There are more to researching for your novel than simply looking up facts. Although, fact checking is important there are two other parts of researching that may be over looked. I broke up the research process into three parts: Characters, Setting,and Factual.
1. Characters
Character research pretty much speaks for itself. It is the research you do on your main characters to gain a deeper understanding of them. After all, as the writer of your creative piece no one will know your characters better than you will; so the more you know the more your readers will know.
– Personality
-Background
-Goals
-Hobbies
-Faults and Skills
2. Setting
This one is more about studying all the locations where your story takes place in. If you’re creating a made up place you should be sure to know everything you need to know about that created place including the government system, laws, social issues, etc.
If the location in your story is not made up then researching online about your place should suffice. If not, a local trip to your library would be a good idea to get history on your character’s city or town.
3. Factual
This type of research is done to make sure the true things you meant to say are indeed true. This is the common part about researching because you’re used to fact checking in high school on academic papers. You have to make sure what you’re talking about in your story makes sense to the real world.
This type of research takes you out of your creative comfort zone because it requires knowledge of non fiction information. For me, it’s not my favorite type of research because it’s just studying a boat load of information.
Going more in-depth with your research will truly make your creative work shine and I hoped this post helps you on your creative journey.
What do you do when you research? What topics do you spend more time researching? Leave a comment below to share.
photo credit: istockphoto.com
