Research, Research, Research

 

"If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain."

~Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.

I’m not talking about research for writing knowledge.  I’m talking research on story facts.  Doing proper research concerning a story idea does two things:  makes your story more believable (especially for those know-it-alls that have intimate knowledge about the setting/character/profession/etc. in your story) and gives you ammunition for future ideas.

To do proper research, the most important thing to look for is credibility.  The old saying goes “There’s two sides to every story.”  Well, when it comes to information in the real world, there are INFINITE sides to the story.  A basic example is hearing something from a friend that happened TO HIM versus that same friend telling you something that he heard from a friend about her cousin’s great granddaughter’s boyfriend.  One has the credibility of being straight from the source while the second…well…we’ll say kindly that nasty rumors have been perpetuated in the same fashion for eons.  (You can’t tell me all those story scenes drawn on vases and cave walls are strictly truths that happened to the artist–especially the “alien” ones.)

Book Spotlight: Welcome Home (A Short Story) by William Hage

Welcome, Beardies!

Life has been hectic towards the end of summer. What with finishing up a summer job, revving up for the start of the fall school semester, and trying to fit personal projects and goals in between, sitting down with a short story for review seemed like the perfect relaxation…so I thought. It's been amazingly difficult to find the time to do this author review. Thankfully, I was able to sit with Welcome Home and read it through with one of my kids sitting on one side, a cat curled up on the other. Having read the teaser as a possible paranormal thriller, I felt I could use the support!

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Book Spotlight: The Exile's Violin (Tethys Chronicles, Book 1) by R.S. Hunter

Evening Beardies!

Even being busy with writing, networking, and a full time job, I've jammed in time to read. It allows me time to relax and gives me food for thought as to my own stories with possible plots, characters, twists, and settings. I personally love reading both favorites I've found in the past and totally new stories. Variety is the spice of life, but so is seeking new experiences and information! One idea I've played with for my recent stories is learning more about the Steampunk sub-genre. I had the luck of seeing The Exile's Violin listed as one of the available reviews for The Bearded Scribe and jumped on it. The possibility of discovering a new favorite author AND getting to read a novel set in Steampunk fashion? Yes, please!

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The Golden Ticket—Research & the Fiction Writer

Hiya, Beardies!

Have you ever read a story that has a "fact" in it you know to be totally wrong, that was so implausible given a location or known fictional universe that you couldn't finish the story, or perhaps simply mismatches in happenings when compared to a well-known system of science or magic? These are cases where an author has taken to heart the old adage of "It's fiction. Just make it up!" in the wrong way and neglected to do research.

I have done a tremendous amount of research for papers not only because I know the teachers are looking for specific information, but because I want my paper to be BELIEVABLE despite the BS I've added in to reach my page requirement. The quality of the fact-based information holds up the believability of the BS. Just like a non-fiction research paper, a fictional work—no matter how small—requires the facts from research to make the story more than simply plausible…it makes it completely believable!