Writing a book is a fun experience. However, people sometimes forget the amount of work that goes into it. You have some characters, a story line and how to get from point A to point B. However, that’s not enough as you need to fill the story in with details and facts. This is where the real work is going to come in as you have to do your homework and research things that can be used in your content. If you are writing about a cowboy in Texas, you need to know what he would do throughout the day, what the terrain is like and so forth.
If you are writing about a young lady visiting Paris for the first time the same needs to be done. You need to know what sites she would see, what kind of experiences she would have and then work on incorporating all of that into your story. Here are a few things that have helped me improve my research habits before I put together a storyline:
- Take lots of notes: If your book is 300 pages then your notes for writing it needs to be just as long or longer. You should have notes for every scene of your book, notes on each character including how they look, their motivation, what they think and more.
- Don’t just use Google: Google is a great place to go for information but it’s not the only place to go. Just because you can search for information and pictures about a place doesn’t mean you know exactly what it’s like to be there. Find other sources of information to help pad your facts.
- Be specific: Imagine if you were writing about a scene that occurs in the Eiffel You will want to know everything about the room the person is in, what they can see from a certain area, what the air smells like and so forth. You want the reader to feel like they are right there with the character and the more specific you are, the easier that will be for them.
As I begin to research a story, I remind myself that the more detail I put into it, the more enjoyable it will be for the reader. If I can put more facts into my content, it will mean more to the person reading it whether it’s about a specific place or the look and character of an individual. It’s the extra work that goes unnoticed but makes a story come alive.