Write what you know

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by springs1971

Mouse, on a practical note it's going to depend on the size of the premises and the likelihood of foul play. If it has several entrances and exits then you'll probably find them trading close to normal with a section sealed off. If it's a smaller establishment, it'll be more disruptive.

Also, if the only crimescene is a room that's easier to contain than if it's throughout the hotel.

The bottom line is they'll do their best to trade through it, businesses always do, so I would assume there'll be police,, some cordons etc, but not a closure of the business.

Yeah this is what I thought. You've read the reaction to the murder at the larger hotel in critiques - business as usual.

I've just started writing the murder in the smaller hotel and I've written it as having shut down the hotel for a couple of days.

I worked in a small country hotel (15 rooms when I started, then they had an extension built and added an extra ten rooms) and I'm trying to think what we would've done there. Pretty sure it would've closed.

We had stolen cars in the fields around the hotel being burnt out, and like I said, the silverware stolen, but that was it. And it didn't interrupt anything.

[springs]

25 rooms; I think they'd still try to trade. Smaller businesses will suffer more if they close, and unless police specifically tell them to, I doubt if insurance will cover them for loss of business. The show must go on, I suspect.

[AnyaKimlin]

Originally Posted by Mouse

I worked in a small country hotel (15 rooms when I started, then they had an extension built and added an extra ten rooms) and I'm trying to think what we would've done there. Pretty sure it would've closed.

We had stolen cars in the fields around the hotel being burnt out, and like I said, the silverware stolen, but that was it. And it didn't interrupt anything.

It wasn't a murder but there was an unexplained death in one of the hotels I worked in as a teen. It had fourteen rooms I think, and five or six of them were in an extension. The death was in the extension which had a seperate entrance/exit. We were able to keep the restaurant/bar open and three people chose to stay in the main part of the hotel.

[Mouse]

Thanks, guys!

[The Judge]

Originally Posted by springs1971

I think its the avatar, TJ, I was sure you were a bloke for about a month.

She's the Goddess of Justice! She's in a flowing gown! She's wearing a bejewelled coronet! She is not a flaming cross-dresser!

[springs]

Originally Posted by The Judge

She's the Goddess of Justice! She's in a flowing gown! She's wearing a bejewelled coronet! She is not a flaming cross-dresser!

Oops A legacy of too much Rocky Horror here, maybe.

[slack]

Writing what you know just means writing with unflinching honesty about one's experiences, and the emotions involved. Research is just facts, a way of grounding the story, establishing the dream -- more important is how truthful and observant you are within the world of the story.

[Toby Frost]

My own feeling is that you shouldn't write what you are likely to be caught out not knowing, which isn't quite the same thing as only writing what you know. Many people have been divorced: I haven't, and although I have a rough idea of what's involved, it's from the outside, and hence I would be wary of writing about characters experiencing a divorce from the inside. On the other hand, very few people have actually been in a gunfight, and, having read several very convincing accounts of gunfights (real and otherwise), I think I would be able to write one that would seem convincing to all but a few experts. Quite often, I suspect, it's the emotional elements of a novel that feel fake more than the physical ones.

[TheDustyZebra]

As an extension of Toby's point, I would say a lot depends on the POV.

If you're writing a detective or a medical person dealing with the body in the hotel, there's a lot more to be caught out on than if you're writing an interested bystander watching the goings-on. One needs details that the other wouldn't even notice or understand.

Sometimes it's the silliest minor detail that throws off your credibility. Last year I read the whole China Bayles series by Susan Wittig Albert (mysteries), and since I know little to nothing about herbs and such, her main focus is perfectly credible to me. But one little thing sticks in my mind long after the rest of that book has been lost to my terrible memory -- a character had a guinea pig that had babies, and they were described as ten or twelve little hairless things with their eyes stuck shut. I happen to know that guinea pigs have only a couple of babies, furry ones, with their eyes open, who start out eating solid food. A tiny bit of research would have uncovered that detail. And that's the thing I remember about that book, which is probably not what the author had in mind.

[Gary Compton]

Originally Posted by The Judge

She's the Goddess of Justice! She's in a flowing gown! She's wearing a bejewelled coronet! She is not a flaming cross-dresser!

Our Damaris is as much of a woman as her name suggests, and judging from her photos on her website - a very beautiful one at that.

You can lock me up anytime your honour or even being your man-servant for a month would be so rewarding

Happy New Year TJ

xxx

[MstrTal]

On the hotel thing I know its already been said, however, the Holiday Inn back in Pensacola FL is/was huge. They never suffered a death that I recall but they did have the top 3 floor eviserated by Ozzy back in the late 80s. The damage was bad enough that Ozzy was banned from the state of Florida for a decade. Every window smashed, door busted in rooms and hallway, walls busted out between rooms, every TV thrown down into the swimming pool, ect ect ect. The point being even with nearly half of the hotel unlivable they never closed down.

[AMB]

Originally Posted by TheDustyZebra

But one little thing sticks in my mind long after the rest of that book has been lost to my terrible memory -- a character had a guinea pig that had babies, and they were described as ten or twelve little hairless things with their eyes stuck shut. I happen to know that guinea pigs have only a couple of babies, furry ones, with their eyes open, who start out eating solid food. A tiny bit of research would have uncovered that detail. And that's the thing I remember about that book, which is probably not what the author had in mind.

Odd you say that, because my guinea pigs had larger litters, I think on average about four or five. So I googled it. Turns out they usually have between one and six, the average being three, but can have more. The litter size can increase in subsequent pregnancies. Wikipedia cites the Guinness BoWR that there have been litters as large as seventeen pups.

So if she made no claim on whether the size was usual, perhaps you can forgive her that bit. As for the other bit, it is highly unusual in rodents for them to be born open-eyed and furry, so she could argue reasonable assumption, but it really is info she could have picked up at any pet shop or care book.

[The Judge]

Originally Posted by Gary Compton

Our Damaris is as much of a woman as her name suggests, and judging from her photos on her website - a very beautiful one at that.

*wonders exactly what Gary had been drinking on New Year's Eve...*


I agree with TDZ about the POV character being important -- as Mouse has said, she can gloss over certain aspects by the victim-finder being ignorant of police etc procedure. But there comes a time when research is necessary, so best to do a little. The problem is when someone doesn't realise his/her own ignorance, as per the guinea pig problem.

Interesting what you say about divorce, Toby. I've never been divorced either, but I'd feel more comfortable writing about an emotional experience I hadn't suffered than about a physical one -- I think perhaps because I can imagine the emotions without needing to read about them, whereas imagining a gunfight which even approximates reality would be beyond me without a good deal of research.

[springs]

I came across this recently, by setting some of mine in a military setting, with no knowledge of the military. It was only rescued by someone much more knowledgeable proof reading it and telling me where I'd gone wrong.

It did take a bit of rewriting, - no more than a normal edit for me, though - but essentially the story stayed the same, because it was really the language and jargon - oh and the little detail of realism - that needed to be addressed, not the basic story.

So, I suppose it might depend on whether it's going to effect the outcome of the story line when you do the research?

[AMB]

I agree with TJ that emotional realism is easier to capture than physical. Actors do it all the time. The trick is to find an experience that put you in a particular emotional state and then play through the scenario you are attempting to create and filter it through what you know of the character.

Just as an exercise, take the divorce. For each spouse work out how they feel about the other and what their motivations are coming into this divorce. Then think of something that makes you happy, and play through from one of the couple's POV how they handle the divorce with this as their predominant mindset. Repeat with the other and in various emotional states. Eventually you'll find something that rings true for each.