Information Finding

Ever since I’ve started writing, I’ve found that it’s a big advantage to know something about a lot of different topics. That doesn’t mean I’m an expert on all these things, I’m more of a dabbler in them. Yet, knowing a bit about this and that has proven useful while I’m writing. It starts with such easy stuff as knowing that Rembrandt’s ‘Night Watch’ is too large a painting to move it as a single thief. It doesn’t end with knowing how people dressed in the regency period.

 

Information is a necessary part of your writing. You can’t write anything without having an inkling about what you’re doing there. First of all, it is hard to plot a story which includes nano technology or a duel or the daily habits of people in the year 1821 without knowing anything about those things. You can imagine what a duel looks like, but without at least a little knowledge about how a foil differs from a sabre, for instance, you can’t tell which tactics give which fighter an advantage (for a good example of a ‘foil vs. sabre’ fight, look at the second chapter of “Johannes Cabal - The Detective” by Jonathan L. Howard - you can also read the rest of the book afterwards). Without knowing what people were wearing in 1821, you might put in a tight-lacing scene for no reason whatsoever (neither did the dresses show the real waistline, nor could the stays used then withstand tight-lacing).

To describe things the way they are or were, to use them appropriately, you need to know about them. How will you describe the effect of a large-calibre bullet on that monster which is attacking your hero without knowing what the effect would most likely be? How will you make clear how tiring preparations for a party in 1821 could be without knowing about all the layers your heroine would be wearing? How would you know what was offered at that time without any idea of regular dishes or menus during that period? People haven’t always eaten as they do today, after all. For one thing, they didn’t have access to all the food we have today.

 

Another aspect you should keep in mind is that while you are not an expert on duelling techniques and the use of a foil, there’s bound to be some among your readers who are. There’s experts in every field and they’re not barred from reading novels, novellas, or short stories for fun. They will read what you are writing and realize you have no idea about the topic and they’ll be annoyed. They’ll cut you a lot more slack with small mistakes when it’s clear that you have a basic understanding, even if you’re not a fellow expert.

This plays into the principle of ‘suspension of disbelief.’ What that means is that you have to make sure the reader can suspend their disbelief when they dive into your story. That, for as long as they’re reading it, they can believe this is all true. Glaring mistakes, such as having a single thief make off with the Night Watch, will pull people out of that state of mind. They will realize something is wrong and will have a much harder time - if they still manage it - to keep that disbelief away.

Your story needs to be logical in itself and needs to make it plausible it’s true, even if it includes elves and dwarves and trolls. Of course, if you open a fantasy novel, you do not expect to see everything explained scientifically - magic may not exist in our world, but we can accept that it does in this world. Yet, if laws of nature don’t work in this world, if things fall upwards, for instance, it does need a very good explanation (if it’s everywhere, we can believe that there might be a cursed cave where the ceiling becomes the floor and vice versa).

 

These days, it’s also not that hard to get information. Research using the internet is a good deal easier than having to tour several libraries and order books from others through inter-library lending in order to get all the information you need.

Of course, there are reliable and less reliable sources online and it usually pays to check several different hits for your search. Do not only rely on Wikipedia or the first hit of your Google search. Check out various videos on YouTube and prefer scientific papers, if you can find them. Yet, there’s a lot of places where you can find all the information you need.

 

Research can also be fun. There’s a lot of books around these days which are both a great read and very informative. Challenge yourself a little. Read a book about a topic you’re not familiar with. Expand your areas of knowledge a little every now and then. It’s not only books on writing which can be very helpful (although they are, make no mistake there), but also books on fencing, needlepoint, Victorian daywear, or the potato through the ages.

Then there’s the wide expanse of YouTube which has oodles of interesting, well-made videos on a lot of topics. Not only will a video on fencing allow you to study the movements so you can describe them, it will also make it easier to understand certain things if you’re not a sporty person yourself. Videos on how people used to dress often show such clothing or modern remakes of it, so you get a better idea than from the fashion drawings or woodcuts which might accompany a chapter in a book. Not to mention that some YouTubers who do fashion history or other topics might be a lot of fun to watch and listen to.

 

Finally, let me give you an example of how reading non-fiction books for fun has helped me with writing. A while ago, I read “Monster, She Wrote” and “The Jane Austen Handbook” in quick succession during a few days. Somehow, the two books fused with each other in my head, especially the chapter on Ann Radcliffe from “Monster, She Wrote” and the entire “The Jane Austen Handbook”.

Jane Austen makes fun of Gothic romance - the genre in which Ann Radcliffe was one of the biggest names - in “Northanger Abbey”. Ann Radcliffe did the ‘it was Old Man Munson all along (and not a ghost or monster)’ twist long before Scooby Doo became a thing. In my head, this fused together into the idea of a story set in the Regency era (where all Jane Austen novels are set), but using the ‘it was not a ghost, but a human’ twist from Ann Radcliffe. The end result of this is named “The Haunting of Winterthorne Hall” and will be released in August next year.

Had I not read two books on topics I was not overly familiar with (female authors in horror and the life of landed gentry in the Regency era), I would never have come up with the idea and the plot of the book. I wouldn’t have known how to use the limitations of the Regency period to my advantage, either. The book would not exist.

 

Research is an important part of writing. It might not be as important as actually writing a book or outlining your story (if you outline, that is), but it will be important for the quality of the story you produce and it might even be a reason why that story you write does exist, see “The Haunting of Winterthorne Hall”.