IS FICTION RESEARCH NEEDED?

I follow Will Rogers when he said, “In all my gags (jokes) I stick to the truth.”
I sometimes spend two years researching small sections of stories I write. Often I get so interested in what I find…I compile more than needed. Forty, or fifty pages of research may yield one to three pages of information used in a story.
It is as much work as writing non-fiction, but…it helps build a story that sounds like non-fiction.

Domenic

Domenic,
I don't think there can be too much research. One often feels that way when only a small protion is used, however during that process, you find the gems you sought.

I'm a researcher. It's what I do.

Shelagh,
consider yourself the gem sought. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I'm working on a Civil War novel. I have piles of info on the Civil War - and sifting through for just the pieces I need is a chore. I am not a researcher, but a book about characters during the Civil War needs some historical accuracy unless it completely takes place on the plantation and no one leaves or arrives....

I have been immersing myself in the Texas Hill Country, into sacred vortexes, Comanche shamanism, Texas history, (which, being a native, I mostly knew, but got some surprises). Since the time setting falls in line with the family history books I was working on before, I already had a lot of information from that - including bits like how to ride sidesaddle, men's and women's fashions, you name it; I've looked into it.

I remember reading a quote from Louis L'Amour, another writer of westerns, "If I describe a spring in the desert, that spring is there, and the water is good to drink." I have taken that to heart.

Ann