Your Research Process

[Linda Adams]

I think one of the challenges is that it kind of feels like fiction writers are being thrown into the deep end and left to figure it out. Research is not a topic that gets a lot of discussion generally, unless the writer is in the historical field (this may lend itself to thinking that research is only for historical novels).

The other thing I’ve run into is people focusing on researching an obscure detail because 10% audience will look for stuff like that. I remember one person asking a question like, “Would you research the weather for Memorial Day, 1960?” and all I could think was if that level of detail was required to be researched, then I’d change the story so it wasn’t required. I like what Dean Wesley Smith has posted about this: http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=4575 He uses the 80/20 principle: Research for what 80% of the audience expects, not the expectations for the 20%.

But how do you pick the details to research? I’m pretty much doing it mechanically because to me, one detail looks like a lot, and everyone else is saying, “No, you didn’t include any.”

[Wandering Author]

Linda Adams wrote:

I think one of the challenges is that it kind of feels like fiction writers are being thrown into the deep end and left to figure it out. Research is not a topic that gets a lot of discussion generally, unless the writer is in the historical field (this may lend itself to thinking that research is only for historical novels).

The other thing I’ve run into is people focusing on researching an obscure detail because 10% audience will look for stuff like that. I remember one person asking a question like, “Would you research the weather for Memorial Day, 1960?” and all I could think was if that level of detail was required to be researched, then I’d change the story so it wasn’t required. I like what Dean Wesley Smith has posted about this: http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=4575 He uses the 80/20 principle: Research for what 80% of the audience expects, not the expectations for the 20%.

But how do you pick the details to research? I’m pretty much doing it mechanically because to me, one detail looks like a lot, and everyone else is saying, “No, you didn’t include any.”

I agree with the idea that there are details you don’t have to research – but I suspect those details depend as much on the story and the writer as they do the audience. I could imagine a story where the actual weather for Memorial Day 1960 in a particular location might matter enough to research. (I was hired to research the weather on a particular date in a particular city once – because my client wanted to verify or debunk a family legend about his birth.)

As far as picking out the details to research, I think that depends on you and the story you’re telling. And on the way you want to tell those stories. It’s just like including details at all. Some writers include a lot of detail, while others write stories that are more sparse. Some are very focused on sight, others on smell or sound. (I would note here that, since the olfactory nerve is the only one which goes to the brain directly, without any filtering, a real odor can have a powerful impact on people. I’m not sure how that translates into reading about and recalling odors – and the emotional impact of such details may not work for every reader.) Write the stories you want to write. Yes, perhaps if enough people say you’re not giving them any details you do want to work on that, but I think if you just mechanically pick out details, that won’t work well. You’d need to become more aware of details, then single out the ones which stand out to you. I wonder if people are missing the details you include “mechanically” because they don’t resonate with them. (Perhaps I’m wrong; this is just a suggestion you might want to think about.)

If Dean Wesley Smith’s advice works for you, then it does. But audience participation is only part of the equation. If the plot hinges on a particular detail, you’d better get it right, because the effect of getting it wrong is much more detrimental to the story, even if not everyone notices. And it also depends on your own inclination: if I’m writing about something I really care about, say letterpress printing or fountain pens, I’m going to work a lot harder to get those details right, even if only 5% of my audience would notice a blunder. In part, that’s because I’d have a lot of fun researching anything I want to know more about anyway, and in part because I don’t want to look like an idiot to the particular “minority” I happen to belong to.

That said, the details I include tend to vary depending on the voice I’m writing the story in, and also upon the character whose head I’m in. Well, all of us know – I hope – that we ought to skip visual details if we’re inside the head of a blind character, and ramp up the sounds and smells and textures. But I’m talking about more than that. Some people touch things more. Others don’t notice what they’re eating. So the character who has focus will also influence the details, at least for me.

[sisik]

Ashe wrote:

Oh, sorry. Portaplotty is my portable external hard drive. LOL Sorry.

This made me giggle.

[Ashe Elton Parker]

It makes me giggle almost every time I read/type/think it. LOL

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.
~*~

[Weird Jim]

I remembered a post that mentioned electrification when I ran across this Article. So I thought I’d post. There’s the picture of the hundred mile line that at the time was the world’s longest. Enjoy the pictures, which I’m almost certain wre taken on an 8X10 view camera(s) . The quality is unmistakeable, and there are 70,000 of them.

Electrification

[Author]

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