Verifying that real-world details in your manuscript - dates, locations, science, cultural references - are actually accurate.
Fact checking in fiction means going through your manuscript and verifying every claim, detail, or reference that touches the real world. This includes historical dates, geographic descriptions, how firearms work, what medical procedures actually involve, and how legal systems operate. Even in fantasy and science fiction, readers expect internal logic and any real-world elements to be accurate. Getting the small things right earns the trust that lets readers believe the big things you invent.
Nothing pulls a reader out of a story faster than a factual error they happen to know about. A paramedic reading your thriller will notice if you describe CPR wrong. A historian will catch an anachronistic detail. You can't know what your readers are experts in, so the safest approach is to verify everything. Factual accuracy isn't just about avoiding embarrassment - it's about maintaining the trust that keeps readers immersed in your story.
Your memory of a fact and the actual fact are often different. Verify even the things you're confident about. It takes two minutes and can save you from an embarrassing error.
Readers catch small errors just as often as large ones. Check brand names, song release dates, weather patterns, and the little background details that feel throwaway.
Cross-reference with at least two independent sources. Websites repeat each other's errors constantly, so a second confirmation from a different type of source is worth the effort.
Even if your world has magic, readers will still notice if your medieval economy makes no sense or your spaceship physics are inconsistent. Real-world logic underpins fictional worlds.
Open a chapter from your current project and highlight every detail that references the real world: dates, place names, technologies, brand names, cultural practices, distances, scientific claims. Pick five of them and verify each against two independent sources. Note which ones you got right and which need correcting. This habit will sharpen your instincts about what needs checking.