriller bestseller list, finishing higher than such established authors as Tom Clancy: “In three months, my three books sold 7,500 copies and were selling at a rate of 4,000 books per month.”

And check out the statistics from PublishersWeekly, which notes that last year, “the number of ‘nontraditional’ titles dwarfed that of traditional books whose output slipped to 288,355 last year.” Meanwhile, the article notes, “a staggering 764,448 titles were produced in 2009 by self-publishers and micro-niche publishers.”

Self-publishing is becoming more mainstream than, well, mainstream publishing. Yet this doesn’t mean it’s the best option for all writers. On his awesome blog, literary agent Nathan Bransford offers Ten Questions You Should Ask Yourself before self-publishing, from research to design to assessing your entrepreneurial spirit — all critical questions for anyone going down this road.

And if you find yourself ready to go for it, you can follow one writer who’s currently in the process of self-publishing and blogging all about it: my entrepreneurial husband, John Yunker. After his agent was unable to find a home for his novel, The Tourist Trail, John decided to publish the book himself. Being a tech, he opted to launch the e-versions first (which allows more time for editing and book design), and The Tourist Trail is currently available on the Kindle and forthcoming on the iPad. To get self-publishing and marketing tips (and to learn from his mistakes), check out John’s blog.

We’re often reminded of authors who self-publish and later get lucrative book deals — Brunonia Barry’s self-published novel The Lace Reader, picked up by William Morrow in a $2-million, two-book deal; or Elle Newmark’s The Book of Unholy Mischief, bought at auction from Simon & Schuster — but keep in mind that not all self-published authors need, or want, a traditional book deal. These days, with e-publishing and print-on-demand being efficient and cost-effective, an author can find his or her niche outside of mainstream publishing, if that happens to be the better fit.

I’ve come across a few job-related posts and articles lately that have reminded me of past day jobs — and made me quite nostalgic. As much as I love being self-employed and having more writing time, I have to admit that there are (a few) days when I actually miss the nine-to-five life. It’s not just because self-employment is a rather exhausting 24/7, or because if I really did the numbers, I’d probably discover that, in the end, I make less than minimum wage — it’s that the workplace provides such wonderful camaraderie, so many challenges…and yes, so much good material.

I’m often asked what inspired stories from Forgetting English, and probably the one that piques the most curiosity is “The Road to Hana,” which came directly from a day at the office: One of my colleagues received a ring in the mail, sent by an alumna who had stolen it from her roommate years ago and hoped we could return it for her. Immediately intrigued but not knowing anything about these people, I began filling in the blanks on my own, and this fictional backstory became a large part of “The Road to Hana.”

Other projects of mine are more directly about the workplace, as is a lot of contemporary and classic fiction — this New York Times article about work in literature covers John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath to Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road to Adam Haslett’s Union Atlantic. And this NYT blog post is about writers themselves working, which most of us have to do if we also want to eat (and, perhaps more important, drink). Note that Charlotte Bronte lived on $1,838 a year, adjusted for inflation, and William Faulkner on about $18,000 in his job as postmaster.

The best work there is, of course, is that which fulfills us — and better yet, leaves a little extra time for writing. But even unfulfilling work can provide amazing material (not to mention the rent and beer money). So use it as much as you can, even if it’s just keeping a journal (sometimes we need time to process, after all). And, just for fun, check out this NPR slideshow on obsolete professions — many of them in publishing.

The nice thing about long holiday weekends in Seattle is that it usually rains — which means I get the opportunity to catch up on things and get to work on tasks that are otherwise on my to-do list for at least a year.

So this weekend, I created my List of Works, which I’d learned about in Priscilla Long‘s inspiring session at the Hugo House writers’ conference. Long, author of The Writer’s Portable Mentor (forthcoming this July from Wallingford Press), recommends keeping a comprehensive list of every piece you’ve ever written, even if it never got past the first draft stage. Why? Because, Long says, high-achieving artists who are masters of their craft share at least one common trait: they produce a lot of work. A lot. This means that they have their fair share of false starts — but that they create masterpieces as well.

To create a List of Works, Long suggests beginning with the current date and working backward, including every single thing you’ve ever written. So I began with 2010 and worked by way back, finally reaching “2000 & earlier,” mostly out of laziness but also because there were only few items in my files for the ’90s. Long also recommends labeling each item “Circulating” or “Published,” leaving anything outside those two categories blank.

I highly recommend giving this a try. Among the things I learned are that I have a lot of unfinished short stories. This is in part because I’ve been working on a novel for the last year and therefore, sadly, neglecting stories. But now that I have this list, I’m reminded of the stories that await me, and now I’m eager to return to them.

I also discovered that I have a lot of old files that need reviewing — mostly so that I can get rid of what I no longer need or want — but also to discover the work that still has potential. I probably wouldn’t have looked at any of this again for a long, long time if it weren’t for this exercise.

And because I went way back to the 1990s, I remembered projects I’d long forgotten, including a screenplay that I co-wrote with my husband. Not only was that a fun memory, but we’re now thinking of taking another look to see what its possibilities are. Creating a List of Works is like looking at old photo albums — you end up remembering where you were at a certain time and what you were doing, and thinking that maybe it’s time to visit some of those old places again because you had so much fun while you were there.

Give it a try. If you’re a writer vulnerable to procrastination, this is a great way to do just that — but best of all, it’s designed to make you more productive, and organized, in the end.

Okay, now on to Day 2 of the Richard Hugo House Writers’ Conference.

After much coffee on Sunday morning, I presented Think Outside the Book — a session on the myriad ways to market one’s book. We talked about Web sites, social media, blogs, building one’s platform, and the importance of “think not what your local bookstore can do for you, but what you can do for your local bookstore.” Here are a few DOs and DON’Ts from the session:

• DO be generous (with readers, other authors, bookstores, etc.).
• DO be flexible. Be open to new ideas for events, readings, etc.
• DO team up with other authors for support and joint events, and to share ideas.
• DO be prepared not only to do your own legwork but to spend your own money. Depending on your publishing contract, you may have to cover many promotional expenses yourself, from travel to your web site to postcards and bookmarks.
• DO keep your blog open to comments, and DO take the time to respond.
• DON’T be all about you, all the time. Don’t tweet or update Facebook so incessantly that you risk tiring your followers/friends. Be relevant and interesting.
• DON’T automatically connect all social media; think about how you can use each platform to best highlight your work to different audiences.
• DON’T take bad reviews or nasty comments personally, and don’t respond to them. You can’t please everyone, and you don’t need to. Engage only with those who are positive and supportive.

After my own session, I sat in on poet Kelli Russell Agodon‘s fantastic workshop on applying for grants and residencies. As both a winner of numerous grants and residencies as well as a panelist on award committees, Kelli had some terrific advice. Among the gems: Set yourself apart (selection committees read hundreds of applications, so it’s important to stand out); keep it simple (don’t offer too much information, which can be distracting, and remember that committees can be very diverse — send a work sample that connects with people on a human level rather than a strictly artistic one); and follow the guidelines exactly (one of the surest ways to be disqualified for a grant/residency is to have an incomplete application). She also emphasized that often winning is all about luck and timing, and quoted Wayne Gretzky: “You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.”

Attorney Mark Wittow’s session Know Your Rights provided a great overview of legal issues for writers, focusing mostly on copyright laws. I learned a couple of new and interesting things — for example, that research data is not protected by copyright (only the expression of the facts is protected). Copyright laws are fairly complex, but writers with questions can visit the U.S. Copyright Office web site for more info. Also, for a $20 donation, Washington writers and artists can visit a free legal clinic run by Washington Lawyers for the Arts.

This blog can in no way summarize the entire weekend, and it can’t capture the wonderful energy of so many writers together for two straight days, sharing ideas and information and enthusiasm. If you couldn’t make it this year, stay tuned to Hugo House, and register early for next year’s conference.

I spent the entire weekend blissfully immersed in all things writing at Richard Hugo House’s first writers’ conference, which centered around the theme of Finding Your Readers in the 21st Century. Panels and sessions were divided into three tracks: publishing, self-promotion, and writers’ tools. Other than the fact that I was, sadly, unable to be in two (or three) places at once, it was a fantastic weekend — and I thought I’d share a few highlights.

Saturday morning’s plenary with Matthew Stadler was inspiring. A novelist as well as a longtime publishing pro and co-founder of Clear Cut Press, Stadler believes that, despite all the current woes and gloom currently surrounding the publishing industry, the twenty-first century will be better for writers than the twentieth. He believes publication should be cheap and easy, and that our goal as writers should be to connect to our audiences one person at a time, one book at a time, and to develop lasting conversations within our communities. His current project, Publication Studio, is “an experiment in sustainable publication” whose books include works by Seattle authors Stacey Levine and Matt Briggs.

After the plenary, I sat on a panel about support networks for writers with Janna Cawrse Esarey, Tamara Kaye Sellman, and Jennifer Culkin, in which we shared our experiences of how writing networks have helped us market our work, from the submission stage through book promotion. Most important, we all agreed, is having clear goals in mind, meeting regularly, and not only sharing ideas but joining together for events and conferences.

Publicist Alice B. Acheson offered an invaluable session on book marketing, speaking on everything from a writer’s “pre-pub platform” to filling out that seemingly endless Author Questionnaire (and yes, every single paragraph of that thing is important for one reason or another). She had good, practical advice for planning events (BYO postcards and posters; always confirm in advance that books have been ordered), reminded everyone that marketing starts when you begin your book (think of your audience), and encouraged good karma: visit independent bookstores often.

Priscilla Long‘s Tricks of Virtuoso Creators focused on the balance between creating work and getting it out into the world, and she pointed out that most masters of their art are able to create masterpieces because they are constantly creating. She set herself a goal of submitting one work each day, and while she fell a little short, she did finish 300 submissions, and got 11 acceptances. Doing this, she points out, not only gives you an idea of your acceptance rate but also keeps the cycle going: In order to submit, you must create; once you create, you then have work to submit. A couple more tips from this session: Keep a list of everything you’ve ever written, and write for at least fifteen minutes a day.

More coming soon, covering Sunday’s sessions…

A few weeks ago, I inadvertently re-created my writing space in a way that led to efficiency and clear thinking. It didn’t last long, sadly — and now that I’m back to being buried, I’m wondering how I achieved that level of organization and productivity.

It was surprisingly simple: I was getting ready for a short trip, and when I glanced at my desk, I noticed what a disaster area it was. Not wanting to come home to such a seemingly hopeless mess, I cleaned up (which basically meant shoving everything into drawers and under the desk). But still. The result was a clean, uncluttered writing space. When I came home from my trip, I actually thought for a moment that I was in someone else’s apartment. But it made me want to get straight to work. And I did.

Shortly afterward, in my Hugo House writing class, we had a great talk about writing routines in which everyone exchanged thoughts and tips on writing, rituals, and getting the job done. I thought I’d share a few of them here (with thanks to the awesome writers who shared their ideas):

- Just do it. Accept that there’s no perfect time or place to write, and get on with it already. If you wait until you find the perfect circumstances, you’ll never get that book written.

- Get out of the house. Go to a cafe or library, or even borrow someone else’s apartment or office — often you’ll be most efficient when you’re away from home and the distractions of pets, kids, partners, bills, the TV, etc.

- Allot a certain amount of time each day for writing, and stick to it. You may have to arrange child care, take yourself to another location, wake up earlier, or go to sleep later — but if you make this commitment, you’ll see results. If you can’t fit in three hours of writing, start with an hour — even twenty minutes is a good start. The important thing is to get started.

- Keep a running idea file. I spoke to a friend last night who works 12-hour days in a job that offers her fantastic material — but by the end of the day, she has no time or energy to write. The simple, immediate solution: Keep a notebook. If you find that your daily life doesn’t allow time for developing stories or outlining your novel, at least be sure to jot down all your ideas, all the great snippets of dialogue you overhear, all the sensory details you notice in a day. When your schedule allows, you’ll have a deep well of material to draw from.

- Write any time the mood strikes you. The notion that a writer needs to chain herself to the desk in order to get the work done is a popular one … but it’s not necessarily the only way. Sometimes ideas need to simmer; sometimes plotting out a novel takes thinking, not typing. So allow yourself the freedom to write when you’re inspired rather than sit at the computer trying to force it; you’ll save time and avoid lots of frustration.

- Above all, clear a space. You don’t need a home office, a b0ok-lined library, a sound-proofed room — all you need is a small and uncluttered space that will allow you to focus on your writing, and nothing else.

Are you still reading this? Go. Write.

While most writers know that book titles can’t be copyrighted, we have yet to see another Moby-Dick or Gone with the Wind. What’s far more common, as this site shows, is using same cover art for many different books.

Doesn’t every writer love a good malapropism? This NY Times article reminded me of my days living in Taipei, when I’d encounter various bizarre English translations. Visitors to Shanghai won’t be able to enjoy similar mistakes much longer, thanks to the Shanghai Commission for the Management of Language Use, which is fixing everything from menus to street signs. So long to menus listing “monolithic tree mushroom stem squid” and restroom signs reading “urine district.” Check out the Times slide show for a few hilarious examples, including the one below.

Speaking of being lost in translation: From Jhumpa Lahiri to Chuck Palahniuk to Donald Barthelme, authors’ names are often mispronounced with such authority that soon even the correct pronunciation sounds wrong. Click here for a guide.

I rather enjoyed this Life magazine slide show entitled “Famous Literary Drunks & Addicts.” If nothing else, it made me feel pretty healthy by comparison.

Having trouble jump-starting your latest story? The American Book Review lists the best 100 first lines from novels here … it’s inspiring, if a little intimidating.

And finally — and definitely inspiring — is this blog from Alan Rinzler on finding courage as a writer, with such advice as not being afraid to talk to yourself, to let things simmer, and to start over.

Enjoy.

I (finally) saw the film Up in the Air, and as I watched it with my Midwestern husband, I learned a few interesting things. One, that the wedding scenes’ “rural Wisconsin” hotel was actually the Chesire Inn in St. Louis. Two, that George Clooney’s character’s “Omaha, Nebraska” apartment is actually in the Mansion House, also in St. Louis. And three, that the Vera Farmiga character’s “Chicago” brownstone is also, yes, in St. Louis (right down the street from my brother-in-law’s house, in fact). Had I not been sitting with a St. Louis native, I’d have known none of this — other than that Lambert-St. Louis International Airport did play itself in the movie (though, as this article notes, it also served as a setting for a few other airports as well).

Of course, not everyone picked up on (or cared about) these little details — and we all know that film crews go where the locations are cost-effective and convenient. As writers, though, we really have no excuse for misrepresenting place in our writing. Watching Up in the Air reminded me of the workshop I did a couple of weeks ago at Warwick’s, at which we talked about, among other things, this very issue — how best to write accurately about place, especially knowing that somewhere out there, a reader is going to know if you’re trying to fake your way through it.

The best option for a writer is to visit the place about which you’re writing — but, like filmmakers, we too have budgets (and they’re usually a lot smaller). But if you can’t visit a place, you can always interview someone who’s from there; you’ll probably find all that you need, and more. When I began writing the story “First Sunday” (which appears in Forgetting English), I’d never been to the Kingdom of Tonga and had no hope of visiting any time soon. So I did some research on my own and also called and nagged my sister for information, translation questions, and random fact-checking. She’d lived in Tonga for two years and not only helped make sure my story was accurate in terms of setting and culture, but she also gave me a few ideas that helped shape the story — ideas I’d never have gotten from doing book or Internet research alone.

While no writer will please every reader (especially when each person’s experience of any one place can vary widely), I think we should strive to be as accurate as possible with our settings.

So if you are able to visit a place in person, here are a few tips…

- Take a ridiculous amount of notes. You will always want to have far more information than you can use.

- Take photos. Yes, you’ll look touristy, but places fade from our memories faster than we think. And having such “visual” notes will come in handy later.

- Talk to people. If you plan on writing dialogue, which is likely, you’ll want this to be as accurate as your details. Every region has a local dialect of some sort; every place has nicknames for landmarks, shops, taverns, etc. Find out what they are.

- Visit a museum. Even the smallest of towns may have a history museum, a historical society, etc . — check them out. You might discover wonderful ideas that will add layers to your story.

And if you still worry that your details aren’t adding up to an accurate portrayal? If you’re writing fiction, you can simply create a fictional place. This is a great option, especially if what’s happening in a story is less important than the place itself. For example, in my fictional world, Seattle now has a hospital called “Bayview Medical Center” because I found myself needing to set a scene in a hospital and didn’t want to worry about the details (what neighborhood? how many floors, and on which one is the ICU? and on and on…). So with my fake hospital, I can focus on the characters and what’s going on in the scene rather than worrying about a doctor or lab tech reading my story years from now and wondering where I got all my bad info. And who knows … maybe it’ll seem so real that one day someone will ask where it is — like the woman on 6th Avenue last week who asked me for directions to “Seattle Grace Hospital” (anyone who’s seen Grey’s Anatomy will know why this was amusing).

Happy researching … and/or creating.

This weekend, spend some time outside (if possible — I know “spring” doesn’t always mean good weather; but you can also do this exercise by sitting in a cafe, pub, etc., as long as you’re near a window).

Write two pages about a stranger you see — on the street, in the park, near you at the movies, etc.

The idea is, whether you’re working on a novel already filled with characters or whether you’re starting a new piece from scratch, it’s great to take some time to observe those around you. So pick someone and start writing. Begin with a physical description of this person, then fill in his/her background as you imagine it. Envision what this person was doing in the place and time you saw him/her, and write about why. If you’re immersed in a writing project, see if there’s any room in it for this new character — and if not, see if this person (and your observations) leads you into a new story.

Enjoy.