When No One's Watching

One of my treasured books gifted to all faculty members by the school principal of Northern Lincoln Elementary where I finished my teaching career in the third grade trenches was 'What Teachers Do When No One is Looking' by Jim Grant and Irv Richardson. I can attest that most teachers unselfishly contribute after-school hours and money to make a difference in the classroom—when no one is watching. Scrounging yard sales for materials and attending seminars barely scratch the surface.

Which brings me to the career I embraced shortly after retirement—that of a self-published Indie author who wishes more people were on the lookout for my books and making a mad dash to acquire them.

Nevertheless, I thought I’d share the nature of this week’s writing sessions for my WIP in the genre of Contemporary at the juncture of part 2, chapter 21 which delves into my protagonist’s past—when no one’s watching:

RESEARCH

Incorporating elements from my native state of Rhode Island in my novels, and priding myself in blurring the lines of demarcation between fiction and fact, hither and thither I go:

*To St. Mary’s Academy – Bay View in Riverside, RI – the prestigious, all-girls Catholic school attended by my protagonist.

*To Borders Farm in Foster, RI – the location of an old farmhouse built in 1849, surrounded by several fields with stone walls and fences—the setting for chapter 21.

*Which led me to reading up on “stone walls” just as my protagonist did prior to sketching one at Borders Farm. When the glaciers melted across New England, they randomly dumped millions of granite and gneiss rocks. Their hardness and durability made them the optimum choice for building walls on farmland.

What I’ve shared with you while no one was watching, is just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re a writer, you already know that.

For a writer, leaving no stone unturned glorifies “the end” of a story.

*When no one’s watching, what are you researching?