The Value of Research in a Writer’s World

As a writer, you cannot do your job well if you are not aware of the facts surrounding the story you are creating. Makes no never-mind what you are writing about, or if you write fiction or nonfiction, if details aren’t true to life, your work is essentially dead in the water from Word One.

Let’s say you are a fiction writer and want to publish late 1800s historical western romance. If you don’t verify each and every detail of your story—what words weren’t used in that time period, transportation routes from one city to another and how your characters traveled, or even something as seemingly inconsequential as fashion details—you lose your readers almost immediately.

If you’re a biographer, you had better ensure that each and every detail you claim to be fact within the life of your subject is exactly that … factual. I guarantee you there are experts out there, and those who believe they are experts, and these people will without question call you out if they find even the slightest error, or perceived error, in your telling of the life of any well-known personality. If you absolutely must speculate because there is no sufficient data to prove a point, make sure you have enough corroborating, reliable and logical quotes, and background material, which readers will see as a fair representation for you to have included. And definitely be fair. When writing a biography, you are holding someone’s life in your hands. That is not to be taken lightly.

Author credibility is crucial to ongoing success and growing readership. If you write nonfiction, your attention to detail, your research, is as important to your final work as your ability to spell and your attention to grammar. How many times have you watched a movie or read a book and, while in the thick of a great story, you realize an otherwise-obscure detail is blaringly inaccurate? If you picked out that goof, how many other consumers have noticed any mistakes you have made in your work? How long will it be before that mistake, and possibly others, are circulated and dissected on every website and in every book club meeting? An author might get away with one or two mistakes if they aren’t too egregious but even if she does, her integrity as a talented writer has been put into question.

Don’t ever cut corners. Do not skimp on your research for the sake of time or convenience. You do yourself no favors. That in-depth investigation into the idiosyncrasies of the Victorian era, or exactly what sort of planes were used in a specific war period, such accurate details always enrich your story, your article, or your book. Nothing can take the place of accuracy. Keep in mind that your most faithful readers will be those who are already enthusiastic about your subject matter. Those folks will know the truth of your details before they start reading and if you don’t respect their intelligence, they will quickly stop being your readers.

You need to be careful, however, not to get so caught up in the thrill of the hunt that you ignore the writing end of your job. Research can be addictive and many a writer has become lost in the midst of that other world while forgetting the reason they are digging for detail. Create a timeframe for your research. Those gems of knowledge will open up corners of your mind you didn’t know were there and allow you to do some amazing writing. From that point, you can go back to the library or the internet or the locales in which your story is set if you need more information or have to clarify points which need more factual basis.

One more point is important to your end product—always, always notate sources. If your work is fiction, that information need not be included but it is good to have it in your records so you are able to quote, for anyone who might question you, where you learned about what books a genteel young lady would have read in 1874. Or how you know that the term, “groovy,” really did arise in the 1930s world of swing musicians. How detailed you will be is your choice but an index is almost always required for nonfiction and, for some types of writing, source notes within the text are encouraged.

A professional writer always does her research and makes sure she is as accurate as humanly possible when her work reaches the public eye. Mistakes are made and they can be forgiven, but sloppy facts—which aren’t facts at all—quickly negate every bit of work you have ever done, or ever will do.