How Much Research Should I Do&;#063;

'I write the novel first, then I do the research.' -- John
Fowles.

Sounds silly, sounds entirely about face; but think about it -- how
will you ever know the full extent of your ignorance of the subject
material until you've actually written your story?

So this is what you do. Write your story first, and whenever you get to
a point where your existing knowledge lets you down, make a note in
your manuscript reminding you about what you need to find out. Your
hero is a CIA agent, and he carries a gun, but you don't know what sort
- make a note to find out. A doctor in your novel needs to prescribe a
particular drug in order to alleviate a specific disease - make a note
to find out. Sometimes you might find that you can actually invent
something appropriate from your imagination, so put that in, too.
(You'll be able to change it later if you find that your guess was
completely wrong, but you'll be surprised by how close you can
sometimes get.)
Then, when you have finished your manuscript, go back over it, picking
out each of the notes that you have left for yourself. When you collect
these notes together and sort them into a sensible order, you'll find
that what you have actually done is compile yourself a research plan, a
list of queries all of which need to be answered before you can
finished your story.

Now you put your manuscript to one side and do your research, and as
soon as you've found the answers to all the questions in your research
plan, now you're ready to write your second draft. (You were planning
to write a second draft, weren't you?). As you write this draft, you
can slip in all the answers as you go along. Maybe writing this draft
will throw up new questions, but these are easily dealt with. Just keep
a note of what they are and remind yourself to find the answers before
you start on the final polishing.

This way you will only do just enough research that you need to do, and
no more. There's no danger of collecting reams of data that you're
never going to use, and you'll also hopefully avoid the temptation of
slipping in that one additional interesting fact that you thought was
so fascinating, even though it has no place in your story.

All right, I know that very often the most wonderful nuggets of
information can often emerge serendipitously from the driest of
research material, and unexpected facts are thrown up that can change
the entire course of a story. Indeed, in pursuit of your research plan
you will inevitably uncover additional information that will
undoubtedly add to the verisimilitude of your story. However, instead
of now being tempted to build a plot around your research, in which
case the integrity of the plot will undoubtedly suffer, you simply need
to find a suitable place in your existing plot and slot it seamlessly
in.

Unless you are already fairly very familiar with your subject material,
then a certain amount of additional background research before you
start will probably still be necessary; but try to put off the bulk of
your detailed research until you have at least completed a detailed
outline of your story (or preferably the first draft) and then
discovered precisely where the gaps on your knowledge lie. In that way,
whatever time you do spend on research will be spent as efficiently as
possible.