Welcome All! For the first time, this HSSS is actually going to start with,
She said…
Quite often you hear the old adage that you should write what you know. If that were the truth, fiction genres like fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal romance and the like wouldn’t offer very many books to their audiences, now would they? But if you write about something you don’t know, how do you make it at least semi-realistic: based in some fact (literary, contemporary, or historical fiction); or on some ancient legend (paranormal and fantasy); or a futuristic vision a real-life scientist has come up with (sci-fi, dystopian, apocalyptic). I think you get my drift.
The answer for most of us will be to take on a bit of a research project which could mean a number of things. Let’s pretend you’re writing a book like The Alienist by Caleb Carr (amazing book, by the way). The Alienist is, in my opinion, considered not only historical fiction – or a period piece – but a crime novel. It takes place in NYC during the Victorian Era.
Now, unless he was around during the late 1890’s, it would be next to impossible for Carr to just sit down and write this superb book. I would imagine there would be a plethora of different items that Carr would have had to look into for that time period: clothing, forensic sciences, speech, transportation, crime solving techniques by law enforcement, and so on. Whether he spent days in the library or online, or spoke to docents at museums, or studied maps, or even read other fiction books during that era: it is most certainly probable that he did one if not all of those things. He would have had to in order to make his audience trust him as a storyteller.
Of course your book might not be as detailed as that, but even the simplest of plotlines or characters could use at least a basic amount of research. I know that in the book I am attempting to write, I’ve researched and/or studied – which I think are one in the same – people in my life who I think serve as a base for some of my characters. I feel as though my picking up on their mannerisms, speech, and even conversations I’ve had with them is research in its most basic form, but research nonetheless.
So you see, research is important to fiction books in character development, setting, background, and many other aspects. And, in my opinion, you would be hard-pressed to write a successful piece of fiction without employing some of these types of research. That is not to say you have to, or that your novel would not be successful without it, only that it would make your story more plausible to a reader.
He Said …. Hello up there! It’s me (He?) at the bottom of the post!
Oh, sorry. Let’s see, the subject is, “how much, if any research should you do for your book?” Or something close to that.
Well, that depends on three things: You, the author. The subject of your book. And, your potential readers. Let’s start with you. If you’re like me, you’ll want to sound at least somewhat intelligent about what you’re writing about. For me that means not necessarily becoming an expert, but learning as much as I can; even if I don’t use a lot of it.
Let me use my books as an example. My love story series is written around a girl rescued from the sex trade, a horse rescue ranch and a fireman. Three subjects I knew next to nothing about. So, thank heaven for the internet, Horses for Dummies, two wonderful friends from the horsey set, another from GenerateHope that rescues girls from the street and our fantastic Bonita Fire Department Chief who assigned me someone to answer my 10,000 stupid questions.
So, why did I think I needed to learn so much? Let’s turn to my target readers: New Adults/Young Adults. I live in horse country and, even when I didn’t, many of my younger friends rode horses. Thus, if I wanted to produce a believable story for my readers I needed to at least be able to describe a horse in horsey talk terms. Likewise, with the firemen and woman, their calls, what they do and the risks they take.
Back to the sex trade. Here, before I ever started writing my first book, I wanted the point of my story to be what happens to the young ladies who are traded and sold multiple time on the streets of every city, every day. This was perhaps the most painful part of my research and the most difficult to capture for my readers. To pass on the pain, hurt, humiliation and lost years these girls suffer and to contrast it against the abandoned and abused horses.
I’ll close with the fact that, for me, it is almost impossible to describe something unless I’ve personally experienced it or I know a lot about it. That’s especially includes the oh, so many feelings, that run rampant through the three central themes of my story.
So, how much research should you do? Enough to be true to yourself, your readers and your story!
Happy writing.