The Steps to Researching for a Novel
Have a Starting Point — An Idea
Before you can even research or start writing your novel, you need to have the idea for the novel plot as well as the general storyline planned in out in your head. If you have a vague idea, let the idea grow in your head before you do anything. Develop it all in your mind before you start putting things on paper. I call it part of the aging process. You get the idea going and then just let it grow.
Okay, you are going to write a story that involves a character who works in a coffee shop. Do you know anything about working in that type of environment? Do you really know anything about coffee? If the answer to these questions is no, then you need to do some research. Talk to someone who has worked in a café. Get books on how to make drinks your character will be making. Look up café terms and how they are used. A great thing to do is go to a local coffee shop and sit down for an hour or two. Watch and listen. You would be amazed at how much research you can get.
Character in coffee shop. Check. Idea formed and preliminary research being done as I get my daily cup of caffeine. Check.
Understand What You Know and Don’t Know
There are some things that don’t need researching or at least not much from you. I’m an accountant. If my character is one, I don’t have to research terminology and such. I know it from personal experience. I am from lower Alabama. If my character is from there, I don’t have to do much in the way of research for that. If I’m writing about a pharmacist, I have a ton of research to do as I know nothing about it. I currently have one story where I’m writing about a girl with a disability. I am not too familiar with it so I have to do some research.
Understand what you know and don’t know. That means admitting to yourself that you don’t know everything and could do with some more research. Even if you are very familiar with a subject, look further into it. There is always something new to learn.
Start Small
Don’t think you have to research everything in the novel at once. That could be overwhelming to the point of never finishing the book much less getting started. You need to pick one thing to start with. That usually is the main theme of the book or something in the first scene. Researching someone with Alzheimer’s and the symptoms of a character who doesn’t appear until the last third of the book can wait. If I tried to research both at the same time, I’d go crazy. I need to worry with the main part of the story and the opening scenes I’ll be writing. Keep a notebook of things you think of that you might need to research as you go along. That way, you won’t forget and can jump on it anytime the research bug grabs you.
Filter Research
After you have a ton of data, you can begin to filter your research. Think of it like someone panning for gold. They have gathered all the residue from the bottom of the creek. That is all that research you bookmarked and noted. Why? Because you don’t want to accidently toss away a golden nugget hidden within the dirt and sand. Now you go through your research material and look at the story where you are and where you think you’ll be going with it next. Sift through the information to see what applies at this moment in time. What information will help this scene or this character in this scenario? You might find nuggets that you can’t use this very minute but you know you’ll need real soon. Pull them out and set them aside so you aren’t frantically looking for it all a few hours or days later when you need them.
Gather All Info
When you start to research, don’t be too picky. Gather everything you can find even it if it seems far-fetched. I honestly didn’t think of that until I read where Stephanie Meyer found some notes on vampires having babies. She had no need for it at all in her first couple of books, but she filed the information away. She didn’t toss it aside though she probably never thought she would use it. That little bit of information became the basis for her final book.
Bookmark everything you find. Make notes of things you don’t even think you’ll use. Even if it is not ‘traditional’ or ‘accurate’, you might find you can use it in your story. It could become a subplot, a new main storyline, or something you can play with and get really creative with in the story.
Sources to Consider
If you’re researching for a fictional novel, there really are no sources that are bad. Well, almost. It depends on how ‘accurate’ you want to be. It is fiction which means you can do anything you want with it. Yet there are some things readers will not stand for.
Historical fiction has to be true to the period it is written in. You cannot take liberties there or you will lose a huge fan base. For the items that have to be accurate to keep your readers, verify your sources. That means no Wikipedia though you can use it to lead you to other more accepted sources. Dig and dig into these topics until you know you have the right information you need.
Be Creative
Now you can be creative with the information. With some, you might not want to get too creative depending on what kind of story you are writing. If it is pretty realistic, then you don’t want to mess with certain facts like how a gun functions or laws of science. But you can get really creative if you are writing a paranormal or science fiction story. All the laws don’t apply then.
You can also get creative when it comes to how the information you obtained is used. For example, I recently began a series of novellas based on legends. The information I obtained about these legends I used creatively. In other words, I took the legends as a base and created almost all new legends with them. They were more suggestions for me to use in a way that made my story more interesting.
Keep Researching
Truth be told, you’ll almost never stop researching for your novel. You might think you are done with your third and possibly final draft when something inspires you. Off you go researching again as you add in a few more scenes. If nothing else, it inspires you for the sequel.
