The importance of reading in creating an author

[Wifetheif]

A while back Behind the Bastards podcast did a breakdown of conservative columnist Ben Shapiro's novel "True Allegiance" which was intended to be a "24" style anti-terrorist thriller but nothing works in the novel. Beyond Shapiro's bad grammar and lousy style, it's clear he did next to no research. He gets basic facts about handguns and weapons wrong, how the U.S. military works and how troops and officers operate. Shapiro failed as a Hollywood scriptwriter. The novel reads like the first draft of a novelization for a screenplay. It is oddly comical in weird ways. Shapiro who is a short man makes all of the good guys tall, muscular, and movie star handsome. All the bad guys are short. The book also has an astonishing amount of racism. In summing up the podcasters thought that the basic idea of the novel could work in the hands of even a moderately competent author.
"Behind the Bastards" summed up all the problems of the novel as being the product of a nonreader. Though Shapiro is a columnist and editor at Britebart, he has clearly a very limited experience with the printed page. He is familiar with the tropes from movies but is clueless on plotting, dialogue breaks, painless information dumps, and properly altering perspective and dialogue. He has worked in a conservative bubble since he was eighteen and has done essentially nothing with his life. As the podcasters pointed out, you don't need to know everything to be a novelist, but you do need to have at least lived a little to bring your experience to the page. You know from reading J.R.R.Tolkien that he was fully versed in English and European myths before he wrote TLOR. Dickens understood the class system of England, through personal experience. Shapiro's lack of knowledge and his unwillingness to even scan Wikipedia set him up to fail. His gapers are astounding, refering to a member of the National Guard as "Regular army" and the conceit that a Sergeant in the army has "almost no responsibility."
My point in posting this is twofold. Have you caught a major mistake too late? I know I've let some horrendous typos through and once I could not keep the spelling of a protagonist consistent. Those were learning experiences.
The other point is, do you use any of your unique knowledge in your works? A nonfiction book I wrote spawned an erotic story on L-dot about Shanghai in 1914.
Let's hear 'em!

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Have you caught a major mistake too late?

Mine was having a professional cook mention that a commercial wok burner is 30kBTU. They're more like 100kBTU. The worst part is that I totally knew that fact. Yet somehow I didn't catch my mistake until after the story was published. (T-T) I don't think many readers would have noticed, but I did.

I posted here about that and people came in with many stories of their own: https://forum.literotica.com/threads/worst-factual-error-youve-ever-written.1606170/

 

[AchtungNight]

I have written erotic fanfics of Metal Gear Solid, Pathfinder, God of War, and Star Wars Jedi Survivor. I played these games a lot in preparation and also read up on their lore online.

 

[VallesMarineris]

The other point is, do you use any of your unique knowledge in your works?

Oh, yes, I definitely do.

A good example is the current series I’m in the middle of publishing, https://literotica.com/s/the-secret-app-ch-01. It’s all about an AI startup. I live in the belly of the high tech beast and drink expensive wine with some of the AI people. I get to make fun of tech bros, VCs, nerds, billionaires, the whole menagerie. I could have easily put this story in the Humor & Satire category, except I’m a bit of ratings slut and the Mind Control aficionados are easy graders.

If you dip into my other stories you’ll find astrophysics, computer security, brain research, and other specialties. I think readers like to get a bit of “inside baseball” along with their erotica. I mean, there’s fucking, and then there’s fucking a nerdy-but-attractive researcher against the wall of her lab after she’s done an fMRI on you and literally saw what was going on inside your brain. Adds a certain energy and edginess to the scene that I like. I think my readers do too.

 

[Zootonius]

The other point is, do you use any of your unique knowledge in your works? A nonfiction book I wrote spawned an erotic story on L-dot about Shanghai in 1914.
Let's hear 'em!

I like to have my characters find they have things in common, usually over wine or a dinner before the mutual attraction ratchets up. And their likes in art or music tends to be mine.

I needed a subject for a story I just submitted. A college kid researching pre-world-war-one European politics, while the librarian's subject is the Third French Republic.

As for Shapiro, I can't imagine not doing any research on what you're writing. And I'm just an amateur!

 

[lustychimera]

Okay, now I kinda wanna read it.

 

[SimonDoom]

This thread raises two quite different issues.

One is whether it's important for an author to read a lot, say, of other fiction.

The other is whether it's important for an author to have real-world expertise or knowledge of subjects and to rely upon such knowledge in their stories.

I think both are important, although probably not essential for all authors.

If you have read a lot of fiction you are more likely to have absorbed and understood the basics of how stories work--characters, plotting, dialogue, good prose, etc. That doesn't mean you necessarily know anything practical to put in your stories, but you're probably going to be better at faking it.

If you know certain subjects well from your life, your hobbies, or your work, then you probably have things to add to your stories from that stock of knowledge. But it may be based on experience more than knowledge.

Both things--personal experience and knowledge and a lifetime of reading--figure importantly in my story writing.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Both things--personal experience and knowledge and a lifetime of reading--figure importantly in my story writing.

Yes, this; and a vivid imagination.

 

[EmilyMiller]

do you use any of your unique knowledge in your works?

A recent comment on Mors Immatura:

zvtran12 3 days ago
Great story telling! I really enjoyed how the story progressed, the very well developed characters that made the reader cared about what is happening, and what will happen. Also, as a medical scientist, I appreciated the "technical" aspects of the story. Thanks for a great read.

I wasn’t a medical researcher, I was a structural biologist, but - like the FMC - I’ve done a lot of tissue culture. I’ve not worked on the Spliceosome myself, but know people who have.

Emily

 

[Rob_Royale]

Well some of my characters are male and I myself am male. So lots of real world experience being male.

Also, I'm a U.S. Coast Guard vet and my MMC in my Aunt Tina series is USCG active duty. I was able to add some of my experiences to that story.

There's an old saying, "write what you know." It gives your work a level of authenticity that's hard to beat. In absence of that, a half decent attempt at some research is expected.

Especially in military details because there are so many of us that can steer you in the right direction.

 

[StillStunned]

I've occasionally drawn on my hard-won understanding of the female anatomy.

Other than that, mostly it's the skill of other authors that I've soaked up through decades of reading, and my own skill at structuring sentences and paragraphs from two decades of professional editing.

 

[THBGato]

The other point is, do you use any of your unique knowledge in your works?

Only my detailed knowledge of the Bristol (UK) road map and charity shop locations. (Or, how I remember them to be - it's been a long time since I lived there.)

I've occasionally drawn on my hard-won understanding of the female anatomy.

LOL.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I've got a bunch of scientists in the general field of biomedical research in my stories, because I've still not met a filthier bunch than researchers at a conference and they were just begging to be used in stories.

Ditto a civil servant in Image Nine Point Four, fighting Government attempts to ban 'extreme' porn. The story is fiction but the legislative processes and descriptions of Parliament, its buildings, and how the place functions are all true from my having worked there (with changes to simplify the plot and setting it in the future to avoid libel!)

Lots of Londoners. Guess where I live? Other geographic places I've been to - except Vegas, but the insides of one conference venue and hotel are much like another. I described the location of a field in Wales, and someone got in touch to say he knew it.

My characters include board gamers and BDSMers, they live in various buildings I know. They eat in places I've been to (often relocated) and when they eat at home it's often based on what's in my own fridge! There's enough that I need to create for my stories, though even then I often take the looks off someone I know or who has just walked past, someone else's voice, attitudes and experiences from a few others, and stir...

 

[HeyAll]

This doesn't actually answer the main question presented, but a lot of writing is how many techniques you know. The best way to learn techniques is going to the bookstore and browsing the newest titles. I love doing that at Target to see what's new and how authors write and setup the story.

 

[lovecraft68]

Just a hint of political bias in the OP's post.

 

[KeithD]

The other point is, do you use any of your unique knowledge in your works?

Absolutely. My readers know what that might be.

 

[KeithD]

The other is whether it's important for an author to have real-world expertise or knowledge of subjects and to rely upon such knowledge in their stories.

Or can tap into knowledge by others. Tom Clancy was an Annapolis, MD, real estate agent. He lived next door to an admiral teaching at the Naval Academy, though, with access to naval war game plans used for mock exercises at the academy. Clancy's initial books gained readership for technical stuff handed across the backyard fence to him. Later, when he got into his "do it all" Ryan character, he was almost completely separated from reality.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Clancy's initial books gained readership for technical stuff handed across the backyard fence to him. Later, when he got into his "do it all" Ryan character, he was almost completely separated from reality.

It seems to be a common trajectory for successful authors. They build their reputation by putting in the work to write quality stories (for whatever definition of "quality" applies, but in this genre technical detail is a biggie) but once they're famous enough to sell books on name alone there's less incentive for them to keep doing that work.

 

[KeithD]

It seems to be a common trajectory for successful authors. They build their reputation by putting in the work to write quality stories (for whatever definition of "quality" applies, but in this genre technical detail is a biggie) but once they're famous enough to sell books on name alone there's less incentive for them to keep doing that work.

Yes, and since I tried to work with him in his later days, I think it's worthwhile to note what Clancy himself said to me on this: "I have a buying audience for what I write. Why should I bother making it more realistic?"

 

[nice90sguy]

Mine was having a professional cook mention that a commercial wok burner is 30kBTU. They're more like 100kBTU.

I havta say, I would have definitely 1 bombed your story if I’d noticed that

 

[joy_of_cooking]

I havta say, I would have definitely 1 bombed your story if I’d noticed that

I thought so!

 

[Comshaw]

A while back Behind the Bastards podcast did a breakdown of conservative columnist Ben Shapiro's novel "True Allegiance" which was intended to be a "24" style anti-terrorist thriller but nothing works in the novel. Beyond Shapiro's bad grammar and lousy style, it's clear he did next to no research. He gets basic facts about handguns and weapons wrong, how the U.S. military works and how troops and officers operate. Shapiro failed as a Hollywood scriptwriter. The novel reads like the first draft of a novelization for a screenplay. It is oddly comical in weird ways. Shapiro who is a short man makes all of the good guys tall, muscular, and movie star handsome. All the bad guys are short. The book also has an astonishing amount of racism. In summing up the podcasters thought that the basic idea of the novel could work in the hands of even a moderately competent author.
"Behind the Bastards" summed up all the problems of the novel as being the product of a nonreader. Though Shapiro is a columnist and editor at Britebart, he has clearly a very limited experience with the printed page. He is familiar with the tropes from movies but is clueless on plotting, dialogue breaks, painless information dumps, and properly altering perspective and dialogue. He has worked in a conservative bubble since he was eighteen and has done essentially nothing with his life. As the podcasters pointed out, you don't need to know everything to be a novelist, but you do need to have at least lived a little to bring your experience to the page. You know from reading J.R.R.Tolkien that he was fully versed in English and European myths before he wrote TLOR. Dickens understood the class system of England, through personal experience. Shapiro's lack of knowledge and his unwillingness to even scan Wikipedia set him up to fail. His gapers are astounding, refering to a member of the National Guard as "Regular army" and the conceit that a Sergeant in the army has "almost no responsibility."
My point in posting this is twofold. Have you caught a major mistake too late? I know I've let some horrendous typos through and once I could not keep the spelling of a protagonist consistent. Those were learning experiences.
The other point is, do you use any of your unique knowledge in your works? A nonfiction book I wrote spawned an erotic story on L-dot about Shanghai in 1914.
Let's hear 'em!

First off let me get this rant out of my system. Anyone that says, or thinks that "a Sergeant in the army has "almost no responsibility" is a fucking idiot. Having been a Staff Sargeant in the Army and served in the National Guard after, I can say that ANY mission taken on by a unit and completed isn't because of an officer. Officers PLAN the things done, but rarely get involved in getting them done. The majority of times any officer above the rank of captain isn't going to be in combat, or even close to where the action is. There's many instances of teams functioning without an officer. One of the best on flim examples I can think of is the movie "Fury". The officers order it and the NCO corp gets shit done. Officers plan the war, the NCO's make sure the troops win the war.

Yes, having lived it I got butt hurt at the thought that anyone would think that. But it serves to illustrate that you either have to have lived it OR at a minimum educated yourself on how things are and how things work. Shapiro did neither, which is why this critic took him to task, as they rightly should have. Now that I have that out of my craw I'll address questions posed.

Have I caught major mistakes too late.
Yes several times. Not because I saw them but because a reader pointed them out and I realized I hadn't done the proper research to be accurate. The biggest one was in my story "The Ardennes". The first (and most embarrassing) was my misspelling of Sargeant. I spelled it Sargent. You'd think after all my military experience I'd learn how to spell it. Nope. I did a bigun there, at least to my way of thinking. The second was more obscure. Because of the plot my main character had to have been a member of the 1st Special Service Force unit in WWII and then get lost in the Ardennes.
From one of the comments on the story, these are the mistakes I made from lax research.
1) The unit was 1st Special Service Force and not 1st Special Forces.
2) FSSF never fought on Sicily.
3) The term Devil's Brigade or Black Devils came from ANZIO.
4) 2nd Rangers did not parachute into Normandy. They came ashore on Omaha Beach by boat to attack the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc.
5) 2nd Rangers did not participate in the Ardennes during Battle of the Bulge. They fought in the Heurtgen Forrest.

Now I could use the excuse "it's a fiction story!" but having been a proud member of the US Army it made me cringe that I didn't take the time to find the correct facts.
So yeah, major mistakes caught too late. And both were from plain laziness.

Do I use some of my unique knowledge in my work.
On that point I would ask, doesn't every author that has such knowledge use it in their works? I'm sure they do and I'm no exception. Having walked the planet for a year short of 15 lustrums and having lived what could be described as an "interesting" life I have a plethora of such knowledge. So I use it.

There are two other subjects I would like to comment on. The first is the opinion of the critic that: "...summed up all the problems of the novel as being the product of a nonreader."

Not necessarily. Some people just can not tell a story. Fiction writing has two parts: the skill of the actual writing, grammar, spelling, punctuation all those mechanical things that make it a good written work and the construction and telling of the story its self, which is as much art as skill. Just because Mr. Shapiro is a columnist doesn't mean that translates to being a good fiction writer. That's like saying someone who is good at technical writing can write the next great fiction novel. He could be a voracious reader, but not have the spark needed to build a good story. Fiction writing is not only a skill, but an art. And art isn't in everyone's soul.

The second is:"...you don't need to know everything to be a novelist, but you do need to have at least lived a little to bring your experience to the page."

I disagree. I will admit that those stories that are imbibed with some of the author's own experience can be (and usually are) much better. The best example I can think of is Jack London's stories. The man experienced many of the things he wrote about, which sprinkled his writing with a special flavor, one that could not be duplicated. However, for some, it isn't a necessary part of writing a good story. How many here at Lit have written on erotic subjects they have no direct knowledge of, yet write a great story?

Okay ya'll, I think I'm verbosed out. Time to sit back and watch for a while.

Comshaw

 

[MyBareTorso]

This was a very interesting piece from the OP, and subsequently a very interesting thread. I've really been enjoying the responses. I really do believe though that if you're a good enough writer, and you know how to research (*really* research), then you don't need real world experience to craft a believable, absorbing story. Of course, it helps, and may make it better, but I don't see it as a necessity.

 

[Paul_Chance]

LOL - I wrote a long reply and then accidentally deleted it. I always take that as a sign from the universe that I am talking out of my ass and just let it go.

I've never made a major mistake. I had a reader catch a small mistake in one story - I had the character staying at a motel in a small northern California town and the reader pointed out there were no motels in that town. It my early stories, my grammar, spelling, and word choices often poked readers in the eye. I tightened up my editing process by investing more time in it, but every now and then some word choice or grammar bug bites me.

Though I have had a long and varied professional career I've never written anything related to it. My lived experiences infuse my writing of course, they're just not the subject of my little Lit hobby.

 

[Tigersman]

Before becoming a volunteer editor, I submitted a story but had made one mistake Literotica didn't like, using dialogue from two different characters in the same paragraph. Instead of correcting the error, I became a volunteer editor. It was during this time I was informed by the author that if you have a character doing something, say like using drugs, you need to explain if the character did them previously or was this a first-time use. When I'm editing I don't just look for the normal stuff but take note of inconsistencies in names, places or mundane things such as the character's clothing or lack of a few paragraphs down.