On Research

For most novels, there would be some kind of research involved. If it's a historical, obviously you are looking at considerable amount of accurate information to portray the time period correctly. If it's contemporary romance, thriller or women's fiction perhaps the only research needed are some facts about the place, your character's profession, or weapons. Regardless of what or how much you need - you need research.

 

When do you do it? Do you start with research, and then write the book? Or do you write the book and then fill in the holes?

 

I have done a variety of things for various stories I have written, but now the best approach for me is to write the book, leave the final research till the end. Of course during the course of writing / revising, I might look up things, sometimes read books that might inspire me on the subject, but for anything that needs to be specific and factual, I don't worry about it until the end.

 

The main reason for this is that research is fascinating. With the Internet, there is endless array of resources available at no expense and in the comfort of my own home. So once I get going, it's hard to stop. One topic inevitably leads to something else that is fascinating and so the chain of research continues, collecting information that is no longer just for the book.

 

There is nothing wrong with learning more, gaining new knowledge, but if our goal is to write a book, to finish it, then the focus must be there. Unnecessary research cannot be counted as part of productive writing time.

 

Leaving it after the initial story has been written makes it easier to focus. I find out what I need, and go back to my draft, because then the emphasis is on making the draft better. The lure of new information is easier to avoid.

 

How about you? How do you do your research?

 

Writing What You Know

I downloaded "396 Books & Other Resources" from Holly Lisle's website. I am most pleasantly surprised by its concept. Of course we have all heard: Write what you know. In many writing books, we have also learned, "Know more" so you can "Write What You Know" with more stuff. What Holly did is got lots of people to recommend fiction and non-fiction books, compiled the list, and that's what this download offers. She also lists some strategies on how you could learn more from the books. It's not rocket science, and I am sure we have all done it at some point with some books, but what's good about this is that there is a huge list of books recommended by other writers, and strategy guide Holly has devised is a handy little reference sheet which would come in especially useful when reading a non-fiction book for research. Check it out at - www.hollylisle.com and just type the book's title in search area.

Research over Writing

Some of you may remember a time when to do proper research, you would have had to spend hours in a library, searching through rows of books. If they were reference books, then you wouldn't have been allowed to take them home, so you would have to sit there, gathering as much information as possible, to make use of it later. As pleasurable as libraries are, it was pretty hard work.

Now, with the Internet, it's quite opposite. There is so much information available at our fingertips, that you look for "how to create characters" and you find thousands of sites, offering articles, exercises and god knows what else.

I sometimes start with an intention of doing a quick research. Just to look something up. More often than not, the site I am looking at, would have links taking me to other sites, and from there, I would end up on yet different sites. All of them offer such fascinating, interesting information, that I end up thinking, "Oh, I will just read this. It may come in useful."

And guess what? It may be useful, but definitely not very useful because while I stuff my head with all these information, I am not writing. Writing is the only way a writer's skill is honed. I am a keen seeker of knowledge, so I find it extremely hard to stop attaining new information. But then no one said road to becoming a published author was easy to travel.