The research phase of a new book is a favorite part of the process for a lot of writers, very much including me. I’ve been living in that phase for the last month or so, immersing myself in the world of this next book, the second in a new series.
I know I don’t have to tell you experienced writers how to research—although I do have some tricks to keep your research focused on growing your book! But if this is your first book or script, and you’re wondering how writers actually come up with enough scenes to write a whole book, you might not be aware of how and how much the research phase actually builds the details, scenes, characters and world of your story.
I write crime thrillers based in reality: Real life crimes, real life criminals, the real psychology of perpetrators, the real psychological effects of crime on the victims and on society. Every book takes me as much research into various aspects of the book as doing a graduate dissertation. I know other authors aren’t so detailed about it—but the novels I personally love paint their story world in intricate detail, and I owe my own readers no less. And for me, the thrill of getting paid to immerse myself in fascinating subjects and distill them for a reader is one of the main reasons I write.
I write about social and political issues, so that’s another area I thoroughly research for each new book. Police (and FBI) procedure is something I am always researching: by reading nonfiction, by attending lectures, seminars and workshops by various law enforcement professionals, by taking notes on how other authors and screenwriters deftly and dramatically work police procedure into plots without overwhelming the reader or audience.
Along with the above, one of the things I spend the most time on is location research. My books and scripts are extremely location-specific; I know my readers expect me to take them into wild and fascinating places, and I want to give them the full sensory experience whenever possible.
I don’t know how we managed this before YouTube! You can get extensive video on any city, any country, any road, any National Park—anything you could possibly think of to put in a book is on YouTube in some form.
In the olden days, before that incredible resource, I would carve out a week, get a plane ticket to the location, rent a car, and completely immerse myself in that location, recording video and impressions, taking photos, downloading my notes on paper at night. Which I also still do, and I am incredibly grateful for the lifetime of real-life travel and exploration that I have to draw on. But… YouTube gets me many more places that I need to go.
Right now I’m watching YouTubes for each town in an entire three-county area of California to get really familiar with the terrain that my characters will be moving around in. (I’ve been to this part of the state before, but it’s been a long time!). Reading news articles and community profiles about the towns also gives me a clear idea of the socioeconomic state of the area, and the relationship that the locals have with the police. I’m feel like I’m panning for gold: Characters, scenes, locations, houses, landmarks, shops – that I can use to create the world of my story.
For some writers, there is a danger of getting so lost in research that you never actually write the book. Personally, I’ve never had that problem. It’s the opposite, really.
But I fully understand that some writers have trouble moving on from research to writing, so here are some suggestions to make sure your actual storyline is growing throughout your research process (with links to other helpful posts).
Research always sparks ideas for scenes. Don’t leave this to chance! Write those scenes down. I am constantly writing down in whatever order they come to me during the research process.
I also start the Index Card process very early in my research phase, so I am building up index cards of these potential scenes.
Stealing Hollywood and Writing Love : Chapter 6: The Index Card Method and Story Grid
I am always on the lookout for scenes that will function as my Essential Story Elements. I label those cards and scenes with the name of the story element and stick those cards up on the large magnetic white board I use for my Story Structure Grid.
I strongly advise that you keep a list of the Story Elements of all four Acts on your desk or on your wall, to keep referring to during your research and outlining phases. More than anything else I could tell you, this one habit will do the most to get you writing absorbing and salable books.
Story Elements Checklist: Chapter 17, Stealing Hollywood and Writing Love —detailed in Chapters 7-16
It’s especially important to look out for those big, genre-specific scenes that will serve as Sequence and Act Climaxes:
I find that while I’m researching ideally I’m working on five piles of material, or tracks, at once:
1. The index cards I’m brainstorming and arranging on my structure grid.
2. A notebook (or file) of random scenes, dialogue, character descriptions that are coming to me as I’m researching, and that I expand on and start to put in chronological order as this notebook gets bigger.
3. An expanded on-paper (or in Word) story outline that I’m compiling as I order my index cards on the structure grid.
4. A collage book of visual images that I’m pulling from magazines (or posting on Pinterest!) that give me the characters, the locations, the colors and moods of my story.
Stealing Hollywood and Writing Love —Chapter 23, Visual Storytelling. (I strongly suggest you read the chapter on Visual Storytelling sooner rather than later.)
5: I’m also casting around for characters, which very often are inspired by people in videos or people I’ve met during the research phase.
For more on Creating Character - links to many posts!
6. It’s also important to take a first stab at a Premise sentence. The premise is the roadmap of your story. You will need it to get where you’re going! And writing a Premise sentence is one of the best ways to test out an idea to see if it has all the elements you need to tell a good story!
Chapters 2 and 22 in Stealing Hollywood and Writing Love
(Paid subscribers and workshop students: Your subscription includes my direct feedback on your Premise sentence —and I encourage you to take advantage of this. I am really good at Premise lines!)
In the beginning of a project, you will probably be going back and forth between all of those above tracks as you build your story.
Being conscious of those tracks is how I keep my story taking shape during my research phase, in a very fluid and organic way. And there always eventually comes a point that I have enough scenes and enough cards, and have got them up on my story grid in approximate order, to do a solid STEP OUTLINE: a scene by scene overview of the entire book. This process will turn into a TREATMENT, which is a step outline with much more detail and parts of scenes. And the treatment is the basis for my first rough draft.
For me, the actual rough draft is the hardest.
But when I use the process above, by the time I start that first draft, I have so much of the story already that it’s not anywhere near the intimidating experience it would be if I hadn’t done all that prep work!
And now, if you’ll excuse me. I have more research to do! Happy May!!
—Alex
Plot your book or script FAST— with Index Cards:
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