Yuffie's Writing How-To's

How to RESEARCH

Nice post I found talking about how to start researching for your story (because if you don't research at all for your novel, you're doing something wrong).

Original post found at http://the-right-writing.tumblr.com/post/99241999353/how-to-do-enough-research-without-spending-your-entire, also linked to in the EXTERNAL LINK.

How to do enough research without spending your entire life on it

Step One: Wikipedia binge. Wikipedia knows more than the average person about the subject in your story. If you read all the Wikipedia articles on it, you will also know enough that you won’t have any mistakes big enough for the average reader to pick up on. This should take 1-2 days if you are spending all your free time on it, longer if you are doing other things.

Step Two: Blogs of experts. Read what experts on what you’re researching have to say. If you can figure out what some major pet peeves are about stories featuring your subject, then you can avoid them and please any experts that happen to be reading. You can also find small details to include that will make people who know a lot about your subject smile. This should take a bit longer than the Wikipedia binge, but not much.

Step Three: Having an expert look over it during revision. Any flaws still remaining should be taken out by this final step. Finding an expert with both the time and the will to look over the parts of your story that deal with their subject might take a while, but it’s worth it in the end.


Yuffie insert: Wikipedia, for once, is a GREAT resource for writers. Or at least a starting point for your research. While you can't use it as a credible source in research publications or school papers, wiki articles provide a really compact, organized, and easy-to-follow summary of whatever topic you're looking at. Some articles are more detailed than posts I can find from more credible sources, in fact.

Don't forget that most pieces of info in Wikipedia have the source referenced! You can always go to that source to check the validity and credibility of the information listed if you really wanted to. A lot of sources are actually credible.

You shouldn't base 100% of your research on Wiki articles. Instead, do a lot of research outside of Wiki, then come to Wiki and compare what you find. When I was researching antisocial personality disorder for one of my characters, I meticulously researched on Google. Then when I read over the Wikipedia article on it, a lot of that information was already there! If you look up anatomy stuff, nearly everything is referenced from Gray's Anatomy (the textbook/atlas, not the show). So it's definitely credible.

So in short, cross-reference your research. Look in multiple sources and compare the info. Usually what you see most often is correct, but use your head and make the decision for yourself what you want to implement in your story. Wiki can definitely be one of your resources, just make sure it isn't the ONLY resource.