Silver Writing – Research

Dear Reader,

By now you are full of inspiration and you’ve started to consider actually trying this “writing thing”, maybe you’ve sketched out some story ideas. But, how to make those ideas a reality and come alive as a story? Research! The way to make a story enjoyable is to have the reader connect with it in some way, maybe the characters have a similar home life situation, or geographically the story connects with the reader. Maybe, there is a shared interest. But, you need to know about these elements in order to make them a believable part of the story. What is more believable than facts?

For example, if you ever visited or lived in a place you would like to feature in your story, research it, include some of the history of that location that will resonate with people who have also lived or visited there. They will read your story and think “Oh yeah, I remember seeing that historic lighthouse”, or hearing about that event from a teacher or librarian. Maybe, you’re going to write a fantasy or science fiction novel set in the future. It is very hard to research what people, places and technology will be like one hundred, two hundred years from now, so what do you do? Research, listen to a futurist podcast or read a blog on futuristic topics. Look for podcasts, blogs and books about some form of technology you want to feature in your took, by learning about what is happening now in that particular field, say space travel and the technology that will be used to get a human to Mars, you can take that base your space ships technology and it and then put a futuristic spin on it, with the science based in fact you can build your fictional spaceship.

If you are writing a story that focuses on relationships, you may want to research things like health conditions or domestic violence. Maybe your protagonist has been the victim of abuse and now avoids relationships only to keep the person of her dreams in the market. What does he or she do? How to the overcome their past experiences and allow themselves to enjoy a new healthy relationship? You can find a wealth of knowledge on the subject of relationships and domestic violence, in the for form of literature and podcasts, maybe even ask to interview an professional in the field that can offer you insights into counseling victims and getting help.

There are so many resources out there on any subject you can think of and if you get stuck and have a very unique subject try more general searches to help you track down a more specific resource for example: The National Archives, the Library of Congress, the Information Please Almanac, and of course, you can just “google” a topic.

I hope that you are getting excited about writing and collecting bits of inspiration, ideas, and now some facts to add to your notes.