Meredith Mansfield, Author

In my last post, I blogged about asking on one of my writers’ groups for someone who knows about sailing to read excerpts from my current WIP, THE BARD’S GIFT, and give me feedback on the sailing stuff.

Even though I’d done a lot of research before starting this story, there are some things that are just hard to come by in book (or internet) research. My main concern when I asked for help was certain innovations one of my characters (whose main quality is his inventiveness) made. Were they believable? Or would they be embarrassingly stupid?

I got that, but I also got so much more. Some of the sensory details that I wouldn’t ever have thought of. There are a lot of things I can convincingly describe. The sounds of a wooden boat or ship in a storm aren’t among them. And those details will enrich the story so much.

Now, there are a lot of places I might have gone to ask those questions. But, probably only another writer would have realized the importance of the sounds and other sensory details that my character would be subjected to.

Glad I asked.