Ask An Author: How much research is too much, too little, and just right?

Each week, a new author will serve as your Camp Counselor, answering your writing questions. Christa Desir, our first counselor, writes contemporary fiction for young adults, and has volunteered as a rape victim activist for more than ten years. Her second book , Bleed Like Me , will be out this fall.

How much research is too much, too little, and just right? Does the answer change depending on if we’re writing historical fiction, tech-based science fiction, mainstream fiction, etc.? — Anonymous

I do think it depends on what genre you’re writing in. There are certain subjects that are more immediately accessible to us, and we can do quick research and get a feel for them. Then I think there are things that are way outside our schema and we need to dig in more.

For example, I’m writing a book about an alcoholic girl boxer. I knew about the alcoholism. It has touched my life, so I could get into it pretty easily. And I poured over the AA Big Book and talked/listened to a lot of people in recovery. But I didn’t know much about boxing. So I had to stretch further and start asking around if anyone knew female amateur boxers. (Thank you, Twitter!).

And then I went with a boxing friend of mine to a gym so I could smell it and see it and not just half-ass it from YouTube videos. A lot of the stuff I learned about boxing is not in my book. But it still informed my writing. I know a lot of authors have done very in-depth research (ask Ruta Sepetys her story one day). This is part of the job and you should not shy away from it.

On the other side of that, I have a friend who loves to research. She could spend ten years delving into Italian architecture just to write a thriller that hinges on one small and obscure Italian architecture fact. She would live in research forever and never write a book if she didn’t have people around her who build writing challenges into her life. Or if she didn’t have someone like me saying, “Beth, the best manuscript is a completed manuscript.”

So at a certain point, you need to let go of the research and just write. I think instinct comes in handy here. If you think you have under-researched something, you probably have. If you think your overly extensive research is stopping you from writing, it probably is. Listen to your gut. Or at the very least, your critique partners!

Next week’s Camp Counselor is Liz Coley, author of YA psychological thriller Pretty Girl-13. Ask her your questions here!