How to Tackle Overwhelming Research for Your Novel
What to do when the work before writing seems insurmountable.
I’m no stranger to research. In fact…I kind of love it. After all, unlike many school assignments, research for your novel tends to be research on something that you actually are deeply interested in.
But it can certainly be intimidating. When I first started writing Across the Universe, my debut novel, I felt grossly inadequate. What right did I have to write a science fiction novel? I’d hated science in school! But I love astronomy, and more than that, I loved the book, so I dug into the research — even unearthing some old textbooks from college for it.
Now though…now I’m working on an idea that’s far above my knowledge. I may have felt unqualified for the science fiction, but I’m attempting something even more ambitious now — rather than going forward in time, I’m going backwards, trying my hand at a historical piece. And, of course, I’ve selected a time period with remarkably few primary resources, in a country I do not live in, during a global pandemic when even my local library is closed, much less the larger archives.
I know the heart of the story I want to tell. After all, whether in space or history, stories are, at their base, about human relationships and conflicts. And this is a story that will only work in the time and place I’ve set it in.
I’m not completely devoid of knowledge in the area. I actually took several classes on the time period in college, and study the era as a pastime (excuse the pun). But when I sit down to actually write the story…I freeze.
The amount of research to make this work authentic feels insurmountable.
I spent three hours the other day trying to determine the correct spelling of a character’s name and whether or not it would be used in the specific location of the story’s setting. My precious writing time yesterday was used entirely composing emails to historic societies in the area, begging for leads on an obscure building that burned down hundreds of years ago. Late at night, I finally had a breakthrough — until I realized (after three hours of research) that the historical data was a decade off what I needed it to be.
I have invested hundreds of hours into this manuscript, and as of this article’s writing, I only have 947 words of actual story written — loosely sketched out scenes that aren’t even cohesively connected.
In my same file, I have more than ten thousand words of notes, including timelines, historical events to tap into, lists of questions I need answers to, and much more. And that’s not including the maps, schematics, and diagrams cluttering my desk.
So, how does one funnel all the research into the novel?
Start with an outline
Those of you who hate outlines are probably already groaning — I used to be that way. But if you’ve been spinning your wheels, trying to balance a story you carry in your head with research piling up around your computer, trust me.
Start with an outline.
And whether you write this outline in a notebook or on your computer, I want you to consider it written in pencil, not pen. It will change. You’re just lining up ideas at this point, literally putting the story into a chronological framework, with the idea that things will change. Don’t cement this in yet; don’t get attached to these ideas too much.
But this is also the point to keep things simple. Remember, all stories are, at their heart, human. Start there. First sketch out the basic human plot of your story — the characters start out like this, they do these things, they end up like this. Keep it loose, and focus in on the characters and the plot — not the world.
In general, plot should be driven by a character’s choices and the consequences of those choices. Plot should not be driven by coincidence, and in most stories, plot should not be driven by the world.
But plot should be influenced by the world.
Take, for example, The Hunger Games. Katniss and her choices drive the plot. She makes the choice to volunteer and take her sister’s place in the Games; she makes the choice to fight the way she does; she makes the choice to rebel. But she would never have been put in the position to make those choices if she didn’t live in the world she did.
So, once you have a basic idea of the plot, it’s time to layer in the research.
Research with an eye to the plot first
An outline gives you the plot and the character — your massive research is going to give you the world. Plot, character, and world are the three basic elements of any story, and while plot and character are the driving force, the world enhances both.
First, look at the plot. Once you have a solid outline of plot, start researching the events that could influence the plot. Remember, the world shouldn’t drive the plot, but it could influence it.
World includes not just the actual physical setting described through all the senses, but also the political climate, the society norms, cultural expectations, and more. These are the things to consider that may pull your plot into new directions. See how they could apply to the story at hand.
Examples:
→ Historical: Consider what real historical figures and events you want to include in your story and twist your plot around them. Think of the actual events of history to be a rigid mold, and your story the malleable material that can fill the empty spots.
→ Science Fiction: Consider which rules of science may affect the plot. Will the characters experience zero-gravity, explosive decompression, a lack of oxygen? What problems from living in space could influence your characters?
→ Fantasy: Even in a world entirely made up, with no basis in our own reality…there’s a basis in our own reality. The Lord of the Rings would not have existed without World War I. Can you influence your fantasy world with researched politics? Is the magic system affected by physics? What limitations on the world exist, and how do they affect the plot?
As you explore the ways the world affects the plot, you’ll find that you have to stop at times and reassess your outline. Remember: You wrote it in pencil for a reason.
Research with an eye to character next
Once you’ve applied your research to the plot, now it’s time to dig into the character.
For some, this will be easy. I, at least, found character research to be simple for my fantasy and science fiction titles — after all, I was inventing the world, so I could change the societal norms to fit the character I wanted to write.
Some stories, however, will mean that research for characters seems overwhelming. That’s what I’m experiencing with my historical. I start to write a scene — I know the plot, I know the event I want to write about — but I freeze at the idea of getting the clothing right, the mannerism, the cultural back-and-forth.
There’s so much to learn — but you don’t have to know it all. Instead, narrow your research.
Step One: Pick three key details to describe. You don’t need to describe every layer of clothing when your character is getting dressed. Know enough to get the general idea — what type of dress would be standard, for example — and then limit yourself to three details. Is the material hand-woven and scratchy? Use that. Are the buttons gold? Is the boning in the corset made of steel or whale? Okay — stop. You’ve got three details. It’s easy to get lost in the woods here, and authenticity matters, but you can add more, if you need it, when you edit. Give yourself some limits so you don’t spend all day on the minutia.
Step Two: Write with an eye to motivation. At the end of the day, the most important part of world details as it applies to character is within the character’s motivation. Sure, I appreciate a historical novel that gets the architecture right, but what matters is motivation. So when you research, look at ways the world would influence the character’s wants and actions. Events, politics, society, and cultural norms exist within your story not as background details, but as active influences on your character and why they act the way they do. As you scan the information you read, take notes not on simple facts — don’t make a list of events or fall down a rabbit hole of tiny details. Instead, make a note of something and immediately write beside it the connection you can draw to your character. A queen’s historical coronation, for example, could inspire your main character. A battle could make the character lose a friend or change mentalities. Events are not there to simply exist and highlight history — they’re there to showcase your character’s heart.
A Word of Warning
Whether you’re writing historical fiction or science fiction, remember the fiction part of the label. If you really need a historical character to be in one place when they historically were in another, go ahead and write it the way you need to for the story. If you need a faster-than-light engine on your space ship, stick it in. The inaccuracies are what an “Author’s Note” at the end of the book is for; you shouldn’t completely disregard all facts, but feel free to bend the rules and lean into the fiction part of your story when you must.
Research may feel overwhelming when you have to learn an entire new world for a book. But when you narrow down the whole world to just your story via a focused outline, it becomes much more manageable.
