There are many tropes related to creative writing advice, “write what you know,” is probably the most oft used to direct beginning writers. While it seems like easy, straight-forward advice, it can still be daunting to write something “you know.” I also think that “writing what you know” is a good starting point, but it is not the end-all, be-all of creative writing, especially when you are writing something other than a memoir. I believe the best place to start is to figure out one or two key components of your story, and then the genre. Then, you can approach research with one of these two strategies:
- Make a list of topics to research before you start writing.
- Start writing. As you go, if you don’t have enough information about a specific topic, leave yourself a note, and then do the research later.
It really depends on how you work best. I am a major procrastinator when it comes to getting words on the page. I think making a goal to just write a certain amount every day is more important than focusing on the research. You could spend months or years researching a topic and if you aren’t honing your craft on a daily or weekly basis, you will have nothing to show for all of the time and effort you have spent on research.
How to Know What to Research
Here is a basic list for a story guideline to help a beginning writer discover which topics they need to research for their story.
- Who?: Character Profiles
- Where?: Where are they in the world? Type of place (city/town/country)? House/Building?
- When?: What time period do they live in? How does this time period inform your story?
- What?: What is the purpose of your story? What are the characters going to experience?
- How?: How are you going to tell this story?
- Point of view
- Narrator
- First-person
- Third person
- Omniscient
- Modified omniscient.
- “Second person is seldom used.” (Dodd, p. 103)
- Point of view
Once you have made a list of topics for research, the next step is to narrow down that list to fit your story. Your writing style will direct this list. Some authors prefer to focus on a specific time period, setting, location, or profession for the characters in their story. This will guide much of your research if this is how you write. For example, let’s say you are inspired to write a romance novel that is set during the California Gold Rush. Fashion, available technology, and typical belief systems of people during that time should inform your writing and your research.
How to Find Sources
The first place I look for information is always the internet. I may have a list of questions that I want to know the answer to, or I may just want to search for a general overview of one topic. Pinterest can be a somewhat useful search engine for images, and information, but it may not always be reliable. While the internet is a good starting place, I like to also find books that cover specific topics. Your local library should have physical books and most modernized libraries also use Hoopla or Libby, which are apps for digital and audio copies of books. If you have access to a scholarly library, it should provide a plethora of sources at your fingertips. One thing I have found to be helpful is if I find a source that has some valuable information, I check the sources that author used to further my own research. Biographies written about people living during the time period that you selected, or about people who have experienced something you are writing about, would be another good option to explore. Audible also has many Great Courses along with other non-fiction audiobooks. If you are going the historical fiction route, another type of source would be museums or other historic sites related to your topic. If your research topics are more modern, you can also schedule interviews with real people who have experience in what you are trying to write about. You could even schedule an interview with a scholar who specializes in your topic. Non-traditional sources could include movies, music, and plays that somehow pertain to your subject matter.
Credibility and Appropriateness of Sources
Credibility is important when you want to be factually accurate. You don’t want to write your story during the California Gold Rush and describe your characters riding around in cars or using modern plumbing. These are obvious mistakes, but not all sources will contain completely accurate information. One that bothers me is incorrect costuming for a specific time period. Fashion has played a very important role in history and to get it wrong is very frustrating to me. To make sure that your information is accurate, you can search for that information and find resources that either support that information or don’t. Then you will have to decide how far you want to go and how important that bit of information is to you. You also have to realize that when you are gathering your sources, some information will be factual, and some will be based on a specific person’s opinion. In The Art of Creative Research, Gerard suggests a list for checking for the credibility of a source on the internet. (Ch. 5)
- “Who is the author or authors and what are their credentials?
- Does the site provide a transparent list of its sources and their provenance – that is, where did this author get his or her information?
- Does the information presented jibe with that provided by other sources that have proven reputable – that is, can you independently verify it?
- How close is the authorial source to the material being presented? And what is the author’s relation to it: Eyewitness? Victim? Perpetrator? Disinterested observer? Scholar or professional researcher in the discipline? Hobbyist?
As far as appropriateness of your sources, your genre will greatly affect this viewpoint. For example, a romance novel is much different than middle-grade historical fiction. When conducting my own research recently, I realized that one of my sources did not really inform my story as much as I thought it would because it was a fashion-trends post that was geared more towards men, while my characters are teenagers who more than likely would have to adhere to a dress code at their school. Your genre, the focus of your story, and the message you want to convey will all affect the direction of your research and the appropriateness of your resources.
How to Incorporate Sources into Your Writing
Research should inform your writing, but you should remember that your focus is creative fiction. This means that you should give your story parameters without focusing too heavily on facts. For example: dress your characters, give them personalities, and allow them to live out their experiences in a natural way. You are not writing a biography or a history book, you are writing an entertaining story, and that should be clear to your reader. An option for the California Gold Rush storyline is to have one of your characters live somewhere other than California, they hear about the Gold Rush from (insert friend or family member here) and they decide to find their own fortune. Your research should tell you that this person most likely did not live on the West coast, and they were more likely a man, but not necessarily. Let’s say the character is a woman and her grandfather had traveled on the Oregon Trail. So, she lives in Oregon. Then you could research what Oregon was like in 1849 and what a single woman would be doing traveling to California at this time. You could research established cities or areas near Coloma, California (where gold was first discovered). Maybe an important business man from Oregon hired your female character as a nanny for his three children and he wants to take all of them to California to expand his business. **This is just an example of how story creation can progress from point A to point B.**
To give credit to sources, an author can add a note at the end of their novel letting readers know how much factual information was used in their story and how much was from their own imagination. I would also like to think that I would include resources on my author platform, such as my website. Avid readers and fans love to know more about an author’s creative process and I think this would be a functional way to also give credit where it is due.
Where to Find More Information:
I have a not-so-secret addiction: I own a lot of books about writing. Like an entire bookshelf worth of books dedicated to specific genres, advice from authors, how to write a book in a specific amount of time, and books on writer’s block and inspiration. My other secret is that I have only read a couple of them all of the way through.
One of the first books I ever read about writing was by Janet Evanovich, How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author (2006). I checked it out from my local library about twelve years ago. If you are unfamiliar with her books, she has a series about a woman who is a bounty hunter. The first book, One for the Money, was published in 1994 and it became a movie in 2012. All of this to say, what stood out to me most in her writer’s guide, was how Evanovich conducted research for her novels. She went on ride-alongs with real cops and learned how to shoot a gun. This concept made it sound like writing was more than just sitting at a desk, banging on a keyboard. It can be an exciting adventure.
In The Writer’s Compass: From Story Map to Finished Draft in 7 Stages, is where I got my philosophy for “write first, research later.” Nancy Ellen Dodd states, “Right now I am constructing the ideas for my story. I don’t want to be sidetracked by research. The research can come in a later stage when I need to add more details, find the organic truths for my story that add interest, and enliven the language … when the need to know becomes problematic, I can study …” (p.57). Even though I have not finished this book, it is a treasure. Dodd carefully lays out the mechanics of storytelling through story mapping. One of my goals is to finish this book in the near future.
The Art of Creative Research by Phillip Gerard has been an eye-opening resource for me. Before reading this book, I thought all research had to be scholarly and professional, but Gerard breaks research down into manageable, exciting bites by referring to real author experiences and how they used field research in their own writings.
Looks like you stopped procrastinating long enough to write this!
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