- Joined
- Oct 1, 2007
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- Prague now, Glasgow in November
I generally panic a lot about research, both in fiction and in my academic work. It feels like no matter how much I read, I can never know everything about the period or subject and so I always have this feeling that there's some little detail that I haven't come across and that will derail the whole thing. What I wondered was if my approach to research was perhaps the wrong one and if anyone had a suggestion as to how to structure my research better, so that I might feel a little less stupid about it all?
The way I usually organise myself is to have an idea of what's going to happen for the whole book, read general information for the period, then research more in depth as I come to each chapter. For an example, the first chapter of my (currently rather dreadful) WIP involved a discussion as to the interpretation of dreams, so my reading for that was a lot of literature on Protestant and Puritan ideas on dreaming, church fathers' writings, some classical references.
Next chapter, I need to read up on a couple of specific issues about London, so I have the call numbers jotted down for some books I want to look at in the library, either tomorrow or saturday. Most of my work's done in the library, although I've been in contact with the Temple Church, trying to get hold of some information, and I have a trip planned for just after the New Year to get a general 'feel' for the geographical area, since I haven't been to that part of the country in a while.
I'm kind of torn at the moment because I love my WIP, my MC and the premise of it, as well as the period in general, but I want it to have a chance of being good, and the historical details are really important. (I know that sounds daft - they're always important, but what I mean is, the history of the place and such plays a part in the narrative too).
The way I usually organise myself is to have an idea of what's going to happen for the whole book, read general information for the period, then research more in depth as I come to each chapter. For an example, the first chapter of my (currently rather dreadful) WIP involved a discussion as to the interpretation of dreams, so my reading for that was a lot of literature on Protestant and Puritan ideas on dreaming, church fathers' writings, some classical references.
Next chapter, I need to read up on a couple of specific issues about London, so I have the call numbers jotted down for some books I want to look at in the library, either tomorrow or saturday. Most of my work's done in the library, although I've been in contact with the Temple Church, trying to get hold of some information, and I have a trip planned for just after the New Year to get a general 'feel' for the geographical area, since I haven't been to that part of the country in a while.
I'm kind of torn at the moment because I love my WIP, my MC and the premise of it, as well as the period in general, but I want it to have a chance of being good, and the historical details are really important. (I know that sounds daft - they're always important, but what I mean is, the history of the place and such plays a part in the narrative too).