How to Do Research: 8 Proven Tips to Get You Started

by

Sometimes the difference between good and bad writing is the level of research done. Because all stories, whatever the quality, is rooted in the real world in some way or another.

Many writers either hate doing research or thrive in it—so much that it’s all they sometimes do. But all of them will admit that it’s a necessary process in creating stories.

Doing Research for a Book

You’ve got the core idea of the book—its setting, characters, and plot. Now it’s time to fill them with the right details. Having realistic, or at least believable, elements create a more immersive story.

But how do you go about doing research for your book? Check out these 8 proven tips you can do.

1. Get yourself organized.

Decide how you want things to be organized. It can be as simple as writing on index cards and keeping a notebook. What’s important is you lay down a system for yourself.

Whatever way of documentation you choose, it’s always good to start with lists. List down what you need to look up, what you’ve found, what needs further research, and so on. Your lists will be your best friend as you accumulate information.

Part of doing research is being able to keep track of what you’ve researched. Make sure you have a way of quickly finding what you need from your notes.

If you use note-taking apps, note management will probably already be set up for you. But if you’re going the manual route, create categories, group related information together, highlight important details, and so on.

3. Start by skimming through information.

When doing research you usually start with a broad area and slowly establish your parameters. This allows you to get a general idea of the subject and pinpoint the things you want to concentrate on.

Looking around for information will also help you identify the sources you’ll want to research from. These can be libraries, Youtube, news articles, and blogs. Just make sure that they are subject matter experts.

For example, if you plan on using a real place as your setting, the first thing you do is look it up. You’ll probably look at it as if you’re a tourist, focusing on local attractions, significant events, weather patterns, and so on. After that comes the more in-depth kind of research.

2. Define the scope of your research.

You can easily get distracted when doing research. You might start looking at particular historical vessels only to end up reading about the kinds of seafood people ate during the 1600s.

This is called scope creep, where the area of your research keeps on expanding but loses its focus. So none of your original questions are answered.

Set down specific questions to guide you in your research. So if you’re researching the types of ships used long ago, your questions could be:

  • What ships were used in this particular era?
  • How were these ships financed and built?
  • How many people are needed to crew these vessels? What does the chain of command look like?
  • How long do these ships last?

Focus on the essential information you need to start writing. As you find answers to each question, you begin to paint a better picture of what you want to portray in your story. Once you feel that you have enough information on a particular subject, move on to the next.

4. Read, read, and keep reading.

If you’re a writer, then you’re probably quite the reader as well. If that’s the case, then you’re already set for doing research because it takes a lot of reading.

All reading will help you improve your craft, whether it’s through establishing your style and voice to helping you create immersive worlds with a high level of detail. But if you’re doing research for a book, you’ll probably need to read books you normally don’t read.

You’ll definitely slog through documents you hate or find boring, in search of the information you need to flesh out your book. But all this reading will give you a trail to follow and questions to find answers for.

5. Ask the right people.

A lot of times, you might be content with reading articles on the internet. But it’s often the talks with subject matter experts that truly give you what you need. They become your one-stop shop for accurate and cohesive information.

Reading about stuff can be boring. Hearing it from a person that’s knowledgeable and passionate about the subject makes you excited. They know the subject intimately and can guide you through processing the information.

They know how one subject connects to another, which adds another layer of understanding to the information you discover. For example, a textbook might simply discuss the utility of a horse, but an expert can tell you about its place in certain cultures and how this animal is seen from their perspective.

They could also help you fill in the holes in your research, some of which you might not even be aware of. Consider them as guides to a well-researched book.

6. Move out of the internet.

The internet has become the largest repository of information. When you’re looking for something, it’s usually the first place you turn to.

The problem is, it’s also the largest repository of misinformation. There’s a large volume of stuff that you need to sift through. This can make the process much more frustrating.

Consider sources of information outside of the internet. Check out your library, access private archives if you can, search for physical newspapers and magazines, and so on.

These will be more labor-intensive, but there is still a lot of information that isn’t available on the internet. Especially when they’re extremely niche or obscure.

Keep in mind that these places aren’t immune to misinformation. Always fact-check the information you find, whatever the source.

7. Join a writer’s club.

Being in a writer’s club means you’re surrounding yourself with people who have similar interests, experiences, and goals as you. Some of them will be new, but there will always be those who are more experienced and knowledgeable than you are.

You learn from one another. Pay attention to how they go about the writing process, including research. Some of them may even have already researched the things you’re looking for right now. Or maybe they could recommend you to an expert.

This opportunity for information sharing will be valuable throughout your writing career. You don’t just have a support system of fellow writers, but a growing collection of experiences.

8. Hire someone.

There’s no shame in hiring someone to do the bulk of the research for you. Especially if you find someone that’s familiar with the topic you want to look into.

A dedicated researcher is already familiar with the research process. They’ll know how to tackle a subject and find the information you need. But this kind of expertise will cost you.

You can hire someone with less experience. It’s cheaper, but keep in mind that, depending on how well they do, you might have to do additional research.

Why You Should Do Research

You’ve heard it many times—”Write what you know.” But many writers don’t just want to write about what they know. That’s boring, and boring is one thing that any writer doesn’t want to be.

Creativity doesn’t allow you to box yourself in. You always want to explore, learn, and write about something that interests you. And so you do research.

Research is how you fill up a story with details that enhance your world, your characters, and your plot. Think of them as the building blocks of your novel.

A story that’s propped by surface-level information is easy to collapse because all the characters end up as caricatures and the world they move in is as weak as cardboard.

When is Research Enough?

Sometimes writers get so obsessed with research that they forget to write the actual story. This is called worldbuilder’s disease, where they just keep on adding details to their world but never progress to the next stage of the process.

There are a lot of reasons for this. You either keep thinking that you don’t have enough information, are scared of doing the actual writing, or are worried that you missed something critical.

You don’t have to have all the details by the time you write your first draft, just enough to get the story rolling. You can always do more research in the future.

Remember, research is only one part of the writing process. Don’t forget to invest time and effort in the other parts. If you don’t, you’ll never finish your book, much less publish it. And one of the biggest things that people hate is an unfinished story.

How do you do research for your books? Share your methods in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like: