Research for The Appearance of Truth
In any book where you are using a different time period than the present, one of the most difficult things is to make sure your writing is authentic. Even looking back to the late 1970s as I do in The Appearance of Truth it is very easy to misjudge how technology has changed.
Amongst the questions I found myself having to research for this book were basic ones such as ‘Did Mothercare exist as a brand back then?’, ‘When were pay and display car parks introduced?’ and ‘How common, if at all, was CCTV?’ They were all important considerations in the story. There were other important points that I can’t tell you about for fear of spoiling the story, but there were aspects relating the registration of births and deaths, and child benefit.
Impact on your Reader
If you don’t check your facts and inadvertently have a mobile phone in 1967 your readers will not only notice but stop believing the reality you have created, unless you are into time travel and science fiction. Good fiction writing is about helping the reader to suspend reality for the time they are in your world and taking them on a journey. If you aren’t careful, getting your facts wrong is like the author coming along with a giant pin and sticking it into your fiction balloon.
The Appearance of Truth is available HERE
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