It is a very rare occasion where you as a writer are able to create a complete story based on just your own creativity and inherent knowledge. Whether it’s getting a more accurate setting, or more detailed historical knowledge, or being able to reference how certain things work, at some point in time, your story will require you to do some research. There are many, many ways to gain the information you’re going to need to properly write your story. But here are a few that I’ve utilized for some success.
Libraries
This is the oldest, and still one of the best, ways to get pertinent information on anything you want. There is just something about being in a library, where it’s quiet and you’re surrounded by books, that is conductive to the creative process. At least that’s how it was for me. I spent a great deal of time in the Library looking up African myths to use as the basis for The Leopard Man. Here you can find books about darned near anything, and you can be pretty sure that the information is vetted and can be verified.
Web Searching
I can attest that Search engines are your friend. A lot of information I’ve picked up for Godmode, Double Entry and The Hand You’re Dealt came from online sources. True, you may have to do some cross referencing and self-verification to make sure the information is 100% accurate, but it is worth it. And sometimes, it might even be better for your story in select circumstances if the information isn’t accurate. But Search engines like Google and Bing, and reference sites like Wikipedia are an extremely valuable resource for gathering pertinent information.
Interviews
If you can find someone that knows a thing or two about what you are trying to write about, then you should by all means get in contact with that person to pick their brain about it. There is nothing like getting information about a topic directly from an expert, or someone that was an eyewitness. They can offer personal insights and antec dotes that you might not be able to get from any other source. A very crucial moment in The Leopard Man came as the result of interviewing a lady about her experience in that same situation.
Observation
Yes, being nosy also counts as research. Oftentimes to get a feel for how people behave, you have to actually observe and take notes of people. Especially when you are trying to chronicle a culture of a particular region or group of people. You will be taking notes on speech patterns, slang, language, customs and body language. Pay attention to habits, and personality tics. There are also reference books like the one I have listed below that can give some great reference points for behavior.
Observing also extends beyond individuals. Watching groups of people behave can help, too. Groups behave differently than individuals, and there is a lot of interaction between people within groups. Heck, you can learn a lot even by just watching traffic at an intersection for a few minutes.
Touring Locales
When writing The Leopard Man, I wanted to have a major part of the book happen at Flint, MI’s Forest Park. Since I wanted everything to be accurate, I actually went to Forest Park, looked around, and mapped out a route through with the events in that scene transpire. I was able to take notes on all of the flora, fauna and landmarks, and record as many details as possible to make the scene that much more believable. This is the advantage of actually visiting a locale you want to use for your setting. Take as many notes of everything your five senses encounter as possible. You can use this to really put your readers where the story is at.
Researching History
Historical research can come in handy whether you’re writing historical fiction or not. Often times it helps to understand the whys and hows of certain elements of your stories. And your research into the history of that element can oftentimes reveal historical details that can be mined for new elements to your stories, or for new stories altogether.
Technical research
If your story has gadgets in it, then chances are the believability of your story will be aided by some explanation of how they work. And furthermore, if you have a better understanding of how a mechanism works, then you can more accurately write about it in your story. I honestly can’t remember the first time I fired a gun, so I actually consulted with a buddy of mine that was a gun enthusiast about what first-time gun users experience. He gave me a veritable treasure trove of technical information that proved to be very valuable for a crucial moment in my story.
Research for style and technique
Sometimes you will need to research for HOW you write more than for WHAT you are writing. If your story requires a particular writing style or a different voice, you will need to do some delving into how to pull that off believably. For a story I am currently seeking representation for, one of the minor characters speaks entirely in iambic pentameter. So to make sure I got the cadence of it correctly, that meant a lot of reading and rereading of Shakespeare, Milton and Browning.
Parsing the Data
Now that you’ve collected a bunch of data for your story, the next step is organizing it all and deciding what to use and when. A lot of that will come down to your instincts for your story. You will inherently know what information is useful and which isn’t. But creating an appendix for yourself is a good exercise because you can organize the information into a format where you can easily get to what you need when you need it. And from there it’s just a matter of integrating the information seamlessly into your story (something I wrote about earlier at this post).
These are a few of the techniques I’ve employed to get the information I needed for my stories. To be honest, the process of researching is a never-ending one, as you will always be on the lookout for new data you can integrate into your stories. But if it will lead to more believable, engaging stories, then I think it would be more than worth he effort.
Here is a cool reference book about facial expression and body language that I’ve used before.
