Indy Mogul
Wesley's Weekly WriteHOW: Doing Research
So you want to write your story, but maybe it's about a topic that you're not 100% familiar with, what do you do when you want to write about stuff you DON'T know? Well you have to do some degree of research, but how do you do it, and how much research is enough? Well let's find out, this week is about doing research!
Step 1: Decide what you have to research
First you'll have to make a list of topics that would do you well to research. Are you writing a western perhaps? Decide what time period you want to write it in, think about what section of the world you might like to set it in, flesh out stuff you'd like to include into the story and jump off from there.
Once you know the when and where, that is a good majority of the things you have to research there. Then you can start doing research into props of the period, how people dressed and talked, popular music, and cultural references that the characters would know.
Are you writing a character that is very different from yourself? (Different gender or ethnicity perhaps?), doing research about what life was like, especially for people who may have had a very different life from what you are used to can help add a lot of realism to your character, and make their situation seem unique to them, rather than seeming like how you or they might be treated in the modern era.
Are you writing a character that is very different from yourself? (Different gender or ethnicity perhaps?), doing research about what life was like, especially for people who may have had a very different life from what you are used to can help add a lot of realism to your character, and make their situation seem unique to them, rather than seeming like how you or they might be treated in the modern era.
So go down the list and just try to brainstorm things that you feel are necessary to research, and think about all of the things you'll need in your story based on your outline.
Step 2: Wiki It
Don't underestimate the power of the Wiki. Wikipedia has an amazing amount of articles, and they'll most likely have an article on exactly what you're trying to research. While a lot of people have brought up issues about accuracy and bias issues on Wikipedia, it's WAY more useful as a jumping off point, rather than taking EVERY article at face value. A great thing to do is to go down to the references at the bottom of the page and go read the primary sources it cites, a lot of them will be from trustworthy sources and provide you with a lot of different information on whatever you're researching.
So see how much of the things you want to know are in Wiki, and start making a database of it's sources so you can start organizing them and start checking them out. This is a good starting off point and can help get you headed in the right direction.
Step 3: Go to your library
Takes your list of sources (primarily your book and journal sources), and see how many you can track down at your local library. The library has a awesome amount of information that may not necessarily be on the internet yet, and can help you delve deeper into the subject. Start going through and finding all the sources, and see if you can find additional books that are of releated topics (they will usually be nearby since they will be organized by topic).
Even if you can't find all of your sources, you will most likely find some good ones and have a good starting off point to begin doing your research and delving more deeply into it.
Also, make sure to check your sources, most of what you find in a library will be of good value, but there are almost alternative voices, and not everyone who writes a book may have the same credentials, so if you're afraid you are not getting the full story, check up on the background of your authors and see if they are an expert or professor at respected University or perhaps just a pop history author. This is generally not a significant concern, especially if you're looking at research from multiple people, but be aware that not everything you read may necessarily be accurate.
Step 4: Look at what other stories have done
By NO MEANS is this a suggestion to steal or plagarize from others, I am not saying that, but getting a good grasp of what the genre has done before, and what other Authors have done can be a good research all of itself. See what other writers who have done similar works (either in period or place, not necessarily in theme), and see how their characters spoke and dressed and acted. Oftentimes this will have been based on some degree of personal research on their part, and can be a good intro to the conventions of whatever genre you might be working in (or might be looking to mess with), and can help you along.
So don't be afraid to see what other books or movies have done with similar settings, even if they weren't accurate at least you'll see where others have been before.
So don't be afraid to see what other books or movies have done with similar settings, even if they weren't accurate at least you'll see where others have been before.
Step 5: Have a set amount of time to research then STOP
How much research SHOULD you do? Honestly, unless you're doing historical reenactments, it is better to fudge the details a little and get your story done, rather than try to be a historical zealot and feel like you're too inaccurate, or that you simply don't know enough about it yet. You can ALWAYS do additional research if you think a detail needs to be fleshed out, and you can ALWAYS do rewrites, but that's ONLY if you've actually finished your story!
So I say, set aside a decent amount of time to just do research, a couple of weeks is generally a good start for me (Some people need a little longer, some less), set aside at least a couple of hours each day to just sit and read and watch the sources you've assembled, THEN, after the period is up WRITE. I don't care if you're not done, you can do more research after the fact, but now you have to write, and you HAVE to get it done.
Better to have a finished story that has details that could use sharpening, rather than to have no story at all. And remember you DO NOT have to be completely accurate with every detail, most of you are doing fiction. In fiction you are allowed to be a little off on details, BUT if it's not interesting that's something that can't be as easily be forgiven.
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