I Can't Travel So I'm Using Facebook to Research My Novel's Setting

I'm working on two novels. The first one is the book I've been writing, querying, and revising since 2010. I recently took a long break from that book for reasons I'll explain in a different post. In the meantime, I started a sequel to that book, which is the best friend's story and the most fun character I've ever made. She speaks her mind, is spirited, wears fun wigs because she wants to, and is an artist. She sees the world in a much more colorful way than the protagonist from the first book, so when I started writing the sequel, I realized how sorely lacking my setting was.

These books take place in San Diego, but from the first book, you'd think it took place in Small White Town, USA. So as I'm fleshing out the first draft of book two, I'm researching San Diego. Which meant, I even looked up round trip plane tickets just to entertain the thought of traveling there from my little Michigan city. But nope. Totally out of the question for me.


Since I can't travel, I'm using Facebook to learn more about San Diego. I wrote more about how I'm using Facebook as a research tool over on YAtopia, so you can check that out if you want. Thanks to this method, I learned that street performers are called buskers, and that opened a whole culture and new element I hadn't thought to incorporate in my story before. Every day, I pick up something new to bring San Diego to life in my books.




Thanks for reading! Check out my Facebook page for more bookish things.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

11 Character Priorities that Strengthen Your Writing (Plus a Free Printable Worksheet!)

Image
As I sat in my bathtub wishing I had all the time in the world to shave my legs, cook delicious meals, spend quality time with my friends and family, keep my house clean, conquer world domination, and rearrange my Yu-Gi-Oh deck, I realized I didn't have enough hours in a day, so I'd have to pick and choose. Pretty basic realization, but us overachievers can get carried away sometimes. We're only human, and we only have twenty-four hours in a day. The struggle is real. I'll have to push off world domination for another day because family time comes first. And then I have to decide between cooking good meals or cleaning...hmm, tough choice. And these are choices our characters should have to face too. After all, they're just as human and you and I. It's actually something you should put a lot of thought into when creating your characters. Why? Because...  1. It keeps our character's consistent. If a character holds their family in highest priority, th
Read more

A Very Hungry "Pitch Wars Boost My Bio"

Image
Blueberry picking with my little family!  Scene Scone In the background, my toddler yells, "Welcome to the Music Show!" and slams his little toddler fingers on a keyboard we bought at a yard sale this morning. "They cannot find it anywhere!" he sings. He's probably singing about us because our home is such a mess, we can't find anything. I stopped cleaning a couple weeks ago because Pitch Wars is near and I'M NOT READY. But I will be. Oh. I. Will. Be. My husband is playing Madden on the PS4, and we keep sneaking each other these looks of, "Isn't our spawn so cute and amazing!?" Now the juicy stuff... Favorite Juice Just kidding. No one cares. Jokes! But it's grape and apricot made fresh in my juicer if you really want to know. I'm that health-oriented person who uses a juicer and eats organic bananas because GMO bananas technically aren't vegan, and if that doesn't weird you out...I don't know what w
Read more

The Element of Danger Every Writer Needs

Image
You know those action scenes full of explosions, fighting, and all around danger that just...make your eyes glaze over? And then those other danger scenes that plunge you right into the action and make your heart beat faster like you're actually there? There's a key difference. There's an element of danger every writer needs to make danger scenes matter to the reader. Read about this element of danger in my post over on YATopia! Follow me on  Facebook  and  Twitter  for more bookish things. 
Read more