Into the Fire

I love the CSI television dramas. All three of them. I watch nearly all the forensic, FBI, and NCIS shows. Call me morbid if you like. I read mysteries, thrillers, and military novels, too. And someday, the Lord willing, I’d love to write a mystery. I have a plot, but . . . we’ll see.

Point being, we give some technical leeway when we watch films or television dramas knowing in order to condense a story down to the allotted timeframe, the writers take liberties with several areas. We understand this—to a degree.

For those of you who happened to watch Monday night’s CSI Miami, the episode cleverly titled “And They’re Offed”, I want you to know that it was so embarrassingly and technically off as to the realities of horse racing, it was a total sham. I will grant you the average person knows nothing about horse racing, but I can assure you that now: they know even less because this was such an amateur hour effort as to be unacceptable for a show of this caliber. It was inexcusable at this professional level. In short: a travesty.

If the research is too heavy to invest in the hours it takes to get the details right, bag it. Find another plot, different characters, whatever might throw off the credibility of your story should the reader stumble upon the obvious error(s). They won’t read your work again. At least I won’t.

A grand idea for a plot does not a story make. And if you’re venturing into unknown territory, you had better find out what you need to know. Some writers love to do research and spend almost as much time finding information as they do writing the story. When they do, they’re able to create a reality we easily accept. Their work shows up in the details and allows us an easy entrance into areas and circumstances we might know nothing about but because of the expertise of their sources, we trust what we’re reading to be accurate. If we’re familiar with their subject, we’re grateful to discover they’ve given us a seamless port of entry into their story.

For professional writers of TV dramas or novels to assume that viewers or readers are too stupid to investigate their claims or portrayals . . . well, the animosity created by such an assessment creates justified critics and alienates fans. Thinking it will go unnoticed is a foolish mistake.

Do your research!

Father, help us to write carefully and to do justice to the stories you give us. Let us not be lazy in anything we do, especially what we do to honor you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.