I need help with my novel! Any advice welcome

Last of the Summer wine,but nautical,could be a winner,pleanty of scope for decaying glassfibre boats and their owners dressed in Helly Hansen tatty gear constantly dreaming of that trip......
 
boatingnovice said:
Hi, I am writing a book currently, part of which takes place on a boat in New Jersey. I need the characters to be in an old (1970s era) wooden boat that has a lot of character. I'm thinking it was once a boat used for commercial fishing and maybe also took fishing parties out on day trips to supplement the owner's income. Also, and this is really important, one of the characters now lives on the boat full time. I need the living quarters to be down below (that's about as technical as I'm able to get when it comes to boats!)

As you can probably tell, I know nothing about boats. NOTHING. I did a little research and was thinking maybe a crabbing boat would do, since blue crab are plentiful in New Jersey. I just don't know what sort of boat to research so that my narrator can sound at all like he knows what he's talking about!

Any advice you good people could throw my way would be a massive help.
Click to expand...
My boat is a 1976 wooden boat with plenty of accommodation below. This was the second boat built of several to a similar design. The first design was originally intended as a small cargo boat for the Caribbean but was never actually used as such. My boat was used to take divers out for many years. It is based at Dartmouth and I would be happy to show you around it to give an impression of how you would live aboard.
comments about languagè are correct but easy to get someone to sort that out.6CAB29F6-E1F5-4715-90FF-D01677E9CA2B.jpeg
 
I knew your character,lived on an ex mod pinace propped up in the marina,although it had been propped up the props on one side had sunk in so everything was at an angle,No quite full headroom but a comfortable single mans den.Manyan afternoon passing the time on relived voyages that became rather repetitive,Still he looked the part with his long beard and dirty clothes.The favorite topic of conversation was his dream of going through the French canals,but before that there was major work needed on the keel and decks and the seams of the double diag where opening.......
 
boatingnovice said:
Hi, I am writing a book currently, part of which takes place on a boat in New Jersey. I need the characters to be in an old (1970s era) wooden boat that has a lot of character. I'm thinking it was once a boat used for commercial fishing and maybe also took fishing parties out on day trips to supplement the owner's income. Also, and this is really important, one of the characters now lives on the boat full time. I need the living quarters to be down below (that's about as technical as I'm able to get when it comes to boats!)

As you can probably tell, I know nothing about boats. NOTHING. I did a little research and was thinking maybe a crabbing boat would do, since blue crab are plentiful in New Jersey. I just don't know what sort of boat to research so that my narrator can sound at all like he knows what he's talking about!

Any advice you good people could throw my way would be a massive help.
Click to expand...
How about using one of the German windfalls. These were yachts acquired from the Germans after world war 2. i know one was around until the 70s and called Merlin and based at HMS Hornet in Portsmouth. gives it an interesting background.
 
It's often things outside the author's experience that spoil books.
I started to read a novel which involved a family sailing a classic yacht from Chesapeake to Bermuda. The author apparently knew a bit about sailing, used the right jargon and it had an authentic feel. But then they started the trip which was going to take 6 or 7 days. OK, but they anchored every night and went to bed.
I lost interest after that.
Get someone to proof read the plot!
 
dulls said:
How about using one of the German windfalls. These were yachts acquired from the Germans after world war 2. i know one was around until the 70s and called Merlin and based at HMS Hornet in Portsmouth. gives it an interesting background.
Click to expand...
A good idea. For example, Marabu, which I sailed on in the 1980's briefly. "Liberated" by the Royal Engineers, or so the story went. Lots of character.
News of Windfalls | The yacht Marabu
 
boatingnovice said:
Hi, I am writing a book currently, part of which takes place on a boat in New Jersey. I need the characters to be in an old (1970s era) wooden boat that has a lot of character. I'm thinking it was once a boat used for commercial fishing and maybe also took fishing parties out on day trips to supplement the owner's income. Also, and this is really important, one of the characters now lives on the boat full time. I need the living quarters to be down below (that's about as technical as I'm able to get when it comes to boats!)

As you can probably tell, I know nothing about boats. NOTHING. I did a little research and was thinking maybe a crabbing boat would do, since blue crab are plentiful in New Jersey. I just don't know what sort of boat to research so that my narrator can sound at all like he knows what he's talking about!

Any advice you good people could throw my way would be a massive help.
Click to expand...
There are two or three ways you can go. Write it as you want it to be. Film makers often care little about detail, historical or otherwise, and just put something together that makes a great story.
Some put together pretty good detail, but take the storyline off in the way they want to go. A third set spend decades researching the detail they want.
At the moment I'd say you are in first category, and just get the storyline together, then test if any of the details matter to the story.
 
boatingnovice said:
Hi guys, thanks for your replies. I hope nobody took offence to my question. It wasn't my intention to make this sound like something you can learn in a couple of sentences!

The character who lives on the boat is more of a peripheral character, so we won't see him out on the ocean too much. It's more the fact that he now lives on a boat that was once used for fishing. I want him to live at a marina, surrounded by more modern boats so that his old, worn wooden boat sticks out like a sore thumb.

But I'm not even sure if that is plausible (???)
Click to expand...
An old worn, wooden boat is not likely to be in a marina. Marina's are expensive to live in full time.

Personally, I'd leave out the detail unless it's key to the story and let the reader's imagination fill in the detail. Literal details are dull as anything to read, and I usually think are just thrown in to show off the author's knowledge or experience (if any). Focus on other senses such as smell, feel and sound. They all make up the sensation of being on a boat. I'd rather imagine what the boat's like than be told descriptively.
 
srm said:
I did once get credited as a 12 century nautical consultant for a novel. The author would tell me what the plot and characters required while on boats (as passengers) and I built up a likely description of what they would see and hear in the situations, taking account of winds, tide, geography, type of boat and its handling etc. The author then re-worked my information to fit the writing style. The novel was set in an area I had sailed and knew well.
Click to expand...
Your hired.
 
boatingnovice said:
Hi guys, thanks for your replies. I hope nobody took offence to my question. It wasn't my intention to make this sound like something you can learn in a couple of sentences!

The character who lives on the boat is more of a peripheral character, so we won't see him out on the ocean too much. It's more the fact that he now lives on a boat that was once used for fishing. I want him to live at a marina, surrounded by more modern boats so that his old, worn wooden boat sticks out like a sore thumb.

But I'm not even sure if that is plausible (???)
Click to expand...
Read some of Bernard Cornwell's yachty novels, they feature a 'Lord' living on an old sailing boat, with little money - he earns by mending other boaty stuff.
 
boatingnovice said:
Hi, I am writing a book currently, part of which takes place on a boat in New Jersey. I need the characters to be in an old (1970s era) wooden boat that has a lot of character. I'm thinking it was once a boat used for commercial fishing and maybe also took fishing parties out on day trips to supplement the owner's income. Also, and this is really important, one of the characters now lives on the boat full time. I need the living quarters to be down below (that's about as technical as I'm able to get when it comes to boats!)

As you can probably tell, I know nothing about boats. NOTHING. I did a little research and was thinking maybe a crabbing boat would do, since blue crab are plentiful in New Jersey. I just don't know what sort of boat to research so that my narrator can sound at all like he knows what he's talking about!

Any advice you good people could throw my way would be a massive help.
Click to expand...
When writing a book start with writing THE END - then you know where your narrative is going.
 
I have just downloaded the Kindle version of Joshua Slocombe's book "Sailing alone around the world". I first read it years ago - a seriously formative influence and an essential sequel to Swallows and Amazons. I had forgotten how well written and how gripping it is. A wonderful description of voyaging in a small yacht.

In so may ways it all starts here ...........
 
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