The Importance of Using Trivia

Do you know the significance of January 11th this year? Did you answer, "Of course, the date had all ones: 1/11/11." 

Well, that's true, but did you know, for the first time in recorded history, 49 of the fifty states in the U.S.A. reported snow on the ground according to Wall Street Journal 1/28/11 p. A3. The state refusing to join the group:  Florida.

Who doesn't enjoy passing along trivia to friends and family? The snow trivia appeared in a Wall Street article last week. Does that make you want to glance at the Wall Street Journal?

Sprinkling trivia facts in our novels could draw attention to our work. Here's how it works: one of your avid readers notices a trivia fact in a chapter. He responds, "I didn't know that." He calls to some person nearby, "Did you know..." The listener asks, "Where did you read that?" and voila, your book is promoted.

Places to tuck trivia:

1. Parties your character attends or gives. When there is a loll in conversation or perhaps a transition in need, slip in a piece of trivia.

2. Mysteries: need a red herring or old newspaper sitting around with the clue? Slip in trivia to keep the momentum.

3. A humorous interjection

4. An ice breaker.

5. Random thought by a character who is lost in thought or location.

Benefits to inserting trivia:

1. The reader enjoy the fact-trivial becomes the unexpected treat.

2. The fact brings validity to the character- using the snow trivia, I can have a murderer caught due to a footprint found in the snow in Louisiana

3. The fact brings validity to the date-using the snow trivia above, I can justify an auto accident due to snow in Alabama

4. The fact brings validity to the setting- using the snow trivia above, my character can be standing in Georgia and have snow on their shoes. (see pic above, Georgia snow on boots)

Here are two websites (there are more) with sample trivia facts:

from www.randomfacts.com:

**The IRS employees tax manual has instructions for collecting taxes after a nuclear war.

**Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952, but he declined.

**An airplane mechanic invented Slinky while he was playing with engine parts and realized the possible secondary use for the springs.

**An earthquake on Dec. 16, 1811, caused parts of the Mississippi River to flow backwards.

from www.nicefacts.com

On this site you can choose a date to find historical trivia for a given day, who was born on a certain day, quick facts, and silly quotes on this site like:

**On this date in 1935 - the lie detector 1st used in court - Portage WI

**If Manhattan had the same population density as Alaska, there would only be 15 people living there

**Young children can entirely regrow lost fingertips above the top joint, including the bone, skin and nail!

**Coffee beans aren't beans - they're fruit pits.

Long after you book is closed, the trivia you included will pop into the mind of the reader. Have you included trivia in your WIP?  How else could you include trivia in your writing?