Playing in Someone Else's Sandbox: Getting the Details Right

[dragonbat2006]

While an outline helps you create a framework for your fiction, research helps you flesh your story out. Your research will usually fit into one or both of the following categories:

• Canon


• Worldbuilding

Canon

Going back to our Gone with the Wind example from the previous post, if you’ve forgotten the names and ages of Scarlett’s two younger sisters, the location of Tara, or the name of the Wilkes’ plantation, these are canon details, which you can find in the source material (novel or film). If your source material is not accessible, most of the details can be found online with a little effort. Depending on the scope of your story, this may be all the research you need. It’s likely, though, that you may need to look a bit farther afield.

Worldbuilding

What sort of clothes did well-to-do eleven-year-old girls wear in antebellum Georgia, circa 1855? What sort of food was served at children’s parties? Were the parties structured—that is, would the children have played games, such as Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey, or would they have simply sat down to cake and ice cream? Would boys normally have been invited to girls’ birthday parties?

• Look at your outline. See whether you can identify any areas that you will need to research in greater detail.


• Divide your research needs into two parts:
  
  1. Elements which provide nuance and colour to your story, but can be omitted without seriously hurting your narrative.
  
  
  2. Information essential to your plot.

Returning to Scarlett’s birthday party, it would appear that the most important detail to confirm is whether it was common for children’s parties to be mixed at that time. If they were not, you have several options. These include:

• Ignore the historical record. Tag your story as an AU and write it the way you wish.


• Decide whether you want to tell a story about Scarlett’s birthday party or a story about her fight with Ashley.


• Determine whether there may be some way for Ashley to be at Tara, even though he’s not an invited party guest. Perhaps his father has some business to take care of with Scarlett’s father. He brings Ashley along because he wants the boy to start to understand what it means to run a plantation. Melanie can be visiting Seven Oaks, and Mr. Wilkes brings her along with India Wilkes, hoping that she and Scarlett may strike up a friendship. However, at some point, Ashley wanders off. He encounters Scarlett—perhaps the girls are playing hide-and-seek and Scarlett is “it”—and your original plot is back on track.

You can probably come up with other ways to resolve the dilemma on your own.
Details such as food, clothing, and party games are less essential to the story you’re planning to tell in this instance. If party dresses were typically muslin instead of cotton, if strawberry shortcake was more commonly served than chocolate cake, or if ice cream was more commonly served than cake, these are the sorts of details that can be easily corrected at any time. Remember that “unusual” is not the same as “impossible”. While it’s a good idea to try to get all the details correct, having a character wear a dress in 1855 which would not become the fashion until 1858 is far less serious than having Scarlett talk about the Confederacy at any time prior to December 20, 1860 (when South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union)¹.

In general, if you err with the sort of details that you can’t be reasonably expected to know, readers will be forgiving.

• If your characters are playing a popular arcade game after the game came on the market, but before video arcades in your characters' hometown would have offered it, even video game purists are likely to overlook the mistake.


• If your characters are listening to the Beatles on the radio—before storming the beach at Normandy in 1944, this is a bit more serious.

“Wait a minute. I’m just writing for fun. Who’s going to care if I get it wrong?”

Never underestimate your audience. Unless you are writing your story for a small group of friends and you don’t intend to post your work online, expect that you’ll be reaching a broad readership. Poor research can take a reader out of your story faster than poor spelling.

Many readers of fan-fiction are professionals: doctors, lawyers, police officers, scientists, librarians, historians and teachers. They are students doing their masters theses and doctoral dissertations on the historical period you’re covering. They live in the locales which you are describing, or have visited them. In short, if your writing contains inaccuracies, it’s fair to say that a portion of your readership will know. Whether they’ll care often depends on how easy it would have been for you to find the correct information and, in the case of error, how close to the mark you come.

Having your character live on 123 Any Street in Genericville, when the street numbers actually stop at 115 is one thing. Having Hamlet and Ophelia text one another on their iphones is something else.

When in doubt, check it out

The good news is, with the internet at your fingertips, research has never been easier. Typing your search terms into Google will often give you the answers you need within seconds.

Don’t be afraid to ask an expert. On the whole, the fan-fiction writing community is friendly and cooperative. There are message boards and communities that exist to help writers get their facts right. You may discover knowledgeable people in your circle of friends and family, or in online communities. Many people are happy to share what they know. And if you have an area of expertise, and respond to queries on these sites, don’t be surprised if other writers start seeking you out directly for help when they need it.

Note:

It’s not unusual for errors and inaccuracies to be present in canon, whether by accident or design. Think of the pseudo-technology used in The Flintstones, the beer cans in BBC’s Merlin, or the timeline in Xena: Warrior Princess—which placed the protagonists at the site of the battle of David and Goliath, at the side of Marc Antony and Cleopatra, in bard school with Socrates and Homer, and in the thick of the Trojan War!²

As a general rule, when canon and the historical record conflict, go with canon.

Quick tip:

When you come across a particularly helpful website, remember to bookmark it. Chances are, you’ll need to use it again. You might also want to print off some of the most useful pages or save them as PDF files, in case the site should ever be taken down.

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¹South Carolina in the American Civil War, Wikipedia, accessed June 17, 2012.
²Bobcat, comment on Yahoo! Answers online forum, What year was Xena Warrior Princess suppose to be around?, Yahoo! Answers, 2010, accessed June 17, 2012.

Comments

[biting_moopie]

Never underestimate your audience.

So very true.

Having Hamlet and Ophelia text one another on their iphones is something else.

I would read this fic.

I'm greatly enjoying this series!

[dragonbat2006]

I look at the people I've met online in fandom communities and count three lawyers, one paramedic who's worked in security and knows a good deal about firearms and ballistics, a support staffer for the San Jose PD, a former martial arts/women's self-defense instructor who also owns horses and currently works in a group home for developmentally disabled adults, an IT professional, an actress, a nursing home aide, a journalist, an urban planner, two teachers, a graphic artist with a degree in marine biology... and it hits me: if I mess up on the legal system, medications, etc... I'll be very lucky if only my friends catch it!

Glad you're enjoying!