Research: A Careful Balance

Whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction, you may need to do some research for your project. Few authors can write an effective book from their own knowledge base, and many, if not most, non-fiction books usually provide a list of resources used in the writing.

The question of research is: too little, too much, or a good balance? But balanced with what? The writing. The most important task for an authors is getting their thoughts down on paper (or into a computer). Of course, any facts should be researched to avoid negative feedback from readers.

Moreover, some people have more fun doing research than writing, especially when they get hit by that nemesis “writer’s block”. Whether you go out into the field or go to the library, or just start tearing through the internet, it’s easy to get lost in the search. And often, the research may turn up topics or ideas that you can use for another project.

The downside, obviously, is that every hour you’re researching, is an hour that you’re not writing. So, it’s important to strike a balance. If you’re a researcher, your job is research. However, if you’re and writer, your job is writing. One of the best pieces of advice that authors can live by is: write first, edit second. The moment a writer gets hung up on editing, the writing flow gets interrupted. It might be fine to do some preliminary research before you begin your writing, but when you’re writing, don’t stop.

One of the best pieces of advice that authors can live by is: write first, edit second. The moment a writer gets hung up on editing, the writing flow gets interrupted. This same philosophy applies to research. Get all your thoughts down. If you don’t know something, either leave it blank or write anything as a filler. Then, when you’re finished, you can go through each concept or setting to do some appropriate fact-checking. You can even do this while your work is being edited, though that’s not recommended.

Even more importantly, your readers will appreciate your balanced research. Nothing interrupts a story (fiction or non-fiction) than an author “showing off” how much research he or she did. That’s what the resources section of your book is for. Anyone interested in learning more can follow up from there. Put just enough information in your text to indicated that you’re not just making up the text or that you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Conclusion

While research is often required for a work of fiction or non-fiction, it’s important to strike an effective balance between going off-line to do the research and sticking to the writing. Without the writing, the research may be interesting, but useless.

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