How To Effectively Research for Writing

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As a writer who is serious about her craft and has written several full manuscripts and short stories, I’ve found myself faced with having to do a fair amount of research for the stories I’ve created. Researching the topics you write about is essential. A writer can look foolish if they write about something they are completely ignorant about and get their facts and details wrong. This is especially true if you write science fiction, crime fiction, or historical fiction. Readers are knowledgeable and savvy and don’t always forgive an author for being too lazy to research their subject matter. So, it’s best to do your research.

After studying the processes of other writers and through trial and error on my own, I’ve developed a research process I find most effective. I will share that process with you, hoping that my experience will help you as you research for your writing projects. This process is what I used when preparing term papers and essays for school, so if you’re not a “writer” per se, this may still help you. Remember that I am wonderfully neurodivergent, so the process that works for me may not work for you, and that’s okay. Find a process that is most effective for you.

Lots of Lists and Brainstorming

I am a brainstormer and list maker. When something strikes me as an interesting topic that might be explorable as a story idea, I immediately grab paper and pen (I’m woefully old-fashioned. If you are more tech-savvy, by all means, use your tablet or laptop) and begin jotting down my ideas. For example, my brainstorming for the characterization of the main protagonist of one of my stories might have looked like this:

Character Brainstorming Example: Will Endicott

From that mess of circles and lines, I came up with a few general topics I knew I’d have to research to help develop the character of “Will Endicott” in my story. I made a list of those broad topics that looked like this:

Will Endicott Research List:

· Billionaire lifestyle

· Classic muscle cars

· Car restoration/mechanics

· English boarding schools

· Alcohol/drug abuse

· Secret societies

Narrowing and Refining My Research Topics

The topics I listed above are comprehensive, and each could take several days to weeks to research inside and out. I had to narrow my focus on each topic to something more specific and refine those topics most important to developing my character.

For example, let’s take the topic “Classic Muscle Cars.” In my story, Will rabidly loves classic muscle cars, but that topic can be narrowed down and refined. Instead of just ‘muscle cars,’ I narrowed it to “1960’s American muscle cars.” As you can see, that considerably reduced the field I had to research and was more specific in describing my character. I could further narrow down to specific makes and models of American muscle and pony cars from the 1960s. In Will’s case, I selected the Dodge Charger and Corvette Stingray. From there, I chose specific years for each car and then focused my research on those cars because they are the cars that Will drives in my story.

Classic Muscle Cars > American Muscle Cars > 1960s American Muscle Cars > Dodge Charger and Corvette Stingray

Along each step, I narrowed my topic and refined what I would ultimately be researching. This process takes a few minutes but will save you potentially hours or days of work.

I did this with each topic under “Will Endicott.” But I also used this process when researching other aspects of my story, including plot elements, settings, themes, etc.

The essential questions are “How important is this topic to my story?” and “How can I narrow down and refine this topic?”

Setting Aside Research Time and Creating a Research Agenda

Since researching for your writing is important, you must set aside a portion of your daily writing time for it. Make a schedule and stick to it. It’s easy to put research off because it’s not the most exciting part of writing, but it’s essential. Keep a calendar and write down when you will be researching and how long it will take—then stick to it. I tend to do ninety percent of my research before I begin writing my outline for my story, so the first couple of months of a novel project might be dominated by research. This sounds tedious and can be, but I’ve found that I appreciate having all the information I need available when I sit down to plot out my story.

I’ve found creating an agenda for myself practical to keep my research time focused. Aside from specifying the amount of time and when I will be conducting my research, I ask myself questions like “Do I know anyone who is an expert in the field of my topic that I can contact for an interview? Where (how far) am I willing to travel to research or gain hands-on experience? What books or websites can I utilize to research this topic?”

Recording and Storing Your Research Data

Research isn’t good if you don’t record and store it properly for future use. I’m old school when it comes to this. I prefer using a good old-fashioned pen and paper. But I’m gradually moving into the twenty-first century by employing my Rocketbook and Frixion pens to make notes, which I can then scan into my cloud storage and save and backup on my laptop later. You can take notes directly on your tablet or laptop if you're more modern than I am. Just so long as you are making a permanent record of the information you glean for future use, that’s what matters.

When interviewing people, I don’t recommend you rely solely on taking notes by hand or even typing them directly into an electronic. Using a digital audio or video recorder to store the interview session is preferable, but remember, you must have the consent of the person you are interviewing before recording them—permission first—always. Also, when the interview is over, express your appreciation for the time they’ve given you.

Keep a binder designated specifically for any handwritten notes on regular paper you take, again focused on the specific topic and the specific story you are researching. For example, I have a binder titled “Ashes of Injustice—Character Development.” In that binder, I only keep notes about the development of the story’s characters, and I use dividers to organize each topic. I don’t trust my beautifully neurodiverse brain to keep everything organized.

I want to note that since I received my first Rocketbook and Frixion pens as a Christmas gift from my daughter and son-in-law, I’ve been in love with them. Because you can reuse the notebooks repeatedly, it saves on the cost (and waste) of using traditional paper. Additionally, I can scan my notes from my Rocketbook using the Rocketbook App directly to my choice of cloud storage and then back up everything on my laptop and USB memory sticks. It’s a system made in heaven for someone like me who likes taking notes with a pen but needs the organization and storage power of the cloud and my laptop.

Don’t forget to back up your research. Nothing is worse than losing hours or days of work because of a computer glitch or other accident.

Be Careful Where You Source Your Information

Always be very careful where you get your information from. Only some sources are reliable. This is especially true when researching topics on the Internet. You'll find hundreds of questionable and inaccurate sources for every legitimate, reliable source of information. Google is an essential tool in research on the Internet, but that’s all it is—a tool. It won’t replace your discernment, common sense, and due diligence.

Many people like to head straight to Wikipedia. While I would never say that Wikipedia is untrustworthy, the fact that it is so easily editable by users means that you can’t rely on it as your sole source of credible, accurate information. Instead, I suggest you use Wikipedia as a launch pad for further research on other sites. Use it to obtain keywords and topics you can then use to search the rest of the web. Also helpful is the references section at the end of a Wikipedia article. You can use these to guide you where to look for more information. When looking for credible sources online, you can’t go wrong by checking out pages whose URLs end in (dot)org or (dot)edu for trusted organizations and educational institutions.

Always, always, double and triple-check your sources and information. Never rely on one source for all your data on a topic. Compare information from one source to another, even when obtaining information from hardcopy books. Better to spend a little extra time confirming your data than displaying your ignorance in your writing and being embarrassed by it later. Trust me, I know this, unfortunately, from experience.

Remember to Keep Writing

Research is essential, but don’t let it consume so much of your time that you stop writing the ‘fun’ stuff. After all, that’s all this effort is about—writing the best possible story or essay with the best possible information at your disposal. And remember, if you are writing fiction, there is always room to manipulate data creatively so long as you do it in the context of fiction. There’s room for creative license. But don’t get creative when writing non-fiction.

I hope this was helpful to you and your future research for your writing, be it fiction or non-fiction. If you have any comments or suggestions, please share them with me in the comments section at the end of this post. Also, if you haven’t already, please sign up for my monthly newsletter and check out the list of related blog posts on my site. Please share my blog with your friends and family. Thank you again for reading, and God bless you richly.

Pauline