Kill Your Blank Pages: Research

No wonder Tolkien took 14 years to write
his book...there was no internet!

During high school, I was forced to write dozens and dozens of speeches and essays for various academic and scholarship competitions. The beginning of the writing process was always miserable for me, because I had no idea where to start.

I quickly learned that my apparent inability to write didn't stem from any problem with my brain or my creativity. Quite simply, I didn't know where to start because I didn't know what to fill the middle with. Until I thoroughly researched the topic I was writing on, I wouldn't be able to find the motivation I needed. Passion, I learned, stems from knowledge and understanding.

The same concept applies to story writing as well! While knowing your plot and characters and setting goes a long way towards freeing your creativity, there are still a lot of holes left to fill unless you do enough research. How can you convincingly write that combat scene if you know nothing about martial arts or weapons? How can you describe your character's struggles with a legal system if you know nothing about the legal system?

Clearly, unless you know what you are writing, it can be really hard to write. Thus, today we will be talking about how to identify problems related to lack of research and how to effectively solve them.

Is Lack of Research Slowing You Down?

A lot of writers don't even realize it when lack of research is the hang-up, because the only way to really describe the feeling is as “stuck”. If you answer “yes” to any of the following, however, you might need to do some more research:

Are you unable to find a good solution to a problem your characters are trying to solve? Are you having trouble thinking up a plotline for a character who is a professional? Is it difficult to imagine or describe a setting, location, or country? Do you know your character’s culture and its expectations?

How Do You to Research Properly?

Learn how to use spreadsheets, and compile lists and maps of details about your characters: their school schedules, birthdays, maps of important locations and rooms, places they were born in or have traveled to, and even lists of their relatives and friends, and their professions.

These details not only serve to keep your story consistent, but whenever your reach a roadblock in your mind, you can refer to these lists for inspiration. “Oh, this guy’s dad was a fisherman? He probably knows a lot about saltwater ecology… maybe I could have a plot device where all the fish are dying randomly and he helps the MC figure out why…” A stupid example, but you get my point. ;)

Story details aren’t the only research you need to do, however. A common writing admonition is to write what you know. I think the best advice comes when you reverse the saying: know what you write! If you have a farm in your story, know which crops grow in which climates and conditions! If your characters take a boat out on the water, use a boat that makes sense for what they’re doing.

Take advantage of the internet and social media as you research. Your friends and relations may know a surprising amount of information, and can answer your questions if you call them up or post a question on facebook or twitter. Wikipedia (while obviously not 100% accurate) can get you started on your search, and there are thousands of forums out there if you want to find a good answer to technical, scientific, or really any kind of information. This should help keep your story realistic, and unplug your creativity all that’s left becomes explaining what you know.

As one example, my own novel was stuck because I needed my character to be able to make a quick getaway over the water without his enemies catching up—a problem hard to solve, since his enemies enjoyed a better understanding and availability of transportation than my MC. Then I realized that the only water to travel for both of them would be by motorboat. So, the best idea would be for my MC to disable all the motorboats at the dock excepting his own. I researched motorboats on a help forum, and learned that the simplest way to disable the motorboats (using my MC’s unique ability to move water) would be to let water into the engines. Voila! I wouldn’t have figured that out without researching common motorboat problems.

Know Your World

While your story may be focused on a small, localized problem or scenario, you should think big about your story.

If you’ve ever been out of the country, you will definitely have noticed how different foreign cultures are from each other. Countries value different attributes—Italians enjoy family and friendship, while Germans appreciate hard work and honesty. I’ve been all over the United States, and learned that no two states or towns are the same: Dallas, Texas is different from St. Paul, Minnesota is different from San Diego, California is different from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania is different from St. Augustine, Florida. Even NYC and Washington D.C. have extremely different atmospheres.

These differences come from many factors: the prominent industries in that region, the landscape and resources, the history, the population, the religion and values, the education level, the wealth of the people, and how connected the location is to outside business and trade. Whether your story’s town/country/world is real or imaginary, you need to how these factors influence and affect the location in question.

Sometimes the easiest thing to do is find a community or country that resembles the one in your story, and learn as much about it as possible. While obviously you don’t want to mimic it exactly, learning why a culture is the way it is will contribute some valuable information and possibilities for your own story world.

As a writer, your job is to transport your reader into another world. So make sure you truly know the world you are writing! By researching it and understanding it as fully as possible, you do all the left-side-brain work that allows your creative right side to flow freely over the page.

Next week we begin the second half of this series. Rather than discussing story elements that might be slowing your writing down, we’ll discuss some lifestyle changes that you may need to make if you’re having serious, long-term writer’s block. Figure out if any of the five causes of writer’s block already discussed are at the root of your problem, and if they’re not, get ready for part six of KILL YOUR BLANK PAGES: A TEN-PART SERIES ON WRITER’S BLOCK. Cheers!

More Links:
Questions you can ask to make sure you know your world, real or fictional:
http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/
http://www.veronicasicoe.com/blog/2012/05/13-worldbuilding-questions/