Setting How much to research BEFORE you write?

[Brandon S. Pilcher]

I've just outlined a fantasy story that is supposed to take place in a fictional era of gods and magic within our world's past, similar to the ancient Greek concept of the "Heroic Age" as well as Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age or Tolkien's Middle Earth. The civilizations of this world are almost all inspired by those from our own world's history, with one nation called Kemet being based on ancient Egypt and another called Nihon being based on feudal Japan. The main plot of the story is about a Kemetian Medjay warrior (basically a sort of professional guard) and a Nihonese ninja having to put aside their differences to retrieve a stolen crown with magical powers from an evil shogun who was the ninja's former mistress.

There are going to be some differences between the story's civilizations and their real-world inspirations. For example, the Medjay warrior, the ninja, and the shogun are all female in my outline since female warriors and rulers are more widespread in this mythical era than in real recorded history. Nonetheless, I still want to get each civilization's cultural vibes right, and while I do know a fair bit about ancient Nile Valley civilizations since that's one of my autistic special interests, feudal Japan and its culture I am not so knowledgeable about. I have a lot of homework to do with that culture at least.

In the past when writing fiction based on history, I've done a large proportion of my research while doing the actual writing. For example, if I'm writing a scene in which the characters are having a meal, I might look up information on what food they would have eaten, what their dining rooms would have looked up, and maybe mealtime etiquette. The problem is that I don't always know what I need to look up when writing something, so this time I feel I should do some of the homework before I start writing. And that's where I am feeling overwhelmed, especially since I'm eager to get on with the actual writing.

Essentially, my question is, how much of the research should you do before the writing, and how much can you do during the writing itself?

 

[Dogberry's Watch]

Something historical like what you're describing, I'd get the basics down before writing, and then do finer details while writing. In my opinion, there's going to be a bit of leeway because you'll have magical elements, but I think as long as you're not dropping Nokia phones in there with your timeline, there can be a degree of wiggle room with accuracy. I do think a kind of "Subject 101" would be helpful during the draft stage so there isn't immediate worry about missing the mark by a huge margin.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Historical research makes me very happy. Research is essential to developing my outlines, then I continue research as I'm writing the story.

You might check out Academia while doing research. I've found papers and dissertations there I'd not have seen otherwise. The site sends suggestions based on papers one has downloaded. That can get a tad overwhelming, but reducing the number is easy enough.

 

[X Equestris]

Essentially, my question is, how much of the research should you do before the writing, and how much can you do during the writing itself?

To some extent, this is a “how long is a piece of string?” kind of question, in that the answers vary widely depending on what works for you, your process, and the needs of the story.

Before writing or even pre-writing, I would conduct the broad background research necessary to build the world and story. So in your case, this could be histories of feudal Japan, books on real ninjas and samurai (Osprey Publishing would be good to look at here, with their Men at Arms series), etc.

Then, as you get a better feel for your world and what the plot will demand, you can get into the more granular research of things like etiquette and leave the minute details for while you’re actually.

Since you’re writing fantasy rather than true historical fiction, you also have the advantage of being able to let facts take a backseat to what’s fun or works best for the story you want to tell. Howard did this all the time with stuff like the Stygians being obviously inspired by Ancient Egypt yet existing right alongside the Hyborian kingdoms with knights in full plate. In fact, half the reason he set the Conan and Kull stories in a fabricated pre-history was to free himself from the need to do extensive research, which was difficult when he lived in rural 1930s Texas.

So if you keep in mind that you’re trying to evoke a vibe rather than recreate 1:1 replicas of Ancient Egypt or feudal Japan, you should be able to avoid worldbuilder’s disease or falling down particularly long and convoluted research rabbit holes.

 

[Kallisto]

I've just outlined a fantasy story that is supposed to take place in a fictional era of gods and magic within our world's past, similar to the ancient Greek concept of the "Heroic Age" as well as Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age or Tolkien's Middle Earth. The civilizations of this world are almost all inspired by those from our own world's history, with one nation called Kemet being based on ancient Egypt and another called Nihon being based on feudal Japan. The main plot of the story is about a Kemetian Medjay warrior (basically a sort of professional guard) and a Nihonese ninja having to put aside their differences to retrieve a stolen crown with magical powers from an evil shogun who was the ninja's former mistress.

There are going to be some differences between the story's civilizations and their real-world inspirations. For example, the Medjay warrior, the ninja, and the shogun are all female in my outline since female warriors and rulers are more widespread in this mythical era than in real recorded history. Nonetheless, I still want to get each civilization's cultural vibes right, and while I do know a fair bit about ancient Nile Valley civilizations since that's one of my autistic special interests, feudal Japan and its culture I am not so knowledgeable about. I have a lot of homework to do with that culture at least.

In the past when writing fiction based on history, I've done a large proportion of my research while doing the actual writing. For example, if I'm writing a scene in which the characters are having a meal, I might look up information on what food they would have eaten, what their dining rooms would have looked up, and maybe mealtime etiquette. The problem is that I don't always know what I need to look up when writing something, so this time I feel I should do some of the homework before I start writing. And that's where I am feeling overwhelmed, especially since I'm eager to get on with the actual writing.

Essentially, my question is, how much of the research should you do before the writing, and how much can you do during the writing itself?

I do most my research as I'm writing. If I do have a specific idea that I think would benefit knowing a certain thing, sure, I'm going to research that ahead of time. But typically, I'm going to try and nail a story before I do a lot of the world-building, because that's what I want to take priority. I think about my themes and ideas.

A lot can be said about constantly holding a sense of curiosity, whether you're actively writing or not. Constantly learning can help a lot to make research less sluggish. If I can recall a certain thing that I read somewhere that has some kind of relevance to what I'm writing now, then it can take a lot of burden off.

 

[Naomasa298]

the ninja

Protip - there weren't any "ninjas". Pretty much everything about "ninjas" is a modern invention.

 

[Homer Potvin]

It depends on how much research is needed. If there's a specific setting or time period that is going to dominate, then obviously there will be some initial research needed to get the sense of what I'm dealing with. More topical stuff that comes up along the way will be researched if/when necessary. I write a lot of sci-fi, so I have my basic astronomy knowledge that I brush up on as needed. Like stellar parallax, or red shift, or the nature and composition of nebulae or whatever.

I tend to write in a way that doesn't require a lot of research, though. If I set a modern American story in New York or Nebraska or Anywhere, USA for example, I'm not going to do a bunch of research about of those areas unless there's something very specific. People are people and emotions are emotions no matter where you are, so there usually aren't too setting specific things that are going to influence the story too much. And if I have a character who is a firefighter, or a teacher, or a pornography key grip, I'll research stuff about the profession that I think will be relevant, but I don't go out of the way to write "this is what it's like to be a firefighter" story.

Honestly, I can't stand stories that trip over themselves in an effort to show the reader how much research the writer did. I understand certain things call for it, but that affect can be very distracting. And it violates POV in my opinion. I know damn near everything there is to know about restaurants and food service, but if I were to set myself as a character, my POV would not be noticing and espousing on the painstaking details of such. It's just not that interesting and isn't something that would cross a "real" character's mind. Everyone's profession is mundane and routine on a certain level. I know writers want to get inside the character's head, but that character's head is in the middle of a regular day, no matter what they do.

 

[Brandon S. Pilcher]

Protip - there weren't any "ninjas". Pretty much everything about "ninjas" is a modern invention.

I think they were historically called shinobi though? I do know they usually wore disguises to rather than the iconic all-black uniforms in real history.

 

[Naomasa298]

I think they were historically called shinobi though? I do know they usually wore disguises to rather than the iconic all-black uniforms in real history.

"Ninja" (忍者) is the Sino-Japanese reading of the characters in "shinobi no mono" 忍びの者, yes. The pronunciation "ninja" first appears towards the end of the 18th century, and shinobi really just means "spy". Some itinerant doctor you recruited to go off and scout out an enemy's domain while he was selling medicines could be called a "shinobi". As for disguises, there was really not a lot of need, other than that of a komusou, a type of monk allowed to travel freely between domains (which regular people were mostly not).

Komusō - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Those black uniforms are actually the cloths worn by stagehands (known as "kuroko" in kabuki theatre, and worn to indicate a character is invisible. It's a visual shorthand, so the audience understands that the character is "invisible" to the others, so a "ninja" would wear one to tell the audience that the other characters couldn't see that one, who was sneaking around. This convention was seen by popular media and assumed to mean that was how "real" ninjas dressed.

The most famous "ninja" (and just about the only historical one), Hattori Hanzo, rode around the battlefield waving a big freaking spear around, riding a horse and wearing samurai armour. The poet Matsuo Bashou was also rumoured to be a "ninja" because it is believed (by some historians) that he was recruited to also spy for the shogunate while he was travelling around on his officially sanctioned writing journeys.

There are no contemporary mentions of the so-called female ninjas (kunoichi), but prostitutes and geisha were useful sources of info, because you know, men get a bit talkative when they're drunk and have coitus on their minds.

Sorry, that was a lot of uncalled for information.