On-the-Ground Setting Research

Whether you set your stories right where you live, across the country, or elsewhere in the world, you'll need to research your setting. If your story is set in a galaxy far, far away, I give you permission to make everything up.

Research for your hometown or somewhere else you're very familiar with takes a different shape, for sure. You'll need to decide how much to fictionalize in any real setting. Business names? Street names?

But let's pretend for a few minutes that you plan to set your story or series somewhere you are less familiar with.

Can you visit the setting?
If so, do it! Unless it is near enough to visit often, plan your trip carefully so you can be sure to get the information you need in one trip. If you're visiting in spring but writing a Christmas story, keep that in mind, too.

• Take a digital camera with an extra battery and an extra SD card. You definitely don't want to lose the capacity to record the details partway through your day.
• Take a lot of photos, including of signs. A recent one-day trip to Spokane, Washington, for my upcoming series resulted in over 300 images. Some of them were easy deletes when I returned home and processed them, but most stayed in the album. I often open this digital album when writing.
• Take a map you can write on, especially if you plan to use the setting "as is." Make notes on it!
• Close your eyes. Smell. Hear. Feel. These are important senses, and the information you absorb by focusing on them are much harder to get from online research. Make note of these in a notebook.

Can't go?
All is not lost if you cannot visit the setting in person. Online research is your friend!
• Google
• Wikipedia
• YouTube
• Google maps/street view
• Blogs
• Flickr
• Join a "local" FB group and read the listings.
• Contact the tourist info with specific questions

Know someone who lives there?
• Ask for a one-hour interview on Skype or a Google Hangout before starting to write. Ask what they like and dislike about where they live. Mostly listen, and keep good notes.
• Ask if they will beta read your story and point out setting errors.
• Ask questions via email during writing. Keep the questions specific so as not to waste their time.

I wrapped up my Farm Fresh Romance series in February with the release of the sixth book. For a few months before that, I spent time making decisions about the next series. I decided to create a spin-off series in an urban setting and, after much deliberation, chose Spokane, Washington. It is close enough both to the fictional setting of FFR and to where I live in Canada that I knew I could nail the setting.

I combed through Spokane on Google maps, looking for the right neighborhood. When I found a likely prospect, I switched to "street view" and went up one street and down the next, taking in the surroundings as much as the program allows. My husband was up for a one-day road trip, and off we went.

Thankfully the area was just as inviting in person as it had seemed in Google maps. We ate lunch at the neighborhood diner, walked along the river, climbed the sidewalk stairs from one street to the next, enjoyed glimpses of a fat gray squirrel and a golden-mantle marmot, listened to the birds sing, and walked amid the raised beds in the community garden.

All of these things became backdrops to Secrets of Sunbeams, the first book in my new Urban Farm Fresh Romance series.

Good fences make good neighbors.
Especially if your neighbor is a goat.
Eden Andrusek knows she should have fixed her fence last week. It’s too bad her runaway goat makes a less-than-ideal first impression on her new neighbor, who turns out to be cute, brilliant… and a little uptight.

Solar architect Jacob Riehl is furious when he returns outside to find a goat eating his presentation. As someone who likes everything in its place, he has little sympathy for a farm animal in the city or its tattooed owner, but there’s something about the lovely Eden that captures his attention.

What will it take to win over a man whose only pet was a goldfish? And how long can Jacob and Eden go without addressing the goat in the room?

Secrets of Sunbeams releases first in a multi-author box set, Whispers of Love, which also features a novel by ICFW member Marion Ueckermann plus ten other contemporary romance novels. If you haven't pre-ordered your copy of Whispers of Love, don't delay! The fantastic price of $0.99US is only guaranteed until July 4.

Click here for more information or to order for Kindle, Kobo, Nook, or iBooks.

Valerie Comer's life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local food movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily ever afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.


Valerie writes where food meets faith and fiction in her Farm Fresh Romance series and Riverbend Romance novellas. Visit her at ValerieComer.com.

Keeping a Series Organized

A little over a year ago, I blogged here about the joys of writing series as an indie author/publisher. At the time, Dandelions for Dinner, the fourth book in my Farm Fresh Romance series was about to release. The final title in the series, Berry on Top came out a few weeks ago. I have to say that expanding a three-book series to six has been a great success.

Organization of the project became a greater challenge with each additional book. I’d like to share the systems I used in case it might be a help to you as well.

Scrivener

I’m sure authors manage to stay organized without Scrivener, but I have no idea how! If you’re not familiar with Scrivener, check it out at Literature and Latte. They offer a free 30-day trial (counted by days you actually open the program, not a calendar month.)

When you create a new Scrivener file, you have two major sections: Draft and Research. In each of these you can nest folders and files as deep as you need, expanded or hidden with the click of a button.

In Draft, I keep a folder for the first draft of each novel in the series. This is where I actually write the novel. More plotterly types can create note cards and set up their outlines in advance. It turns out I am probably 90% pantser, so I just create a “document” in the book folder, name it Chapter 1, and start writing. I can easily keep the previous novels’ first drafts hidden while working on the current one.

In Research, I have several major folders: Characters, Setting, and Research. In the Characters older, I create a document for each of the characters alphabetically by last name (or first name if they’re a walk-on with no more detail). Then I can easily add a few notes as to who this character is, in case I want to use them again.

Major characters get considerably more, with additional documents nested under their names. These include an image copied from a stock photo site, their GMC (goal, motivation, conflict), their family details, anything about their history I need to know (hated math in school)… whatever kinds of things you might need to reference again later.

The Setting Folder is also somewhat self-explanatory. If you’re using a real place, you can copy/paste in maps, photos, etc, for quick reference. And the Research Folder contains many random things for the various books: how to make a house out of a grain bin, how dogs react to mouse poison… whatever bits you need for your books.

Scrivener is my key tool for organizing a series, but it isn’t the only one.

Character Spreadsheet

Long before I got to the last book of the Farm Fresh Romance series, I realized I needed another way to keep track of names, as well. I create an Excel workbook with two sheets in it, one labeled Male and the other Female. Down the first column, I place the alphabet. In the next column, I place the characters by first name. The third column is for the book they’re featured in, and the fourth, just a note about who they are.

The first two columns are the key, though. I am very careful to assign names that are dissimilar from each other. I use most of the alphabet (hence an ex-girlfriend named Yvette!) and try to vary the number of syllables and the shape and feel of each name. This is much easier to track in a spreadsheet than in a single column in Scrivener.

Maps

You always need a good grasp of your setting. With one book, you might be able to keep it firmly in mind. For a series, you will almost certainly need sketches and maps. I tend to draw quick layouts of the houses my main characters will walk through, a neighborhood map, and a larger scale map. These don’t have to be fancy, but having them will be a big help keeping you consistent.

Timeline

The timeline for a series is twofold: within the book, and within the series. I use different tools for each.

For the timeframe of a single book, I download and print out calendar grids for the months in which I expect the story to take place. I don’t place a lot of info in these, but do note where the chapters fall in the calendar to keep an eye on major holidays, pacing, etc.

I quickly realized I needed more help when looking at multiple books, though. There was a year between book one and book two, then two-and-a-half between books two and three. By then the couple from book one had a child. How old was she in book three? How about in book five?

I purchased Timeline 3D for Mac (I’ve heard Aeon is good for PC). This required me to pick an actual birthdate and year for each character. I have also mark graduations, weddings, and time spans, like for the length of each novel. Now I can always figure out how old each character is in the newest story and other longer term time details.

Within My Documents, I have a folder for each series. Within that live all the above mentioned pieces as well as anything else that is series-wide. Then there are also folders for each novel, containing folders for the audiobook, the cover in various sizes, the Word files (I compile from Scrivener to Word for my beta readers and editor), any blog posts for it, etc.

Yes, I do love to nest files! There is nothing worse, in my opinion, than searching the entire laptop for files you know you saved "somewhere." Setting up a system will save time and keep your hair attached to your head.

Have you written a series longer than three books? How did you keep organized? Let’s share tips. I may need some new ones, as I've just started writing the second novel in a spin-off six-book series, the Urban Farm Fresh Romance series. I love long series, and so do my readers!

Valerie Comer's life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local food movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily ever afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.