As a wordsmith, I like to use accurate, authentic vocabulary/terms, appropriate to the profession and the time period. Sometimes this pickiness drives me nuts. An example: I learned I wasn’t using the proper term for an Army Major’s camouflage duds. I had the heroine gazing at a guy in a civilian parking lot in his “camo’s†(her words). Now, she’s a civilian who probably wouldn’t know what the hero and his Army buddies call the outfit. Still, one critic suggested I use the term ‘BDU’ for the man’s Battle Combat Uniform. A little research online gave me a long explanation of the history of camouflage uniforms for ALL the services. I come to find out that the Army has replaced BDU’s for ACU’s (Army Combat Uniforms).  Do the soldiers still call them BDU’s? Next question: Would a soldier wear a BDU/ACU as a ROTC instructor at a college? I download a 54 page document on Uniform Standards to tease out that answer. Still, I have to ask: Would a civilian know about BDU’s or ACU’s?  I sure didn’t, and I’m an Army brat!
Heavy sigh, here. I want to be accurate, but this is getting ridiculous!
Now comes the danger part. Readers enjoy local color, right? We like to be accurate about names and descriptions of places in order to please the local reader. Still, in the back of our minds, we realize that using real names could get us into trouble (liability, slander, etc.).  In some cases, we might need written permission to use a brand name in our book. What I’ve started doing to get around this problem is to make up names that are so much like the true term the local reader will know what I’m talking about. Cypress Ridge Estates becomes Cypress Crest Estates. Is that what you do? One of my stories required a radical, right wing group. I found real one online that scared the bejesus out of me. I changed their name in my novel a tiny bit, so tiny that if a reader Googled the name I used, they’d find the real group. Now I’m nervous the gang of 2,000 will come after me!
I’d enjoy hearing your take on accuracy in a novel and the principles you follow for using real names of places, people and things. Has anyone out there gotten into trouble for what you’ve written?
While you ponder that, take a look at FADEOUT and SWOON, from my Funeral Planner Suspense Series. Learn all about them on my website, but here are some tidbit teasers about SWOON: http://www.rolynnanderson.com
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“Don’t miss SWOON by Rolynn Anderson! If you like an interesting cast of characters, a heavy dose of mystery and a lot of fabulous surprises, you’ll be happily turning pages late into the night.Ë®
~ Brenda Novak, NYT and USA Bestselling Author of WHEN LIGHTNING STRIKES
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Her dead clients won’t rest in peace.
When the dead tell tales, Jan Solvang’s first reaction is to RUN! But then she gets caught up in their mysteries.
Jan’s a boutique funeral planner, new to risk, hired to bury a missing woman and memorialize an infamous man. Yet when she digs for clues to write their eulogies, she disturbs family secrets and unmasks killers.
Roman Keller, hard-driving documentary writer, is in complete control of his life and his stories, until he falls for Jan, a woman who trusts her dog, her faint-dreams, and her instincts more than she trusts him.
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Can they make the sacrifices necessary to cement their relationship or will the mayhem caused by the dead ruin their second chance at love?
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Great post…reminds me of the story about how Daniel Handler developed his Lemony Snicket persona. He used to use the name when he was researching similar right-wing groups and had to send for pamphlets and such. I wonder if it backfired once he had successful books published under that name!
Hi, Rolynn. I created a series around a fictional town in South Dakota. Bloomington. I know there is a Bloomington, IN. But there is also one in IL, MN, and CA. I set the story in the southeast portion of the state that looked very rural. I’ve never been there, but I used weather.gov to help authenticate the environment. You can imagine the fun I had naming the businesses in my fictional town: Pat’s Bloomin’ Pub; Bloomin’ Crafts & Gifts; Blooms and Florist; well, you get the picture. So far so good as far as trouble goes. Nice articly. kathy
I was in a critique group once and the story was being told from the point of view of a lady who was a diver. It became tricky because as a diver she (the POV) thought of everything in acronyms, but to the non-diver reader she had to think of things in the long-form so we knew what the heck she was talking about.
As a reader, I like to focus more on the characters journey and their story… I do not worry about an author having terminology wrong… I do find it interesting to see and find little things that do not match up though, but it does not stop my enjoyment of the book.
Trix, Kathy and Charlotte, thanks for your ideas. Good idea to use a common town name to get around the thicket…Charlotte, I agree. It’s tough to use lingo authentically when the reader doesn’t know the terms (same with acronym-filled Army terms). This is a hard job!
I tend to use real places and real group names.
The places in my stories are very real. I can show you photos of one character’s duplex, or the abandoned mansion the vampires have taken over or the cabin where a couple of guys went to get away.
You can’t avoid using real people’s names. I was reading John Varley’s _Millennium_ and there was my Girl Scout leader, serving as a liaison to United Airlines. And sometimes, I will call real people out by use of their names or descriptions (my pedophile uncle, my evil ex-stepfather, a certain homophobic pastor).
I’ve never had any trouble.
Hi, Roylnn! Since I currently write historicals, I haven’t run into too much trouble. I use both fictional towns and the real names of cities my characters visit. But I do research places to be sure of the names of real sites in the time period I’m writing in. For instance, Women’s Medical College, which existed in Philadelphia about 30 years ago, was called Female Medical College in the 1860s. But I did get reamed by a reviewer for having a character bake peanut butter cookies in one of my historicals when they weren’t made until the 1920s. Oops!
And since I’m starting an outline for a contemporary series, I’m considering fake names for towns and baseball teams.
Angelia, you are so darn brave. My publisher wouldn’t even let me use the real name of a WA US Senator who died years ago! I LOVE idea of calling out real people and organizations! Yay
Call me crazy, but I read a book that was set in Maiden, NC (just 20 minutes from my house). I walked through the pages of the book and then went to Maiden to see if it was accurate. No, I’m crazy enough to do it with places far off, but my hometown? Heck yeah!!
As a reader, my thought is if you choose a real place, be really accurate as far as the town goes. As a writer, I try to dodge the bullet entirely. By not choosing a real place, I can join up favorite or most interesting parts of other places and create my own world.
As for groups, I love your idea of changing them just enough to call them out without calling them out!
Kristyn, I think you are the kind of reader that makes me work hard at being accurate…so you’re right…if my place/name isn’t perfect, I probably should make up the place. Helpful hints! Rolynn
With the exception of using Philadelphia as a setting (because I live there), all my names of people and places are made up.
Great topic. My editor asked me to take brand names of of my book. The basics worked…Kleenex became tissue, yadda yadda yadda. Where it got tricky was the store Target. I wound up making up a name. I called it SuperMart. Was pretty easy, I just made up something that brought forth the same connotations. After all, it’s our job to make up stuff all the time. I will say my editor let a reference to a great B Flick slide. One of my characters says “Welcome to Thunderdome” and they laugh at the shared guilty pleasure. Come on, you know you smiled. Who doesn’t love Tina Turner as a Bad Ass.