I write from the heart. I also write from my head. There are plenty of topics that need research. In my novel, “The Life After,” it was important for me to have a clear vision of the afterlife and how many different belief systems view this mystery. I read voraciously from multiple religions and mythologies.
I found a good place to start was with Wikipedia. I read through Wikipedia entries, and then went directly to the citations so I could find the works used for this research. I found myself reading extensively about Shintoism, Hinduism, Greek and Roman Mythology, Etruscan beliefs, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, the Ghost Dance and much more. Even though the vast majority of what I wrote is entirely created from my own mind, it was important to me to understand these schools of belief.
For this book, I didn’t only study religion and philosophy. Some topics I researched would create spoilers for you, so I won't share those, but others are fairly common in writing. For instance, I needed to look at maps to determine the approximate location of certain areas. I looked into the typical design for locally owned donut shops. I researched car accidents and studied the types of damage that can occur to vehicles. How are these accidents investigated? How long does it take insurance to respond?*
Getting even deeper into the weeds, I looked into how my main character might live. What are the average salaries her parents might earn? What does an upper-middle class home in Des Moines typically look like? I spent some time Des Moines and drove around to various areas so I could see them with my own eyes. Now, you might think that's a bit much and you would be right. I didn't say I was smart, I just said I did a lot of research.
For me, research isn't just about what I write but about what I need to know. In "The Life After," Nell's mother was in the foster care system. This is barely mentioned in the novel, but I needed to know more about foster care. Nell's brother is allergic to dogs. Shouldn't I know more about this allergy? Are there some dogs that don't trigger allergies? The answer is yes, by the way. How important is this to the story as a whole? Not really very. How important is it to me as a writer? Super.
To give you some indication as to why I find research vital, I must explain that I am a writer in more ways than one. I write web copy and print copy for a variety of clients who need deep, factually researched pieces to share with their clients and readers. I am trained in heavy research for my day job, which makes heavy research for my fiction writing feel like second nature. Perhaps, for you, this amount of research is overkill. What is important for you to know is, that's ok too. It's fiction. Let it be fully fictitious if that's what works for you.
*Not-so-fun fact: My 17-year-old son was in a highway car accident while this novel was still in its editing stage. Luckily, he was uninjured. However, I was able to verify that a good insurance company acts very quickly when a vehicle is totaled.
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