The Devil is in the Details II: an afterthought about research and list-making
Written by John Erianne on August 10, 2008 – 2:45 pm -In regards to that neo-noir novella I mentioned the other day — here’s why is always important to do you homework and why list-making can sometimes help:
The other day I was going over the first chapter and realized I made a big mistakes. See, the opening of the story is set in Laughlin, NV. The protagonist works in one those Laughlin hotels and casinos as a dealer. The hook is that the guy runs afoul of his shady boss and has to skip town. The problem is that the “hotel” in the story is really a just a whorehouse with onsite gambling. The problem? I must’ve been so worked up over the idea when writing about the place that I forgot an important detail: Laughlin is in Clark County. So now I’ve got to make a choice — move the whorehouse to another location or turn the brothel into a regular hotel/casino and leave it in Laughlin.
And that’s why it’s important to do your homework. And if I’d made a list of items that would remind me to do my homework — say a list of Nevada tourist sites or a list of brothels, I wouldn’t have to do so much rewriting and would have save myself more time in the long run.
