Research

“He who does not research has nothing to teach.”

–ANONYMOUS PROVERB

Now that you have your story decisions made, sit back and examine the story for the following to see if there are any areas in particular that you would like to research:

•location

•setting

•place

•time period

•background

•facts

•class distinctions

•character history

•religion and beliefs

•customs

•supporting characters

Importance of Researching

Whether you’re writing a character-driven story or a plot-driven one, research can only help to add depth to your scenes. It can uncover details that bring out mood, tone, and style, making your manuscript stand above others. In fact, all of the famous authors I know have told me the secret to great writing is research!

Filter what you will learn through research into your story—not by preaching or teaching but by sporadically placing this information into your scenes and dialogue where it is organic to the flow of your story.

In other words, find creative ways to convey your research to the reader; don’t just dump several rambling pages of research into a chapter. If you do that, it will keep the story from moving forward, and it will bore the reader.

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When research is completed before the major writing begins, you will see when you are constructing your scenes that you have so much more to add to make the characters come alive.

For example, there was a time at the start of industrialization when women slaved for hours in lace factories as a way to make a living. You can use this information to go from:

A redheaded girl walks into the room. She wears a green dress.

to:

A redheaded maid timidly walks into the ballroom. Her green dress is speckled with purple stains from the lace factory where she works during the day. Her darkened fingertips, perpetually stained with the horrid-smelling dye that never quite rinses off, brand her “lower class” for all to see.

Class, setting, work, character history, and time period have all added to the second version.

If you are writing a period piece you might look into:

•what people wore during the time of your story

•what they did for employment

•what their superstitions were

•what their social mores said about them

•whether or not a war was going on at the time

•how people traveled

•whether or not there was a threat of plague

•what rights and freedoms women had (the heroine may not be allowed to own land or walk around at night unescorted)

Conducting Research

Narrow down your research as much as possible by getting very specific about what you need to know. For example, find three books on the subject and skim through them. You don’t have to read the entire book. Take a look at chapter headings and read the introductory chapter to find out what is included within each book.

Other ideas for research can be to:

•Go to a museum and buy brochures of places and artifacts to bring home.

•Read books on the time period, etc. of your story’s setting.

•Read poetry to see how it often transports us to places, giving us a “felt sense” of them, the way most history books cannot.

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•Read anyone that inspires you or helps you get into the mood of your particular story. For example, you can read women’s poetry to get into

the mind of your heroine (try Dorothy Parker, for instance) or read a story from a particular era, such as the Victorian era, if you are trying to capture that time period.

•Use the power of the Internet. I use www.dogpile.com search engine. It gives you the top ten results for over ten other search engines.

•Read autobiographies to help develop your character’s family history and backstory.

•Look back at aspects of your life that might add to your story:

°What experiences did you have that stand out?

°What did you learn once upon a time, but may have forgotten about?

°What did you play at as a child?

°Did you ever take dance lessons? Or play sports?

°What did you want to learn but didn’t?

Setting, Background, and Place

The next sections talk about Setting, Background, and Place. Background is the broader space where a story takes place and Setting is where the actual scene is set up. Place is how the setting is conveyed.

For example, the Background could be Egypt and the Setting could then be the Pyramids, a café, or the desert.

Editors are always looking for manuscripts that either take place in settings they haven’t seen before or convey a strong sense of place. So broaden your horizons and take time to learn about new towns, countries, or even unusual groups that people belong to (the Polar Bear Club, for example). Let your imagination go.

Place gives you a sense of the story and the characters. For example, if the Background is Egypt and the Setting is a café, the Place is the style of the café and the people who inhabit it.

If this café is a French café, it will have a very different feel or sense of place than if it were a Spanish café or a café inside a bordello. All of the people who work there would dress, act, and speak differently, and the design and decoration would be drastically different between the two.

My point is this: Be specific and it will help your creativity along. Once you describe the café as a Spanish café, your mind may start working:

• What if the waiter didn’t speak English?

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•What if a local girl comes in selling roses and interrupts their conversation just as he’s about to confess something?

• What if, instead of having just some nameless guy sitting behind the heroine get mistakenly stabbed to death instead of her, you add some details to that nameless guy to make him more personal and real to the reader? This will only heighten the emotional response to the stabbing for the reader. Perhaps you make the stabbing victim the popular yet humble strolling café musician who plays Spanish tunes for the patrons.

Each “What if” adds a little more color to the scene and makes it much more real for the reader. Think about some more details.

Go over the following list to see if there are any creative opportunities you are missing in your story (though not all of the following will apply to your particular story).

LOCATION

•GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND: What country, town, or state is the story set in? Are there mountains or deserts nearby?

•SETTING: What type of building, land, house, etc. dominates the storyline? Is there one setting that is extremely important? If so, think about researching it thoroughly so you have the details you need for your scenes.

•PLACE: What are the specifics of the setting? Play with the setting and change the atmosphere a bit. Picture a house—now picture Liberace living in it. Then picture a monk living there. Very different!

•CLIMATE: Is it cold, hot, dry, tropical? Can the climate affect the outcome of the story or add some more conflict and drama? Does the hero hate the snow?

TIME PERIOD

•CLOTHING STYLES: Clothing styles can be very important to your characters. In some time periods clothing was the only way to tell if someone was rich or poor, as there were no cars or fancy watches as status symbols.

•MANNERISMS: Does the hero act as men of his time period are accustomed to act? Does the heroine play the part of her sex or challenge it?

•MORALITIES: Can your heroine safely be alone with the hero before they are married?

•INVENTIONS: Don’t put a car into a scene if cars haven’t been invented yet! But also know the accomplishments of the time period you are working in, as many ancient civilizations had what we consider advanced technology, like running water for example.

•LIFE EXPECTANCY: How long did characters in your time period live? Will the heroine’s parents still be around? Is she close to “normal” death even though she may only be twenty-nine?

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•GENDER ISSUES: The heroines in many Victorian novels couldn’t leave the house unescorted because of the time period. This meant that if the

heroine snuck out to see the hero, she was risking everything.

FACTS

•NAMES: Will you choose a name for its meaning? Chandra means “moon.” (See The Writer’s Digest Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon for more ideas.)

•HISTORY: What happened before the time period of your story? Don’t have characters talk about an event that hasn’t happened yet in their world.

•WORDS AND SLANG: For futuristic novels, you can make up your own slang; otherwise, research what common slang was for your time period. Perhaps the rich had different slang than the poor?

•POLITICAL CLIMATE: A democratic government will affect the people and their lives much differently than a dictatorship will.

•LAWS: Do any laws interfere with a character’s goals?

•CLASS: As in lower, middle, upper. Know what situations and living conditions class divisions would create for your characters. Don’t give a grocery clerk a mansion to live in unless it is a conscious choice on your part. During World War II, Hollywood specifically chose to show American characters living way above their class to help boost morale on the one hand and give Americans a true fantasy world to escape to when they came to the movies.

•CHARACTER HISTORY: Can you use your family history? Can you model any of your characters after someone you already know? Watch strangers and get some character idiosyncrasies.

•RELIGION AND BELIEFS: Do your characters have conflicting beliefs? Can that add drama to the story?

Questions

•Do you travel or sightsee? Would any of the places you have been to enrich your story?

•Do you read nonfiction books about other countries and cultures?

•What places interested you as a child?

•Are there any groups you can research for an unusual setting, such as the Polar Bear Club?

•Can your story stay in the same place you have chosen but be in a different time period for that place?

•Will changing time periods be more challenging for the characters, adding more conflict?

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•Did you teach your readers something new? (Many readers love to learn, so take the time to get your facts right.)

• Can you get creative when selecting the backgrounds and settings for your story? (You don’t have to write science fiction to invent your own background. You can create your own island in the Pacific or a town outside a well-known city.)

•Can you visit local museums or historical homes and buildings?

•Are there any subjects that are new to you that you would like to research?

•Can you spend some time at the library when you’re developing your plot so you’ll have tons of research books at your disposal?

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