There are times that a writer might find that they need to research something that is outside of their area of expertise and the answers may be just a click or a page turn away. Perhaps the writer knows about a subject but really wants to expand their topic to write for a longer form. Whether you are looking to learn a new subject or expand your current knowledge, this guide has some tips on researching for your next writing endeavor. This assumes you have an idea of what you want to write. If not, check out my guide in choosing a topic.
Identify what you want to research and how it might fit in your story
The first step is to zone in on topics that help you build your writing outline. Perhaps you know that you want write an alternate-history fiction of World War II but you’ve realized that you don’t know that much about exactly who was involved, why they were involved, and what famous events have occurred that can give a pivot point for the change in the history. You may know that you want to Axis to win but you need to decide what the nature of the change will be. For this, you might want to know some events of the War. What type of world do you want it to be like? Presumably the alternate world would be different if Hitler’s Germany would have taken over compared to Hirohito’s Japan or Mussolini’s Italy. Or maybe they simply divided the losing territories up, as shown in the book The Man in the High Castle. After answering those questions you now have come up with some criteria to research: “Pivotal World War 2 events”. Will there be a heavy military presence or will it be a more civilian story? The choice might spark you to research what military ranks were for the era, or lead you to learn how people live in those countries. Create a list of your questions and then search for the answers to them.
Search for the answer to your questions on the Internet
Every time a question comes into my head, I go to Google and search for information about it. If someone asks me a general question and I cannot answer it, I will say “Google it.” There is so much information online, you just have to be able to identify it.
Running a search
Pick one of the items you’ve identified as needing research. Here is an example: What are some instances in World War 2 where I can divert the real timeline for my alternate-history story? A good search query might be “turning point of WW2”. The idea is that if this important event had not occurred then maybe the (known) outcome would not have happened. The search result shows me the Battle of Stalingrad, which is likely a matter of opinion because there is probably no single move that solely contributed to the result, but might be a fine choice. If you wanted other suggestion you may try to omit the word “Stalingrad” (add a minus right before the word you want to omit) from the results to see what shows up: “turning point of WW2 -Stalingrad”. Now the Battle of Midway appears in the results. Before my filter of the results, I do see that original suggestion of Battle of Stalingrad was a common suggestion in the search results so I might be inclined to work with it for my story.
Validating source quality
An important thing to note is that if you have a lot of different sources saying the same thing (like the Battle of Stalingrad in the search results), you might consider that helps validate the authenticity of the information. There are exceptions, to be sure. If your search target is for something very factual you want to vet the source to help avoid misinformation. I always place science ahead of opinion and am, by default, skeptical so I might be more inclined to search for scientific sources of information. Whether the writing is fictional or non-fictional, it can be nice to have real information in there for the author’s credibility. If I were to read something that references real life but the author is not portraying the facts of the real life event, and it is not expected to alter reality in that manner, it takes me out of the story even if the piece is a work of fiction. If the writing is fictional and you are comfortable with taking liberties with fact knowing that it’s not supposed to be representing pure fact, then you may not have to be scrutinizing the sources. In the example of an alternate-history fiction, the reader knows that the reality will diverge from the reality we know. Follow this methodology for everything that you want to research.
Find other sources for information
There may come a point where you hit a wall with Internet research and you have to reach further than your keyboard. Perhaps you want to not only research facts, but get a sense of what it is like experiencing the topic that you are researching. That might involve opening up a book or engaging in some human interaction. Reading a biography of someone relating to a subject can be a way to get insight into the feeling of experience in the subject. For example, if the story is about a successful rock band then reading the biography of popular musicians can help you build the life for your character. You might also consider watching live interviews with musicians to find any insight into their lives. There may be times where talking to someone one on one is an option, if you’re needing someone more accessible. Your fictional story might involve a person who is a librarian and gets wrapped up in a thrilling adventure. To get an interview, it’s as easy as going to your local library and seeing if anyone is willing to help you with some answers for your new book. People are often times willing to answer questions about their job, especially since they would spend about 40 hours of their week at their job. Be friendly and say, “Hi! I am writing a book about a librarian and was hoping to talk to someone who can answer a few questions.”
Organize your information
Ensure that your research is organized for easy reference. Keep topically-related research together and identify which information seems more relevant to your plot compared to which information will help for building the character or add minute details. When you are creating the outline for your story you can look back to the information that will help build the plot. As you are writing the story, you will reference your outline to keep you on the right path and reference your research’s designated non-plot information for the flavor of your story and characters details.