What You Know?

"Don’t write what you know—what you know may bore you, and thus bore your readers. Write about what interests you—and interests you deeply—and your readers will catch fire at your words." ---Valerie Sherwood

I love reading a good mystery. My brain thrives on them. I love watching them on TV, although it drives hubby crazy because I can usually figure it out by the end. I try to keep my mouth shut, but that isn't one of my strong points.

I'm trying to write a mystery. Reading them is much easier.

I know nothing about crime-solving protocol, and I already made a boo-boo in my first few pages. I've written enough that I felt confident about starting to post to my crit group. One person (*waves at Judy*) said that in a small town, the sheriff would probably call in the state investigation team because of a lack of local forensics ability. Oddly, the book I had just picked up takes place in a little podunk town, and starts with a murder... and one of the first things out of the sheriff's mouth was, "Call in the staties."

Gee... you mean they wouldn't keep a fully functional forensics lab even though there hasn't been a murder in town for the past ten years? Grr...

I'm a serious perfectionist and that really bugs me. And I'm terrified of other mistakes I'll make -- certain that there will be more. It's made it hard for me to move forward, but I'm trying.

Another issue was pointed out as being weak and fairly unbelievable as well, but I got some really great suggestions from two other wonderful people (*waves at Charity and Darcy*) and I think that part is fixable. Thanks you guys for putting up with my panic attack :-)

Just another day in a wannabe published writer's life.