Jessica Russell's Blog - Posts Tagged "research"
It's Not How, it's Where
Being told to be careful with research is probably something you’ve heard 100 times. However, it bears repeating because sometimes you have an excellent story, multidimensional characters, surprise ending, and all the good stuff that makes up a great read. Nevertheless, your credibility can take a real hit if you’re not careful to get your facts straight. Of course, if you’re writing fantasy or sci-fi, that’s a different story. If you write historical fiction, crime or medical thrillers, etc., it’s important to get your facts straight. Otherwise, you create eye rolling moments in parts of your book, which is something no novelist ever wants to see happen!
The tip I would like to give concerns the source of your research. Most writers do some type of research, particularly if they’re writing historical fiction. However, sometimes your sources are the kiss of death. I’ve seen many novice writers go to places like Wikipedia, personal blogs, or even Snopes to get their facts. I’m not downing Wikipedia or Snopes, but they are not foolproof places to research facts for a novel. If it’s a historical novel, you may get some great information on Wikipedia or similar sites, but you also need to cross reference it with genuine history textbooks and sites like Smithsonian or history.org where the facts are vetted as much as possible.
I recently had someone go completely to the other side of the ditch and make this ridiculous statement “well, how do you know the historians are correct?” Okay, it’s true that historians probably made mistakes through the years, but if I’m researching facts for a novel and I’m using the same books that colleges use in their curriculum to hand out masters degrees in history, I think it’s safe that most of it is going to be accurate. No one can time travel, we just do the best we can.
So just know that there’s a big difference between sites that “contributors” can post on, leaving it up to the READERS to determine whether or not it’s accurate, and books and websites that are sourced back to true authority figures on the subject. Always make sure you use the latter, not the former. You will avoid many silly mistakes, some of which might make you look foolish in the eyes of your readers. Write on.
The tip I would like to give concerns the source of your research. Most writers do some type of research, particularly if they’re writing historical fiction. However, sometimes your sources are the kiss of death. I’ve seen many novice writers go to places like Wikipedia, personal blogs, or even Snopes to get their facts. I’m not downing Wikipedia or Snopes, but they are not foolproof places to research facts for a novel. If it’s a historical novel, you may get some great information on Wikipedia or similar sites, but you also need to cross reference it with genuine history textbooks and sites like Smithsonian or history.org where the facts are vetted as much as possible.
I recently had someone go completely to the other side of the ditch and make this ridiculous statement “well, how do you know the historians are correct?” Okay, it’s true that historians probably made mistakes through the years, but if I’m researching facts for a novel and I’m using the same books that colleges use in their curriculum to hand out masters degrees in history, I think it’s safe that most of it is going to be accurate. No one can time travel, we just do the best we can.
So just know that there’s a big difference between sites that “contributors” can post on, leaving it up to the READERS to determine whether or not it’s accurate, and books and websites that are sourced back to true authority figures on the subject. Always make sure you use the latter, not the former. You will avoid many silly mistakes, some of which might make you look foolish in the eyes of your readers. Write on.
