How Do You Research? How Much Do You Need To Research?

[bACK iN mY dAY]

If this sounds like a dumb question, it's because it probably is, but I'll give more context.
I'm working my way toward the end game (somewhat of the current Time Travel book I'm working on. The next thing in the pipe is a Fantasy series - a somewhat epicly scaled one with a focus on the ordinary people of the age. Think typical medieval types, except whenever I work on this idea, it occurs that I just don't know as much as I'd like to about the typical medieval person or about the sailing of the seas in those days, for two big examples. And obviouslt that then flows over into my writing, because when you don't know the words you want it can all grind to a halt.

Now the quick and obvious answer to the above is 'find out' and in truth I can and do. But I am interested to hear from people about how much research they do for their books, and how they do that research - and also, when is enough enough? Do you have a structure? And do you likee doing the research or is it just that thing you must do to get to the writing bit?

Interested in hearing people's views.

 

[Naomasa298]

Well, it depends what I'm writing. When I wrote a story set in 80s Japan, I wanted to be pin-point accurate so I could be realistic and have the story sound like it was genuinely written from the POV of someone living in the era. I only knew 80s Japan from the depictions I'd seen in the media. I'd been to some of the locations in my story, but that was in 2017 so I only knew the modern versions. I searched out as many photos from the time as I could find. I found a news report about the suicide I was writing about, including photos from the scene - including with the body still there, covered by a blue tarpaulin.

I also researched how the police departments of the era worked, including things like the promotion system, so I could ensure my MC's background was accurate and believable. From that research, I found that I'd made my character on the very young side for his rank so I added imposter syndrome into his personality, which helped deepen it.

But then - I wouldn't do that amount of research for most other types of stories, certainly not fantasy. But that's mainly because my depictions of fantasy life are, well, fantastical. I probably wouldn't be writing a story about a peasant whose life was brutal, tough, and short. I would go that deep if that's the kind of story I was writing though.

 

[Trish]

Personally, I LOVE research. I can go down a rabbit hole and resurface a million miles away having learned far more than I ever needed to, and that makes me very happy. I have so much 'useless' knowledge in my brain but I've always been someone who loves to learn just about anything.

That said, I think as writers we sometimes get caught up in the minutiae. Or at least I do. For instance: if you were describing medieval armor you could say plate armor or brigandine, but a lot of people don't know the difference so you'll likely end up describing it anyway in terms of vulnerabilities.

And in fantasy, you'd likely call it whatever the POV character sees it as. They may not know the word for it, and them asking the character who's wearing it for an explanation as a way to avoid an info dump is a trap. An obvious one. Unless they're learning to put it on and being taught (and that's relevant to the story).

 

[That Guy Named Aaron]

There are a LOT of factors that can go into the amount of research one needs to do. Like @Trish, I love to research. But I'm concerned about going overboard since I'm borderline historical fiction (we can debate if the 90s qualified as 'historical' in a different thread). I've read a few pieces where you could tell the author over-researched it, bogging down the story in TMI.

 

[Luxuria]

I research enough to be functional. In drafts, I makes guesses on what kind of napkins they might use, etc. I just know I will go back and research when I am done writing. I know it's backwards. But in historical works, I do tend to try and read more about the era. But I am not going to spend years researching before putting the idea on paper. My stories change so much from the time I think of them, to when I write them.

For example, (non-historical work) I had a fanfic idea. I mapped that idea out in my head. Then, when I put it on paper, it came out 100% different than what I had thought or planned.

Sometimes, I have the scene /idea planned, then research those things and others, I do basic research and continue the research while I write. They kind of go together for me. But if I were to publish something, I would make sure to put in footnotes of research information. I also try and stick with information in books or a set amount of resources so I don't get overwhelmed.

 

[Brandon S. Pilcher]

Oftentimes I research as I write. If I'm writing a scene involving a banquet, for example, I'll look up what sort of food and drinks people in that setting would have consumed. Sometimes I search for floor plans of buildings or maps of cities to help me describe their layout. That said, a little preliminary research before writing can help with developing story ideas or outlines.

 

[JT Woody]

I research as I need to.

Sometimes, I'll make a note to go back to the scene to fact check later... some times i'll pause in my writing to go down the rabbit hole. once, I was writing a travel scene and wanted to make it believable... so i researched the amount of time it would take for a horse to travel a mile on steady terrain at a gallop... then, because I already had a map created with a distance key on it, was able to calculate how long their travel would have taken (Funnily enough, I had a beta tell me, after reading it, that that wasnt realistic... i told her how i calculated and that i had a map of my world in it as well. she then said it made sense and that i should have sent her the map, too. oops...)

Sometimes i will plan things out ahead of time if i know that my story hinges on it. For example, my manuscript, "The Plan". It takes place over the course of 9 months and involves a pregnant character. So i researched and make a spreadsheet of each trimester, googled, asked writer friends who had kids, and then my mom who works in women's health (specifically OB), to be absolute sure I got the information right before I started.

So, in short, for me it depends on the story how I research and when.

 

[bACK iN mY dAY]

Personally, I LOVE research. I can go down a rabbit hole and resurface a million miles away having learned far more than I ever needed to, and that makes me very happy. I have so much 'useless' knowledge in my brain but I've always been someone who loves to learn just about anything.

That said, I think as writers we sometimes get caught up in the minutiae. Or at least I do. For instance: if you were describing medieval armor you could say plate armor or brigandine, but a lot of people don't know the difference so you'll likely end up describing it anyway in terms of vulnerabilities.

I really like this in particular - I think in part because mentally it's a little more freeing to just be able to act from character perspective, rather then clinically listing types of armor and other bits for example.

 

[JLT]

In a fantasy setting, you can get away with a lot. Tolkien had has characters smoking tobacco (at least, I think it was tobacco) and eating potatoes in an environment that was clearly early medieval Europe. But if you're trying to evoke a particular culture, you really need to do research, preferably from first sources, if you're going to pass muster with the more picky readers.

Thanks to a person on the other forum, I was steered to a book called Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders, by Susanne Alleyn, who described it thusly: "This is not a book on how to write historical fiction. It IS a book on how NOT to write historical fiction." The book describes some of the more common errors that authors have made, usually based on either poorly researched historical fiction or Hollywood spectacles. It's worth getting a copy. (The third edition is the best, I'm told.)

The best cure for this sort of mistake is having a beta reader who knows something about the era and activity that you're writing about.

 

[Madman Starryteller]

I write science fiction with a blend of fantasy. Spaceships and gods. But I still want the universe to be based on ours and our laws of physics. So, in the beginning of this project, I did read a lot of wikipedia articles about different things, such as black holes, dyson spheres, gravity. I can't say I understood that much. But the crux is that I have also forgotten almost everything. So, now I just write and hope my stuff is based on reality to a sufficient degree.

I used to research a lot, read history articles, and all manner of things. But it got in the way of my writing, because I would spend more time researching than actual writing. I became a bit of a authenticity perfectionist. I think researching became an excuse not to write. There needs to be a balance.

And now with my shoddy memory, all that research ended up forgotten... But in my defence, I did not know I was going to get as sick as I would. (If that sickness even has anything to do with my memory issues?)

It's not all black though, I still remember that black holes eat everything.

 

[Mr Mononoke]

But I am interested to hear from people about how much research they do for their books, and how they do that research - and also, when is enough enough? Do you have a structure? And do you likee doing the research or is it just that thing you must do to get to the writing bit?

I research a lot but this is often with the writing rather than plan it out as I go. But this could be because I am a pantser and the world develops as I write. What I do is that when it comes to details, I try to find out as much as I can and more. For example, I have a character who is Japanese and they view life quite different from the west so to write this character with only the view of how she looks is not enough. I have had to develop her own background, her family, what do they do, how and why did they meet the protagonist and what incidents formulated their views and opinions on life. This often happens the more I write about the character and their interactions with protagonist, but, for me, if a character who comes from a poor background will have different ideals from a person who is rich. This is obviously an easy example, but when it comes to what a character says, I have to dig deeper to understand why a character says this from their view point because this sets out how and why they phrase things.

To use my weak example of rich girl poor girl... if the protagonist buys her a watch for birthday, the reactions would be different. For me, the level of research needed isn't consigned to a character but into the world too. I right places where I have researched and/or have a good understanding of that place, whether this is through visits or chats with people about their culture and lifestyle so it gives me a much better representation of that place I am writing.

How far have I gone in my research? Well, I have a Japanese character and given them a name I found very fitting yet it was only recently when I whatsapp a Japanese school friend who came to England for a few months, in a student exchange thing, that I told him about my writing and this character. He was kind enough to say that the name of my character wasn't very suitable for the personality this person held and thus gave me suggestions for their new name which I adopted.

 

[Homer Potvin]

I still remember that black holes eat everything.

No more so than any other object of similar mass. They can be orbited as leisurely as you would a planet, star, or moon. Just don't get too close, as the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light!

 

[Naomasa298]

as the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light!

I know that's sometimes said, but it's not quite that simplistic. It's that there simply isn't any path to the "outside" when you're inside a black hole, not in a conventional spacetime sense but then you get into serious mind-fuckery, so "eats everything" is, to misquote Charles Babbage, "sufficiently accurate for fiction".

 

[JFB]

I write to justify my research habit.

No rabbit hole too deep. No triviality too far. Whether it gets used isn't the point, necessarily - more that I have the best material understanding of the time and place possible, even if it's only there to influence how the words are structured.

This has cost me money, and will continue to do so until the heat-death of the universe.

 

[Dante Dases]

It surely depends on what you are writing. I have two 'live' projects at present, one a fantasy, one an alternate history. The latter requires far more research that the former, particularly in relation to historical processes, potential points of divergence, real political beliefs and creeds, and so on. I currently have two definitive tomes lying open on my desk from which I've been making notes to build a realistic picture of what this particular alternate world would look like, keeping it close enough to reality while also diverging enough to make the story make sense. This is research into two historical areas I can claim genuine expertise in, too - there's a reason why I have those books in the first place, along with quite a few others in the same area.

The fantasy, meanwhile, requires far less research and far more reading for pleasure. How would Le Carré do that? What did Scott Lynch do when...? I'm sure Robin Hobb tried this... Once I have what I need, it's more a case of looking up certain things during the first draft process to keep things ticking over. Things like believable technology, or (and this is a peculiar rabbit hole I'm falling into more and more at the moment) what were seventeenth century political beliefs about monarchy (variable, it's fair to say).

The thing is that it is possible to go too far and over-think research. You end up constructing a story around the research, when really you're researching around the story. Authenticity matters, but in some genres the aim is suspension of disbelief.

 

[Mr Mononoke]

It surely depends on what you are writing.

No triviality too far. Whether it gets used isn't the point

Hi Dante,
I lean on the side that you need to research in order to get an authentic story. As JFB wrote, whether you use it is a different matter, and I completely agree. I reckon over half of what I research won't make it onto the draft and it doesn't really bother me- largely because the research forms as an understanding so when you write a scene, an event, a character, it has greater depth and is not based from a stereotypical view, but a learned. This is different from experiencing, but that's a different topic entirely.

The thing is that it is possible to go too far and over-think research. You end up constructing a story around the research, when really you're researching around the story. Authenticity matters, but in some genres the aim is suspension of disbelief.

I don't think you can over research and as above, you don't have to put everything you researched into the text. I find that if I am writing setting, I have to have a clear image of what scene. It may be a guy in his room, but I need to know how big the room is, where the bed is, where the window is, what table he has, chair, colour of the walls... because the clarity means an author can move around the room and pick up these details with no distraction to the story. Whether he has curtains or blinds, or both doesn't change the story, but (from my PoV) this affects how you write the room. In the past I didn't do this as I wrote with a vague image of things and this created more problems later on. This doesn't mean I will sit for hours to draw a room, but when I start with a premise I will think long and deep about where this world is set and once I can see the story playing in my mind, then will I put 'pen to paper.'

 

[Rath Darkblade]

I write science fiction with a blend of fantasy. Spaceships and gods. But I still want the universe to be based on ours and our laws of physics. So, in the beginning of this project, I did read a lot of wikipedia articles about different things, such as black holes, dyson spheres, gravity. I can't say I understood that much. But the crux is that I have also forgotten almost everything. So, now I just write and hope my stuff is based on reality to a sufficient degree.

I used to research a lot, read history articles, and all manner of things. But it got in the way of my writing, because I would spend more time researching than actual writing. I became a bit of a authenticity perfectionist. I think researching became an excuse not to write. There needs to be a balance.

And now with my shoddy memory, all that research ended up forgotten... But in my defence, I did not know I was going to get as sick as I would. (If that sickness even has anything to do with my memory issues?)

It's not all black though, I still remember that black holes eat everything.

Since you brought up black holes, Madman, you may get a kick out of this: What If You Spent a Nanosecond in a Black Hole?

Joking aside, yes: jumping into a black hole is very, very dangerous and very, very stupid. (Obviously).

I don't think you can over research and as above, you don't have to put everything you researched into the text.

I think I understand what you're getting at, but I think it is possible to over-research. Yes, you do need to understand the story-world you're getting into (which is where the over-research comes in), and yes, do not put everything you researched into the text (since it will bore the pants off your audience).

But on the other other hand (wait, I have three hands? Awesome! ), you don't want to research too much without putting pen to paper. It's impossible to recreate every room and every chair, every tree and every bush. Sooner or later, you have to start writing the damn thing -- and in the process, you might have to put it on hold and do some extra research to clear up some minor points.

For example, I did a ton of research on the Viking era before starting a novel set in that era. I planned it all in advance very, very carefully, building a timeline, a chapter summary, a scene summary, a character arc for my MC etc... and after writing 4 chapters, I stopped and did some research about what kind of boats they used just for rivers, how strong they were, and so on.

That's a normal part of writing a novel. Your chapters and/or scenes will change as new ideas come to you. As long as you test those new ideas and do your research, you'll be fine.

 

[Mr Mononoke]

That's a normal part of writing a novel. Your chapters and/or scenes will change as new ideas come to you. As long as you test those new ideas and do your research, you'll be fine.

I agree. We all have our methods and thoughts towards writing. When writing a scene, you are right that the scene develops as you write, just that during the editing stages I get very picky on 'seeing' the scene, whether it is a quiver in the eyes of a character... I like to dig deeper and see whether the dialogue matches their mood and also how and why they chose their words.

Not sure how this habit came to be, mainly because I have had this one phrase where I found online that every line has to carry some information to the reader otherwise it should not be in the story... so it makes my editing extremely slow but I see it as a good and bad thing... clarity in detail but baby steps towards completion.