Discipline is based on pride, on meticulous attention to details, and on mutual respect and confidence. Discipline must be a habit so ingrained that it is stronger than the excitement of the goal or the fear of failure. - Gary Ryan Blair
I had to get up early to take my niece to the airport this morning, and was itching to get home and write since I'd have so much extra time. I was reading about law enforcement agencies in a Howdunit Series book, and discovered that a sheriff would be located at the county seat and would not be an individual city elected employee. Since my investigator is a sheriff, I have to either: a. change him to a police officer; or b. Make my made up town the county seat.
The nearest county seat to where my made up town is located is Las Animas, CO. It has a population close to my towns: 2,758. So, I'm thinking that it wouldn't be too out of place to create a new county for Colorado, right? Geez... my next mystery is going to be solved without DNA and by some housewife somewhere who has nothing to do with cops.
This is a pain.
And now, I'm so far behind on my writing goal, I may never get caught up.
Speaking of caught up, do you suppose I'm getting too caught up in the details? Is anybody but me going to care about this? Am I stupid to want to be correct in even the small stuff?
What about you? How careful are you about making certain that the things that you write about are correct?
Off Topic:
Saw "Pirates" yesterday. It was okay. A little gorier than I liked, and I couldn't understand half the characters (especially voodoo lady with the smeared black lipstick) when they talked, so I know I missed some of the point of what was going on. It was kind of slow and they probably could have cut about 30 minutes and I wouldn't have missed it. Still, I'll go see the next one.
But this one was nowhere as good as the first. Too bad.
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iscovered that a sheriff would be located at the county seat and would not be an individual city elected employee.
I'm not sure that's true in all places. I may be misunderstanding what the book is saying, but I know in some of the places I've lived the sheriff has been an elected position.
As for making up your own county, writers do that all the time. I don't see a problem. :)
I get caught up in the small details, too. But I can't help thinking the one detail I fudge will be the one I get called on by an astute reader. :)
I couldn't understand half the characters
I hate that! It's why I watch a lot of my shows with the closed captioning on. I can hear just fine EXCEPT WHEN THE SOUND EDITING SUCKS. *g*
goals?? we don't need no steenkin goals!!!
Kidding, of course. But I haven't written in a week and I'm very frustrated by that.
I don't see any problem with making up a county. I'm sure its done all the time. I constantly make up things like that, if I can't find a real one to work.
Haven't seen Pirates yet. Its playing in our dinky little theater, but don't know for how long. Personally I can wait til it comes out on dvd, but my DH wants to go.
toodles (oh, btw, its friggin raining again!!!! What is with this???)
yxxrxeq-oh, not even on my best days..... *rolling eyes*
You might want to check out Karin Slaugher's books. She has set hers in Grant County, a fictional Georgia county. Here's a quote from her FAQ on her website:
"Is Grant County an actual place?
I totally made it up, though I have to admit that it's an amalgamation of the small towns of my childhood. I grew up in South Georgia, in a college town much like Grant, so I know the types of characters you'll find in this sort of community. The town is fictional because I didn't want people to write letters saying, "you can't turn left on Main Street!" but of course I still get letters saying that. I even had someone write to me to say that I'd used the wrong interstate to get to Grant County from Atlanta!"
Okay... so obviously blogger doesn't want me to leave a link that way. Here's the URL:
http://www.karinslaugher.com
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