ENVIRONMENT, TIME PERIODS, RESEARCH, AND ADVANCING YOUR PLOT

ENVIRONMENT

No matter what the genre of your fiction novel, it must take place somewhere. Characters cannot just be floating in midair throughout, unless your novel takes place in outer space. Even then, there must be an environment of some sort even if your characters are floating around space.

The surroundings your readers will encounter within your novel must be as believable as your characters. Many books and movies in the science fiction and fantasy genre create places that really don't exist, but if the writer does his job properly, by the time a person finishes the book or movie, they may "wish" there was truly such a place.

As a writer, you want your readers to experience everything your characters are experiencing, so creating their environment is essential to your book. If your characters are in the North Pole for some reason, you want to make your readers as cold as your characters must be which means describing the environment in such a descriptive way that your readers must go for a blanket.

The key here is using your senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste. You can even use the sixth sense of intuition or gut which is something we've all experienced at one time or another where we "just knew" something. It is not necessary to immediately use every sense within the first paragraph. Space them out a bit. By doing so, the reader doesn't get the impression you are trying to "force" them into the environment of your characters. Instead, they step in naturally.

Two of the most forgotten senses are taste and smell. Make sure you use these upon occasion because it will make your characters even more believable.

There are two ways to create your environment for your readers. The first is to write out your description from a character's eyes of where they are in straight forward observation.

     Jack stepped off the private plane with Sally only one step behind him. The air was thick, almost visible, and smelled like the dusty roads they'd lived on in Iowa. Jack could feel beads of sweat forming on his brow and upper lip. The slight breeze moving his hair only managed to stir up the surface of the dry, packed dirt beneath their feet, immediately putting a coating of dust on his lips and throat making it difficult to swallow. The trumpeting of elephants could be heard off in the distance bringing clear the reality that they were far from home.

This description gives the reader full understanding of what kind of environment Jack and Sally have entered into. It's obviously hot due to the sweat beads, the dirt is dry and packed, yet still swirling enough dust to coat their lips and throat. Elephants in the background lets the reader know, if they didn't already know the destination of the plane, that the couple is somewhere that has elephants - possibly Africa or India.

The second way to create your environment is to weave it within the actions and dialogue of your characters.

     Jack stepped off the private plane with Sally only one step behind him. The air was thick, almost visible, and smelled like the dusty roads they'd lived on in Iowa.
     "Wow! What a temperature change this is," Jack said, wiping the back of his hand across his upper lip. "We've barely stepped off the plane and I'm already sweating."
     Pushing her damp hair off her forehead, Sally nodded her head. "You're not kidding. I'd say this is the type of place where a bad hair day is nothing out of the norm."
     Jack coughed, trying to clear his throat. "We'll need to find some place to stock up on some bottled water before we venture out there." He nodded his head toward the landscape in front of them. "We've only been here for five minutes and it's already hard to swallow. I can actually feel the dust coating my throat and lips."
     Jack watched Sally smile, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. "Now would be a great time to be a camel, but we'll have to settle for weighing ourselves down with bottled water," she said. Suddenly, Sally turned away from Jack. "Hey, did you hear that? Elephants!"

As you can see, though these two ways of creating environment are different, they both give the reader necessary information to continue their adventure with your characters.

You have, as a writer, the freedom to use both throughout  your novel, always keeping in mind that your readers must know where they are at all times. They must experience the environment your characters are in as though they are there themselves. This is what adds to the "believability" of your novel no matter what genre you have chosen.

TIME PERIODS

Establishing a time period for your novel is very important. Without some kind of time period, your novel would be incomplete because the time period is just as important as your characters, your environment and your dialogue.

Let's go back to the earlier example from the movie "Sleepy Hollow". The first scene you see is a man in a powdered wig (sets the time period) riding in a stage coach (sets the time period) who suddenly realizes that the stage coach is moving quite erratically. He puts his head out the window to discover a headless man driving the stage coach, panics, and jumps from the coach. You then see him running into a corn field (again, sets the stage - we know he's somewhere in the country) and coming upon a terrifying scarecrow with a pumpkin head. Suddenly, he turns around and you can hear a sword unsheathe, you see the look of horror on his face, and then his head is taken off. The next scene takes you to New York City in 1799. At this point, there doesn't seem to be any relation between the two, but the prologue has given you an introduction as to what the movie will be about.

As you can see, what was happening to the first character you are introduced to, as well as where he was in the scene and what he was wearing, gave an initial time period they were in, the words "New York City in 1799" were placed on the screen with the first shot for the next scene.

Throughout your novel, your time period should always be clear to your readers. Don't take the easy route and put the time period as the chapter heading. This should only be done if your readers will not be able to distinguish what is going on through your environment, characters and dialogue because the plot of your novel is very in depth. For instance, in the case of a novel about time travel where a character is constantly bouncing from one time period to another, it may be necessary to write out your time period in words. Still, if you use your characters, environment and dialogue well, it should not be necessary to name the time period specifically. You can, if you wish, do so just to be sure your readers understand, but should take pride in your writing to know that you believe your readers would know even if you didn't.

RESEARCH

There are many people who believe that research is not necessary if you are writing a fiction book. In fact, this is why many people attempt to write a fiction book rather than a non-fiction book because they believe it is easier and that research is not required.

Nothing could be further from the truth!!!

Even though fiction books come from the imagination of the writer, your time period, environment, characters and dialogue must be true to the time period you have chosen. The exception here is if you are creating your own world in science fiction or fantasy, then research will not do you much good as you will be creating a world no one is familiar with. In this case, you will have your own set of rules to follow.

In any other genre, however, research may be necessary from time to time. If your novel takes place in medieval times, you need to fully understand the dress of the time, the social network of the time, modes of transportation, types of weapons, places of living, etc. Readers of these kinds of novels know when a mistake has been made and they don't look upon this kindly.

If you are writing a western and have a specific year in mind, your cowboys must be dressed in the proper way for that time period, must carry the proper kind of guns; speak in the proper manner to men and women, etc. You certainly don't want to make the mistake of giving your cowboy a type of gun that is made today because your readers will pick up the mistake quickly. You don't want your cowboy asking for a type of liquor in the saloon if that liquor was never available in the time period you have chosen.

In the same instance, you don't want to describe your environment contrary to what your readers know. If you make central Africa lush and green with jungles, your reader will notice you have no knowledge of the actual continent of Africa and will put down your book immediately, never to pick it up again. If you describe the North Pole as warm, green and the perfect climate, you'll again ruin the readers' faith in you and they will not continue the book.

Don't just assume you know everything about a specific time period or region. Do research even if you "think" you are certain because it's better to be absolutely certain than to rush through your novel only to discover you have made a huge error.

The same goes for certain races of people. If your novel contains a character who is an Aborigine, you need to be certain you know how this character would dress, speak, his/her rituals, family values, etc.

Anyway, you get the picture. Accuracy is necessary in these kinds of details to make your book believable to your readers.

Research can be done in many ways. There is, of course, the internet which for most of us is the most easily accessible way to research. However, don't forget your local library which may have back issues of National Geographic magazines that often have studied various cultures and time periods.

Keep in mind also, while you're researching, that a certain sword for medieval times can be agreed upon by many sites or books you research, but maybe the type of hair piece worn is under debate. If this happens, choose one and stick to it throughout your novel. Do not try to incorporate both or many unless you can make it completely reasonable and believable to do so.

Perhaps you have a grandparent who lived through the era in which your novel is based around. Don't be afraid to ask them what times were like - there is nothing like firsthand description to bring reality to your pages. Keep in mind, however, that the firsthand experience also depends on what area your relative may have lived. Situations may have been different in certain ways across the country.

As an example of this, if your book is about WWII and based in Germany, then what you write about must be what Germany was like during that time period. You cannot write something that took place in the United States and have the setting be Germany because it would just not be correct. Circumstances in WWII were completely different in Germany versus the United States at that time.

There are many ways to do research and how you do it will depend upon the genre you are working in. No matter what genre you have chosen, remember it must be accurate to be believable.

ADVANCING YOUR PLOT

There are times that you will fall in love with certain parts you have written. When it's time for editing, the editor you choose, may put a note next to some of these parts with the suggestion to remove it from the writing. This is because it does not advance the plot of your story. If this happens, you must make the decision as to whether you wish to remove it or rewrite it - the end decision is always yours.

Everything you write within your novel must advance your plot in some way. The readers must always know that they are moving forward in reading. Repetitive actions or scenes do not advance your plot forward so you must really examine whether that particular area really needs to be there.

If you are wondering if something you've written advances your plot, read your chapter without that part and see if it makes any sense to you. If it works beautifully without it, covering all the necessary elements, then leave it out.

If your chapter is missing something if you take out that part, consider what is missing by asking who, what, where, when and why - and, in this case, how. This should allow you to see what may be missing. At this point, you can rewrite that part to make it fit well into the chapter and still advance your plot forward.

Another way to determine whether you are moving forward is to put yourself into the character's position. Imagine yourself as your character and doing what your character is doing. If what you are doing feels like a backward step or as though you are standing still rather than doing something to reach the goal then, chances are, that part is not advancing the plot and should be removed or rewritten.

Always remember, your novel must have a beginning, middle and an end. From the beginning, it must build and move forward to the middle. The middle, and a bit beyond the middle, is where the most exciting part of your book hits your readers. From that point to the end, it's filling in all gaps - explanations that may be needed for your readers and winding up the lives of your characters.