While it’s important to research to make sure you get the facts right and create a believable world in your story, you don’t want to get bogged down in the rabbit hole of research. Also, you don’t want to info dump your reader with too many details that aren’t strictly necessary for your story. I have complied some useful articles and YouTube videos with advice on researching a novel.
As fiction writers, our job is to sit at a keyboard and make stuff up for fun. We conjure most of our material from our imagination, creativity, and mental supply of facts and trivia, but sometimes we need to do a little research. When it comes to research, there are key strategies to keep in mind to help you make the most of your time and effort. This article shares 9 nine key strategies, including write first, research later, research is secondary to telling a good story, write for your fans, don’t obsess over accuracy, go with the most interesting version, don’t fall down a wormhole, save simple details for last, and finish this project before starting another. The article moves on to suggest resources where to research your novel and also shares some practice research prompts.
Deciding how to research for a book is a personal process with much depending on your subject. How to scope your research, how to process it, and what tools to use are discussed. This article from Now Novel article breaks these down into 9 tips and explains each one with examples.
Masterclass tells us that great stories tend to be rooted in some degree of real-world events and conditions, and capturing these real-world elements requires research. What you learn during your research will allow you to immerse your reader fully in your setting. It will guide you in developing your characters and plot. This article discusses how to research based on your own experiences, how to research topics when you don’t have firsthand experience, how to find inspiration for new topics, and how to research while writing.
Whether you love or hate it, researching a novel is no easy task. Well-Storied recommends tackling research during the pre-writing process and shares how to do it. Begin by identifying areas of interest, then define specified topics, refine your list, prioritise your listed topics, and create a research agenda. It moves on to discuss conducting successful interviews, taking notes at museums and events, gleaning veritable information from the internet, finding valuable information in books, and utilizing the research you’ve gathered.
Writers are always researching the most interesting things in order to write with authority on a wide range of subjects. Research is a necessary part of writing almost any book. This article advises you to research early in the writing process: what you find may change your story. It tells us that the biggest factor to ensuring successful research is to create a framework or system for your research and allow it to evolve over time as your needs change. Create an outline of what you need to know. This article shares some things to consider and tells you to be conscious of your time. Don’t let your research time become an excuse to postpone writing.
YOUTUBE
Completing novel research doesn’t have to be a pluck-out-your-own-eyeballs kind of event. Watch this to learn how to approach research with focus and intention.
Does the thought of research overwhelm you? Do you find yourself falling down endless rabbit holes of internet searches, which only lead to more unanswered questions? If so, don’t worry — you’re not alone. In this video, we’re tackling the four biggest dos and don’ts of research… common mistakes many writers make, plus how to avoid these pitfalls and make your writing more realistic and believable.
There are plenty of things you can do to ensure you’re writing the most authentic novel possible. The setting, characters, plot details, historical influences, even genre, and craft – all these elements can be researched to strengthen your knowledge and flesh out your book. In this video, 4 research methods for fiction writers are discussed.
As some of these links have suggested, it is important not to let research stop you from writing. Make a plan, research, but don’t let it consume you. If you’re in the flow of writing and don’t know a particular fact, make a note and keep going. You can come back to it. The most important thing is to get your story on the page.
(c) Lucy O’Callaghan
