No matter what genre you’re writing, there’s research involved. For a murder mystery, your search history may include how various poisons affect the nervous system, or best ways to dispose of a body. When the story is set in the past, in-depth study of the time period is essential. What did people wear? How did they talk? What kind of jobs did they have? What did they eat? When the facts are inaccurate, readers might rightly assume that the story is more fantasy than historical fiction. Or worse, that you’re ignorant of the events and the culture you’re writing about.

 

Linda Ulleseit has found that the Internet is an amazing research tool.

“I use it a lot. I also read both fiction and non-fiction books set in the time period I am writing about. My favorite type of research, though, is going directly to the source. Because I write novels about my ancestors, that means I spend a lot of time researching genealogy. One of my first genealogical searches was conducted at our local Family History Center at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I chose one of the odder names in my family tree because I thought it would be easier to find something. I typed in “Ellen VanValkenburgh” and got a well-researched tree going back to the Mayflower. I was thrilled, and I was hooked on genealogy.

Last fall, my husband and I went to Edinburgh, Scotland. One of my favorite places was the tiny St. Margaret’s Chapel at Edinburgh Castle. It’s the oldest building in Edinburgh, and belonged to St. Margaret, princess of England and queen of Scotland. She is my ancestor through three of her children with King Malcolm III: Matilda, David, and Mary. The connection of my family to such an IMPORTANT chapel filled me with awed pride.”

 

Ana Brazil recommends: “Research while you write, but don’t research while you write.”

That might sound tricky, but….

It seems that most authors of “how to write a novel” books recommend that writers complete all of their research before they ever start writing a scene or chapter. This recommendation puts “research” and “writing” into separate compartments.

I say, “Do the bulk of your research before you start writing but leave yourself open to doing more research while you’re writing your book.”

You will need to research while you are writing your book because–even if you are the greatest plotter in the world–something will come up that you need more information about.

But here’s the important part, when you’re at your daily writing and realize that you need to research something, don’t stop writing at that moment to go and research. Make a note on the page to yourself (such as “<<research this later>>”) and keep writing.

Don’t let the need to research take you away from your writing time. That’s because once you start researching, unless you are very disciplined, chances are you’ll get lost in the research rabbit hole. And there goes the focus on your writing.

 

C.V. Lee advises: Let your research take you places you didn’t expect to go.

“While researching the history for my work-in-progress, ROSES & REBELS, I discovered wonderful historical facts that not only allowed me to include small details to make my scenes more vibrant, I was able to weave them into the story to strengthen the plot.

For example, my story begins on Christmas Eve, the start of the twelve days of Christmas. I had planned to include a Twelfth Night Party, but learned about a holy day I hadn’t been aware of previously, the Feast of the Epiphany. It falls on the day after Twelfth Night. This special day celebrates the three wise men who came to Bethlehem bearing gifts for baby Jesus. Imagine my surprise to discover that the history of the king’s cake (associated with New Orleans) goes back to France in the Middle Ages. I included the cake in my scene and used it as a tool to foreshadow future events.

I uncovered another great tidbit with regards to Easter traditions. I made a quick Google search to learn something about special décor for a Holy Week feast. Did you know that painting Easter eggs is a very old tradition? I associate them with a fluffy white bunny and plastic eggs with candy tucked inside. But the tradition goes back to the early Christians in Mesopotamia. In medieval times, a wealthy household would have beautifully painted eggs depicting scenes of the crucifixion and resurrection. Eggs were hidden for the children to hunt. Including this unexpected element to the chapter featuring a Holy Week dinner, nicely tied together the various locations in the scene. “

 

Katie Stine: For the love of all that’s holy: ORGANIZE!

I like to fact-check myself to make sure I’m right, especially when writing about historical facts that people don’t want to believe, like women engaging in fisticuffs! Taking a cue from my scientist father-in-law, I’ve become a writer who uses spreadsheets. I have sheets that are by topic, like Georgian history, where I can organize general facts about life during the time, but also specific subjects as diverse as Horseback Riding and Black History. In the columns of each sheet, I type whatever tidbit I highlighted under the title “Quote.” The next column is title of the book that it came from, next is author, and then page number. I lock the rows so that when I reorganize or search, the columns don’t get mismatched. This creates my own personal searchable database that I can refer to whenever I need. Because I like to take a wide interest in order to get a “flavor” of the times I write about, it’s easy to zero in on one fact this way. It is time-consuming up front, but it saves me tons of time at the back end!

Kathryn Pritchett has acquired an extensive nonfiction library in order to research her novels. “It’s much easier now to do targeted research on the internet. But if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, you may miss some unexpected and helpful details because of a misguided Google search. It’s a bit like reading a print verses a digital newspaper. On the way to the op-ed section in a print paper, you may stumble across an obituary (or pie recipe !) that transforms your entire way of thinking—something you would have missed if you just went straight to your favorite pundit’s latest op-ed.

Of course, I have neither the time nor storage space to read ALL the books, so I’ve become judicious in what I buy. A recent irresistible purchase was a reprint of the Chamber of Commerce guidebook for 1914 San Francisco—the exact year and place that I’m writing about in my current WIP. I stumbled across it when I was researching whether cable cars had started to climb those infamous hills and discovered a wealth of other details about shopping, theaters, restaurants and other things that will flesh out my story. Though the digital version is available—that’s where I first found this gem–it’s much easier to flip back and forth as well as to highlight important details with a hard copy.”