Why Do Research If You’re Writing Fiction? One obvious answer: unintentional errors will pull readers out of your story. Yet research has added benefits, sparking ideas for characters and plot twists. In this class, Linda Lovely, author of eight contemporary mysteries and one historical suspense novel, will discuss a variety of research topics and resources. While online sources and interest groups make researching easier than ever before, interviews with subject experts and people in the same professions as your characters offer nuanced insights. Lovely will also touch on how to guard against excessive info dumps. Just because you find stagecoach design details fascinating doesn’t mean your reader needs (or wants) to hear the details when the stagecoach is about to flip. Lovely’s class will cover both contemporary and historical research topics.

This interactive writers workshop will be held as an online video conference call through Zoom. Details for joining the video call will be provided to all participating writers after registering.

Aug 26, 6:00-8:00 p.m. on Zoom. Limited to 15 participants.

About our Instructor:

Linda Lovely is the author of With Neighbors Like These, the first book in a new HOA Mystery Series set in the Lowcountry. Her eight previously published novels include a cozy mystery series that prompted enrollment in goat yoga classes, a 1938-era suspense novel set that had her studying microfiche of newspaper ads for clothing and patent office drawings, and a contemporary thriller that launched pen-pal correspondence with Jamaican cave explorers. Her work has earned nominations for a number of prestigious awards, ranging from RWA’s Golden Heart for Romantic Suspense to Thriller Nashville’s Silver Falchion for Best Cozy Mystery. Lovely is a member of the South Carolina Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. For many years, she helped organize the Writers Police Academy. https://www.lindalovely.com/