Research

I write the story and if I think that this part needs research, I change the font color of that scene and continue writing. I get back to such scenes later and research them together.

I start researching as early as possible. If im not familiar with the place or period then I feel like im writing in a void. And im definitely not going to rely on my perceptions of a period because our perceptions of the past are usually very wrong.

To me its like building a house. You can design the house first and then bulldoze the landcape to make it fit, or you can survey the landscape first and design a house that conforms harmoniously to it. I'd rather do the latter because I hate historical fiction that feels like a 21st century story and characters shoehorned into another time.

snafu1056 said:

I start researching as early as possible. If im not familiar with the place or period then I feel like im writing in a void. And im definitely not going to rely on my perceptions of a period because our perceptions of the past are usually very wrong.

To me its like building a house. You can design the house first and then bulldoze the landcape to make it fit, or you can survey the landscape first and design a house that conforms harmoniously to it. I'd rather do the latter because I hate historical fiction that feels like a 21st century story and characters shoehorned into another time.

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Even for something not historical I would recomend this approach. If it's a location you've never been before for example, or a different culture than your own. Then there's when you're creating cultures like in SFF or Paranormal for example, where studying how cultures form may actually help you when making this made up culture. Supernatural creatures may have the same or similar wants and needs to humans for example, but likely differ in culture from us, just like cultures differ the world over. In fact, they may even have cultures that differ depending on location like we do. How can you properly execute this without first having some idea how cultures form and change? You could, but it would be hard.


ETA: I'm starting to feel like an old foggy, every time this comes up I always end up saying the same thing. "No you may not skip or skimp on the research. I don't care if you're writing about elves or purple polka dotted aliens, or a psuedo-Victorian/Rengency/Insert Time Period world. Research is important dammit! If you have the main character who is say a warrior sharpening their sword the night before a battle, you still need to get your facts straight or it will not read that well. And no, Historical Fantasy, Historical Thrillers, Hist Mysteries, or just a Horror story set during another time doesn't give you the right to half-ass the historical part of the equation. If the story can't be told while relying on known facts then something is wrong. Want a vampire soldier fighting for the Continental Army, you still have to keep to the history except for vampires being real. That glock doesn't belong in the War for Independance unless it's an Alt History, and even then things would change other than the glock just being available. It's callled the ripple effect."

Worse part to this already being an old foggy thing? I'm only 23, 24 in a few months. I think this has been honed by reading too much bad fanfic and original stuff both online and in books that ignored research being important. Thus making the writer's willful ignorance obvious, and my fuse on this subject short.