Research

The Business of Writing: Do your serious research when you’ve finished your book.

If you’re about to start writing a novel, then do your serious research when you’ve finished your book.

Yes, this sounds counter-intuitive…after all, how can you write a novel unless you know all the details about what you’re writing. But assuming you have a good idea of the plot and the characters, all other things can come later.

Why? Because if you do extensive research first, and make copious notes, what will happen is that you’ll write your research into the story, when you should be writing the story.

When the book is finished, when you’ve allowed it to sit on your computer, untouched, for a couple of weeks, then go back to the beginning and re-read it with a view to editing. You’ll come to a part which needs explanation, or greater depth, at which point you go to your notes on that aspect of your research, and you include the details in the story…not the other way around.