I tend to be “research-lite” but one of the key pieces of feedback I’ve received from Miranda has been in respect of the need to make the location real. At this point I’m now regretting setting the novel in Yorkshire (where I don’t live) and partly in the Medieval ages (where I have never lived!).
The subject of research is an interesting one - I tend to avoid research because of the tendency to feel, once I’ve spent all that time learning about something I’m going to make sure I get my money’s worth in the story I’m writing… in which case the research leads the narrative rather than the characters. Now I think this is an excellent reason but it is not without its risks. One potential downside is that I’m busy writing away and when it comes to the end of the piece I can identify the assumptions I’ve made and check them and correct what I’ve got wrong - which is fine unless the assumption I’ve made is so core to the plot that I find without my assumption I’ve got a gaping bus-driving-through-the-middle sized hole in it.
The other reason I tend to leave my research until the end of the novel (or short story) is that this allows me to be very strategic. By the end of writing I have a good idea what I need to know… I’m not (for example) learning everything about the middle ages so I can use if if I need to. Instead I know I need to understand how English was spoken in Medieval England in the Yorkshire area; Methods of transport in Medieval times (How long it would take to get from town to town and how people would get large objects between the population centres); and lots more, but a very precise list. I’m sitting here typing this with a pile of Medieval England books at my elbow but I least I don’t now feel I’m revising for a test.
So in some ways it’s interesting, but not in the least surprising now someone has pointed it out to me, that I need to spend some time making my location breathe, and the way to do that.. plough through those books.
