Learn from my mistakes

In this entry I would like to stress the importance of doing research BEFORE you start writing your story. Especially if the story is historical.

This sounds like common sense. And it is. But apparently I don’t have any common sense.

I have been spending months writing a story set in Alabama in the 1950s that tells a love story between a black man and a white woman. I started writing the story whilst studying American history in school and apparently decided that no further research was necessary because school books obviously teach you everything.

I came back to this story a few years later and tried to improve it. It was only after I had been working on it for a few weeks that I realised that my characters go on two dates in two different restaurants in Alabama.

There were no integrated restaurants in Alabama in the 1950s.

In fact, it was fairly impossible for a black man and a white woman to have any kind of relationship in Alabama in the 1950s. Which pretty much ruins the entire premise of my story.

I’m going to try and not to let that put me off the story. I will have to change a lot. I’m thinking maybe the characters can just bump into each other on two separate occasions and share a romantic experience rather than going on a date. If you have any ideas I would really love to hear them.

So anyway, just a short one from me this week. I just thought I’d share my stupidity with you so you can learn from my mistakes.

Thanks for reading!