“Why do I need to do research? I’m writing fantasy.”

If this has ever crossed your mind, you aren’t alone. In fantasy writing, you spend a great deal of time making things up as you go along. However, if you want to craft believable worlds and characters, research can give your stories a depth you can’t get any other way.

But let’s back up.

First, we need to identify what research for novel writing looks like.

Book research can be anything that builds the foundation for your story. You can get it from movies you watch, books you read, real-world cultures and events, etc.

By doing your research, you will ensure accuracy in your story as well as avoid descriptors that are actually racial slurs. It can also enrich your story by having a real-world aspect that can help ground your reader.

Here are my favorite methods of research for writing:

• Children’s fact books
• Online research
• Real-world experience
• Shared stories by others
• Movies
• Books

Let’s look at each of these options.

1. Children’s fact books

One of my favorite ways to do book research is to choose the key concept for my next book (i.e., my book takes place on a ship in the ocean). Once I have a topic, I go to my public library and find nonfiction books in the children’s section that deal with whatever I’m researching.

I recommend using children’s books for things like this because you can get highlights and garner a great deal of information in short order. Plus, it ensures you don’t get too bogged down in details that won’t matter to your story. I also love the fact that they come with pictures. This helps me create mental images of how I want my scenes to look and what I should include.

So if my topic is ships on the ocean, I’m going to research ocean patterns, sailing vessels and interesting facts through the ages for life on the sea. I’ll take notes about underwater caves, sea life, myths, legends, and factual stories. 

For example, while I was researching sailing vessels, I came across an interesting tidbit about ghost ships. Inside these ships, everything looks like someone just left the room, and the food on the tables remains untouched.

Yet no one is on board. 

These ships continue to sail the ocean, surviving storms and other hazards of the sea. This was such an interesting fact that it became a plot point in The Siren’s Call.

If you need to go deeper for a novel that is less fantastical, you can also check out more in-depth sources that your library recommends.

2. Online research:

This is perhaps the easiest mode of gaining information for your novel, but there is a catch.

It can become really easy to lose your focus on what you’re actually researching. You may get distracted and wind up down a hole wondering how what you just read relates to your book.

My tip here is to be intentional. Don’t just hop on your computer and search a broad topic. You’ll waste a lot of time. Instead, pick something specific you need to learn to help build a plot point and set a timer. If you can’t find what you need in fifteen minutes, either refine your topic or choose another source.

3. Real-world experience

Have you done anything interesting lately? Do you have memories that will stick with you for the rest of your life? I can almost guarantee that you do.

If you have a character that is dealing with the loss of a loved one, draw on the awful day your favorite pet died. What did you feel? How did you move past your grief? Are you still dealing with it? The feelings you felt can anchor your character and give an emotional depth that will connect your reader in a way nothing else will.

Another fun aspect of this can be if you have a story about characters doing something specific, take a field trip and get firsthand knowledge. You’ll learn what sounds and smells are present. You’ll know what it’s like.

This is the best method for making your research as accurate as possible, but because of timing, money, and other factors, it’s not always feasible to replicate an experience had by your characters.

Which brings us to

4. Shared stories

Sometimes you can’t get the first-hand knowledge you need for your novel, but your friends and family might.

If you’re writing a book set in the 1970s, ask your parents or another relative who lived in that era and write about their experiences. This can be just as engaging as gaining your own experience and provides the added benefit of building your relationship with that person as you listen.

5. Movies

Sometimes you need to get a visual of what you’re researching, and movies can do a great job. You can hear and see what those characters are experiencing. This in turn will allow you to more accurately depict what is happening in your novel.

6. Books

You can find factual sources on a particular point, such as the ghost ships in my example earlier. You can find history books that give first-hand accounts, or biographies from people who have encountered ghost ships in the past.

You can also look into novels that are in your genre and see what types of information they honed in on and what they left out. Maybe your genre gets into the minutiae of the details and so you need to as well.

Or they may only gloss over certain facts they deemed irrelevant.

This will also show you what you like in novels and what you don’t. Some books are great. Some are not. But all can teach you something.

Conculsion:

Though much of the information you research will probably never be shared with your readers, it is important to do it, even in fantasy novels. It will enrich your stories and help readers connect with your characters on a deeper level.