Hot answers tagged research
11
Is what you're doing working for you? Like, are you achieving your goals following this method? If so, then I'd keep doing it. If not, I'd switch.
I know that's a bit vague, but I think it might be pretty accurate. I agree that there's a risk of becoming derivative if you read in your own genre, but I also agree that you're missing out, not only on ...
10
You need to do a lot of research if you're going to write a convincing historical novel. Part of that research ought to introduce you to common names from the period. But your question might well have been rephrased as "How do you get the details right in historical fiction?" And the answer to that as well is: research.
Authors of good historical fiction ...
9
Two suggestions:
Explain something in detail
on Writing Excuses, they recommended that in this situation you take one thing and explain the heck out of it, then take another and don't explain it at all.
For cultures, you can put in one or two things from your study of the culture, and really go into detail to the point where it looks like you know what ...
8
I think reading is important (as I said before: maybe more important than writing (as in "write, write, write, whatever and whenever, even if it's crap")).
Of course, your concerns are valid. Lets take them on one at a time:
Genre Blindness As other answers here have said, I think you'd mostly gain the opposite from reading genre books: you see what ...
7
Why do you not want to ask a real person directly? Most people are pleased if they can tell about their job, especially when an author says he wants to write about it in a novel.
This "writing what you know" is becoming more and more dangerous, because it is widely misinterpreted. It's just an advice, that you shouldn't be too disappointed if you try to ...
6
The following is based on both the content of your question, the way it was written, and your comment on your question.
Your primary problem is not editing. Editing is your third biggest problem, Writing is the second, and your biggest problem by far is Organizing (and Developing) Your Thoughts.
Organizing your thoughts
I can tell from your writing style ...
6
Be very careful with dialect. It's difficult to do well (if it's even possible). It's easy to offend. And, most importantly in my mind, it's very annoying to read. Word choice is going to show your character just fine -- if you want ignorant or affected, rich or poor -- as opposed to actual dialect.
6
Perfection is your foe. If there is anyone out there, who thinks the stuff in historical novels is 100% percent accurate, then I pity him.
Research is often a scattergun approach. Keep writing and if a detail is wrong, so what? No-one will crucify you for that. You should tell a good story and sometimes you have to tweak reality/history to do so. Don't ...
5
The first step is to hold back your urge to write. First do your homework, thoroughly.
Learn. Learn a whole lot about the place.
Start with Google StreetView and Panoramio.
Proceed through Wikipedia to learn not just about the place but about landmarks, anything in the area.
Find movies, amateur videos, anything to take place around there.
Read blogs of ...
4
I think the answer is rather: "as little as you can get away with". If you were to sit down to write an actual history textbook then the peers who would assess the value of your work would look for "rigor", that is evidence that you have considered all previous work on the topic and are trying to draw some conclusions that are not way out of the realms of ...
4
I would say 100% you should be well read in your genre. There are several reasons why, but the most important is because you should become familiar with conventions in your genre.
Why is this important? Because you know what readers are likely expecting when they read your book. By being familiar with what those are, you are able to know when you can and ...
4
According to the third edition of How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper that I have, one should list only significant, published references. References to unpublished data, papers in press, abstracts, theses, and other secondary materials should not clutter up the References or Literature Cited section (i.e. Bibliography). If such a reference seems ...
4
I am not certain if it is what you are looking for, but you can get the xml or unixref formatted citations from DOI on the CrossRef website. Also Connotea is freeware that will produce similar citation formats.
If you specifically interested in LaTeX (i.e. BibTeX) formatting, you may be interested in these answers on the TeX site.
And on the CrossRef ...
4
A all-questions-welcome resource will, almost inevitably, be less helpful than finding pertinent resources for the specific topics you're asking about. And that'll be a case-by-case process.
The general workflow will be:
Figure out which field your question falls into (e.g., physics; architecture; survival skills)
Google "[Field Name]" together with ...
4
If you want to write from a child's perspective, I suggest spending time with actual children.
If you don't have any or aren't related to any, then you'll have to find some. You might try volunteering at (in the U.S.) a YMCA, or getting a job as a camp counselor. Just remember that if you're getting involved in other people's lives, take the relationships ...
4
Usually you include what is important and innovative about your paper.
If there is a method more than half of your domain uses, and you use it too, there is no point writing about that in the title. If there are three competing methods, you may choose to include it in the title or not. If you use a method maybe 5% of your coleagues use, say, because it ...
4
A title tells the reader not only the general subject area, but also focus of your paper, the aspect of the subject that you will primarily emphasize.
Each of the following titles (your two plus one I added for contrast) suggests the same general subject area: Harvest costs for private forest landowners in the Pacific Northwest USA. But each suggests a ...
4
Please check this What is the term for an accessible character that knows nothing?
It's not the same question but I think it might help.
Basically, I think it's an error to try to be too much specific in an expertize field you are not an expert yourself, since you won't ever be able to tell if what you think you know is the real deal or not, what extends ...
3
This will vary depending on what your objective is; do you want your stories to fit within genre conventions? Do you want your stories to buck conventions, but not totally?
I find myself in the second category, so my reading regimen is about 70:30 outside versus inside the genre, and the materials in the second group tend to be the more odd specimens. In ...
3
Going off what Tom said, go to the journals. I'm currently working on an article about sleep and memory, and to get my interview sources, I just googled "sleep journal," went through a few studies in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, and searched for the authors' contact emails. Generally, the authors of studies are at least part-time professors, so ...
3
This would depend on the field, mostly, but you should be able to find references to the experts in that field through a standard Google search. I do think going to the local college is a good start as well, and chances are their library will have some good reference material.
For example, if you wanted to find out more about the top astronomers, you could ...
3
Design would include things like "order the data by date" or "track each author independently".
Implementation would be things like an actual database schema or a routine itself.
The key difference would be that design is "what I need to make happen" and implementation is "how did I make it happen".
2
It depends on your own goals and priorities.
Maybe it is even impossible to write about community without being part of it?
Definitely.
Think about your own community. Imagine someone from a completely foreign culture reading up on it for a few weeks and then attempting to write a novel based on it. No matter how hard they studied, they would ...
2
It depends on your intent; if your work be it fictional or factual, hangs on details about this community, its customs and practices,then you need to research scrupulously.
If it's broad strokes, background characterisation, or local colour, then a more general level of knowledge is acceptable.
In either case, you cannot give the same level of insight as a ...
2
If you write a documentation about this community you should naturally investigate deeply into the topic. But I think you mean using characters or elements from this culture in your fictional story. In that case you must see, that most of your readers possibly don't know more about the community than you does. So you don't need too much investigation, in the ...
2
My advice would be to just ignore this and write on. In your spare time, do gradual research. Now hear me out.
Read:
Other historical fiction set in, or around your time period. No matter what themes or subjects it addresses, what social classes it follows, you will inevitably learn a lot about every aspect of life, as well as story structure and plot ...
2
Your considerations are spot-on. Very nice question.
You should definitely be familiar with your genre. If you know enough to place your work within a specific genre, then it had better fit there well. Each genre has its own rules, guidelines, conventions, expectations, cliches, and fatal faux pas. Writing with little personal familiarity with the genre is ...
2
What is your purpose in writing about a foreign country or place? Do you intend the setting to be integral to your story? If so, and you have never been there, then you are probably facing a considerable challenge. You simply do not have the background to inject the elements of authentic detail that will be required.
On the other hand, if your aim is simply ...
2
The best place I can suggest to turn to with this kind of open questions - on military and weapons - is 4chan/k/. It's an imageboard gathering fans of all things connected with weapons of all kinds, and military is a significant portion of their interests.
I'm not sure if they will know much detail about submarine communications and politics in the navy, ...
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