Written by Annalise Ray

When you think about “creative writing,” personal experiences, inspiration, and imagination might come to mind as a few of the most important components of the craft. However, the ability to thoroughly research information relevant to your novel is just as important, particularly regarding novels including historical or scientific elements. Now, not every novel needs to have a Moby Dick adjacent degree of facts, but a little accuracy goes a long way in a reader’s experience. 

Research allows you to create a believable story. Simple facts that relate to the reader’s world hold their attention. They’re able to visualize your words because they match up with what they already know about their present reality. Opposingly, if a fully-immersed reader comes across a part of a novel that is blatantly inaccurate, it could take them out of the novel and shake up the rest of their reading experience. For example, say a historical fiction novel set in the 1850s has a sentence mentioning a light bulb and the electric light wasn’t invented until the 1870s. This simple inaccuracy can take a history-savvy reader out of the time period and even question the validity of the whole book. Remaining knowledgeable about the accuracy of the information your novel includes ensures greater reader engagement.

Even a novel not based on our reality, such as fantasy or science fiction, benefits from research. Despite the mechanics of a sci-fi or fantasy world operating differently from ours, it’s much easier to engage with a work if it includes some degree of familiarity. Knowledge about how our world works makes it much easier to explain how the aspects of your fictional world differ in a way that’s clear to the reader. If a world contains abnormal weather patterns or biology, understanding how these elements function in the reader’s reality can help the writer flesh their world out in processes already familiar to the reader. By developing a factual base for fantastical phenomena, the reader remains anchored to things they know, making the logistics of the world more believable. 

Now, if the prospect of beginning your research seems daunting, you’re definitely not alone. Shifting through the immense amount of information available to us on the internet can seem a monumental task, but there are a few key places to start. Number one, the good old-fashioned local library. Not only do libraries have extensive online databases, but they also have full-time experts in helping patrons find sources: librarians! Additionally, academic research sites such as JSTOR have free memberships that allow you to access a set amount of articles per month. Finally, for fact-checking, a simple Google search will suffice.

Good luck and happy researching!