Even in fiction, we writers like our worlds to be as authentic as possible.  We don’t want people wrenched out of the story by a false detail.  We don’t want them jumping off the couch yelling, “Strep is bacterial, not viral!” or “That’s not what a camel smells like!” or “That’s not how you operate a hot-air balloon!”

This means research.

Incidental research is when the writer hasn’t set out planning to write about an experience, but having lived through it or read about it, finds it prime material for fiction.  Anyone who’s had chicken pox or poison ivy, been through a divorce or lost a pet, knows what that feels like.  We wouldn’t necessarily seek out those experiences, but having had them, we can write about them with some basis in fact.  As a happier example of incidental research: I’ve read dozens of first-person accounts by mountaineers, just for fun and out of my own interest.  When I finally wrote a story that featured mountaineers, I already had a large amount of the research under my belt.

Deliberate research, on the other hand, is when the writer seeks out knowledge or experience with a specific writing project in mind.  The writer may read old diaries looking for a particular historical detail, may visit a nature center to find out just what a garter snake looks like, may travel to Istanbul to soak in its sounds, smells, and tastes.

Research can also be direct or secondhand.  Direct experience would include tasting the mutton our main character has for dinner, or feeling the pine needles on the trees that grow outside his home.  I have a main character who shoots targets, hikes a lot,  and works in a restaurant.  I have done all of those things myself.  While my character’s experiences are not literally my experiences, and he doesn’t feel about them exactly the same way that I felt, at least I learned dozens of firsthand details that laid the groundwork for his development.

Secondhand research is for those cases where we just can’t experience things ourselves.  We can’t know firsthand what it was like to fight in the Civil War; we can’t rob a bank just to see things from the robber’s perspective.  In such cases, we turn to first-person accounts where possible: interviews, diaries, letters, recordings, photographs.  We look for multiple sources, studying an experience from different angles.

The more of the little details we get right, the more believable we make our fictional worlds.

Related posts:

1. Connect with Leigh Brescia: Research
2. Connect with Jennifer R. Hubbard: Choices
3. Connect with Jennifer R. Hubbard: The Absent Parent in YA
4. Connect with Jennifer R. Hubbard: Encouraging Young Writers
5. Connect with Jennifer R. Hubbard: Summer Reading Surprises