Getting the facts right in fiction

[John Dean]

The central message of this blog may seem an obvious one but it's important to remember - do your research and get your facts right.

The reason is that it can be all too easy to go with what you think you know. As someone who worked as a journalist for 40 years, I know never to assume but I still do it on occasion.

As a novelist I know that one error can ruin a book for a reader. In one of my crime novels, I mentioned a technical point about the sabotage of an engine and a reader quite rightly objected in a review that I was in error.

It was a crucial part of the plot and I suspect he was thinking that if I had got that wrong what else was wrong in the book? The crucial trust between author and reader had been damaged.

Myself and my publisher The Book Folks changed the error immediately because we felt so strongly about it.

Why do I mention it now? Because I am writing the latest DCI Jack Harris which includes references to his military career before he became a police officer. I have to get it right and doing my research has revealed that some of what I thought I knew is not quite correct.

Doing my research - which in this case meant tracking down a brilliant book on the subject - should keep Harris's recollections accurate and the readers happy.