Wed to the Research: How Wrong Facts Made My Story Better

For writers, research is as much a fact of life as death and taxes.  Whether your novel is contemporary, historical, suspense or just plain ol' fiction, there will always be some fact that needs to be confirmed or debunked.  Even theories and beliefs you have that seem right, that you are certain are acceptable, are not always accurate.  (Those crime shows on TV? Not always accurate! I know, shocking.)

So how do you face facts when they make your plot improbable, or worse, impossible?  

When I started writing Something About Her, I had the plot all worked out: My heroine and hero would be at odds over property she owned.  She would dig in her heels to keep her home, and he would arrive, full of pomp and righteous circumstance, believing he owned it.  Instant conflict.  So I began on that path, wrote about 180 pages and kept on going. 

Then I started doing a little research.

To my horror, I discovered that the setup I'd created wasn't just improbable, but it was completely impossible within the property laws of Regency England.  There went my plot.  It is never easy to see 180 pages go down the drain, but at that point, I didn't see a way to salvage the story I'd written.   Anyone who knew anything about Regency England would know my story was…well, a bunch of malarky.  And if I couldn't believe in my story, how could I ever expect an agent or editor to get behind it?

But I still loved the characters and believed they had a story to be told.  But since my plot hadn't proven possible, I needed to know what was possible.  That meant learning more about the time period before I wasted another 180 pages.  I bought books, visited websites, and joined the Beau Monde (Regency focused) chapter of Romance Writers of America (RWA).  (Being the lover of history I am, this wasn't exactly a hardship.)

At first, I focused on property laws and inheritance laws, determined to find a way around the facts to make my plot work.  The premise of my book had been my heroine, Blythe, lived in the house she'd inherited upon her husband's death.  First impossible plot fact #1.  Women did not inherit property back then and once a woman married, anything she "owned" automatically became his propery.  But I needed that house to be hers. 

I discovered something called an estate in tail female special: which meant the property in question would descended from a specific couple to the daughters of that line.  Definitely plausible.   However, once I established that, I knew that the conflict between my hero and heroine would last about one scene.  If it was absolutely her property, she'd show him the paperwork and then the door.  The quickest romance novel ever written.

However, one character – Blythe's deceased husband – kept popping up in my head.  He was causing trouble somehow, I just knew it.  The problem with that is that he was dead.  Still, he demanded more.  (And right about now, you writers are nodding your head, understanding the peculiar affliction of characters talking in your head and my family and friends are wondering how they never realized how crazy I am.)

Once I latched onto Thomas's need to be part of the plot, I had an entirely new story…a better one, a stronger conflict and tons of romantic angst for my hero and heroine to go through.  How will Blythe and Michael ever manage to get past the obstacle of a living husband (a villainous one, to boot!)?

I had to delete one hundred and eighty pages and start over.  But once I did, the story came to life.  (And it was so much fun to write!)  Something About Her – coming soon from Wild Rose Press – is the novel it became. 

So do your homework.  Check your facts.  And even if something is wrong, listen to those nagging thoughts in your head that suggest something different, something better.  You never know where it can lead.