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What’s your research process? How do you figure out what research to do for you book? How do you take notes?
I generally keep it with the wip backed up on thumb drives and Portaplotty, and research only as much as I need to in order to have the information I need. If I do more than that, I tend to go off on tangents of useless infodumping.
However, I will and do read nonfiction just for fun, and I don’t take notes from it, but let it ferment in the back of my head. Then, when it develops into a story idea or gets used somehow, I’ll go back and spot-research it to make sure I’m remembering correctly and add the info to the collection of it I have for the wip(s).
Ashe Elton Parker
"Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
~*~
Member since 1998.
~*~I wanted to answer ‘as little as possible’. Seriously, I hate research.
Obviously, though, I have to do some. Usually, I try to do what I call ‘general research’ more than specific research. What I mean is that there are usually a few subjects that are integral to the story I’m writing on. (Example, in Ev’s book, the French Revolution and Russian mythology). I just read about these subjects — books, articles — and watch documentaries, just pretty much whatever I can find. Often, I don’t have to do much of this because I try to choose subjects that I already know a lot about.
I don’t make notes on this because it’s not about details and facts. It’s about the overall ‘sense’ of the subject.
When I do have to keep notes, I use OneNote because I can just toss information onto the page without worrying about ordering it. I don’t really like order.
And that’s about it. I really try to invent rather than research every chance I get.
–June
But how do you know how much you need? What’s the criteria for determining that?
LOL — I don’t like research myself. It ranks a little above proofreading. But I end up doing it because I need the details and facts. Those are the single hardest thing for me to get into my story, so I have to approach them from a mechanical direction.
I usually go in with specific questions. Like, for my 2yn, one question will be “How/when was the first hydroelectric dam built?” I go in with that, and I find the answer, then I can move on to, “How/when was electricity first distributed?” And so on. I create a list of questions I want answered, look for the answers, and hold that info in reserve for worldbuilding. Keeps me from getting too much info, and the limited amount of info makes it easier for me to control how/when I use it in the wip.
Ashe Elton Parker
"Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
~*~
Member since 1998.
~*~I’m doing hit and run research. If I’m writing and need a type of tree I put a placeholder in and try to save them up for a research run (books, not internet.). A lot of mine is details research because that’s the area I have the most trouble with. What is the name of this? What type of birds are in this area?
For the notes, I use visual note taking. In my case, I translate it into PowerPoint — one slide per subject. So if I’m researching reef fish of Hawaii, then I have pictures of parrot fish, conger eels, and butterfly fish. If I have the visual representation, I can pull up the picture of the slide in my head and trigger all the details.
Linda Adams wrote:What’s your research process? How do you figure out what research to do for you book? How do you take notes?I’m going to approach this from the perspective of a writer who has also been a professional (genealogical – which can cover a lot more topics than you think) researcher. First of all, although you can do some research in advance, any writer who imagines they can cover everything before they start is kidding themselves. Things will often come up, little details, that you have to track down the answer to. I’ll refer back to that in a minute.
Also, even more so than with writing, the research process should depend on the areas being researched. Because what is available varies widely. So you must fit your research process to what you’re researching. If you fail to do that, you’re making a mistake.
However, there is one general rule which works for every subject. (It really does.) Start with a broad brush. Get an overview, gain some sense of the subject, and learn what types of information are available in that area. Once you have a broad understanding of the topic, then you can consider the needs of your story, and what you have to work with, and figure out how to research the things you think you’ll need.
In some cases, you may know enough about a subject that you won’t need to do a formal overview – but that’s only because you already have that part sorted. In every case, one of your goals should be to build up a list of possible sources you can refer to. That way, at least if you find yourself stuck over some obscure detail, you’ll have some idea where to turn for the information you need.
I’d say it also pays for writers to learn useful research techniques, and techniques for taking notes that work for you as well. In the long run, you’ll be able to accomplish more in less time. Oh, and one more thing: cite your sources! You don’t need to get all academic about this unless you want to – but any citation that won’t let you quickly locate the original source of your information is useless. That way, if you have further questions in a particular area, the citation will tell you exactly where to start looking.
There’s lot more, obviously. Especially if you really care about getting accurate information. (I hope no one here believes, just because it has been published, it must be accurate.) And of course in many areas, there are differences of opinion. I’m not talking about the “outliers” here, but serious, honest disagreements over even supposedly simple facts. Whatever stance you take, it may be important to understand the entire debate before you write.
I’m going to have to wrap this post up now, even though I’ve only touched a very few highlights, because there is just so much I could say on this subject. (By the way, even if you “hate research” I urge you to learn how to do it effectively – because that is the best way to spend the least time doing what you hate…
And often those who hate research really hate the struggle to find out what they need to know; most of us have a built in desire to learn, as long as we don’t have to jump all but impossible hurdles to do it.)A class is very useful. I had one last year and it helped me understand better how to find things and what resources were out there. I took it because it was really hard for me to figure out how to take the notes and organize them. I often ended up doing the research 2-3 times over, made multiple visits for the same topics — it was very frustrating.
Ashe wrote:I generally keep it with the wip backed up on thumb drives and Portaplotty,Please! What is Portaplotty?
Oh, sorry. Portaplotty is my portable external hard drive. LOL Sorry.
Ashe Elton Parker
"Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
~*~
Member since 1998.
~*~Linda Adams wrote:What’s your research process? How do you figure out what research to do for you book? How do you take notes?First off I’d say that you’d need to ask yourself some questions. Top one in my mind is, “Does my reader need to know this to understand the story?” I’ve seen many stories where an author has done research and hates to waste all the trivia they’ gathered and infodumps it to avoid the waste. The reader is then more or less forced to search through this trash in case a sneaky author has hidden important information.
The second question is, “How much does the author need to know in order to understand the situation?” It really isn’t possible to write about a situation if you don’t understand it. Even then there are things not readily understandable and a writer’s skill is getting the reader to believe. One caution here is not to invent checkable facts.
Ashe wrote:I usually go in with specific questions. Like, for my 2yn, one question will be “How/when was the first hydroelectric dam built?” I go in with that, and I find the answer, then I can move on to, “How/when was electricity first distributed?” And so on. I create a list of questions I want answered, look for the answers, and hold that info in reserve for worldbuilding. Keeps me from getting too much info, and the limited amount of info makes it easier for me to control how/when I use it in the wip.Impelled by your post I did a search. I didn’t make a note but the first electrical generator installed under water was mentioned, but the elctrical distribution would be more difficult because buildings and cities set up their own systems and there were many of these, so it would be hard to pin down a date historically. And why would your reader need to have exact dates?
Snippets from a time line may be all that’s needed.
Not for my reader, but for me, to determine reliablility of electrictiy in my wip. All I know at this point is that its unevenly distributed among the dwellings/populace, with more rich people having more reliable power and better access than poor people. This matters because I need to determine where on the financial status scale the school where my characters are living is at, so I can decide if they’ll have electric lights and appliances or if they don’t and how reliable the power is to their school.
And thanks for the link! I appreciate it!
Ashe Elton Parker
"Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
~*~
Member since 1998.
~*~I most often research while I outline and I come across items that I need to better understand. Most of the research is done out of my own library (several thousand nonfiction books) since I read and write about what interests me. Adapting to an sf or a fantasy novel isn’t difficult. I only do research on line for very basic things. There is far too much misinformation on the Internet. Even Wiki pages have been purposely edited by later people to change something that better fits their pet theory. Books are not perfect, but if you know good, solid authors for facts, you can often believe you are getting things right on the first try. (I’ll accept anything by historian Michael Grant over Wiki). Of course, it’s more work. You actually have to read the books. Since I love reading and learning things, that’s not a big problem.
Depending on where I’m working, I will either write on note cards, notes on my Nook, or type notes directly into sets on Scrivener. Eventually, the Nook and note card work goes into the Scrivener file too. I keep the material in ‘folders’ on Scrivener so that things like Norse Gods has a section and Chinese Gods has one.
Having the material directly in Scrivener means I can access it at any time while I write.
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