Some books and articles take a great deal of research; others draw more on your own experiences. Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, however, you need to become knowledgeable on your subject. It is vital to get your facts right and to have every detail accurate.
You can lose your credibility with your readers if they find a silly mistake. In the working manuscript for my book, You Start with One, I had alligators sunning themselves on the river bank. A biologist informed me that there are no alligators in Sri Lanka. I changed it to crocodiles before the book went to press. Also, a name that ended in “a” I had for a girl was actually a boy’s name. An Indian college professor corrected that error—also before publication.
Be particularly careful when you are writing historical fiction. Following are some errors found in books:
1. A World War II novel mentioned a German Shepherd dog in France. The problem is that on the continent, people don’t refer to them as German Shepherds; they call them Alsatains.
2. A woman felt along the wall until she found the light switch. Then she turned it on. This ministry was set in 1922, before wall switches were invented.
3. A biography about a little boy in 1934 stated that when he got a few pennies, he bought a package of Bazooka bubblegum. The problem is that Bazooka is a World War II instrument developed in the ‘40s.