Writing is
the same way. Whether it is fiction or non-fiction, research must be done to
complete the book or novel to its best, and so that people will trust what you
are saying. If you are writing a book about frogs then you wouldn't start writing
without knowing everything there is to know about frogs, how they eat, when
they sleep, how they mate, what their habitat is like.
Even in
creative work, research must be done; sometime you've done research and not
even realized it. In creative non-fiction you have your experiences which are
your research, why you are writing the things you are. In fiction you wouldn't write about something you didn't know about, and if you did you would research
it first.
Jodi Picoult
is a perfect example of a writer who does research before she writes a novel. All
of her novels have forms of research in them, many involve the law and she has
done much research as to what goes on in courtrooms and how the justice system
work. For her novel The Tenth Circle
did spent months researching the topics before she even began writing.
Check out Jodi Picoults site and other novels here : http://www.jodipicoult.com/
The book is
about a 14-year old girl who is raped by her ex-boyfriend and the struggles
that come afterwards with the town and the girl’s family. The book constantly
relates to the circles of Hell, which Picoult researched in depth so her novel
fitted into them well. She also talked to a group of teenagers to see what kind
of games they played at parties, and how teenagers acted in school. If she hadn’t
done that research, the scenes at school would not have been believable and thus
she would have lost the readers trust and interest.
It is
impossible to have a successful novel or any piece of writing if you don’t have
the trust of the reader. If the reader does not trust the writer, then they
will lose interest and feel betrayed by the novel. It is hard to stay engaged
in a piece of writing that you do not believe. Even In fantasy novels, the
writer has done much research to assure there are no loopholes or places where
the made up world does not make sense.
J.K Rowling
spent around 6 years researching and creating the wizarding world before the
first Harry Potter novel was published in 1997.
I really enjoyed this, Caitlin!
ReplyDeleteIt's completely true, you must do research to become familiar with your subject in order to write or do whatever correctly. I always thought Jodi Picoult's writing was detailed in such a way that the story felt real. I'm surprised that JK Rowling spent 6 years researching before her first Harry Potter novel was published!
This comment is just to check if Amanda really checks our comments.
ReplyDeleteWhaaaa? Six years!Considering that there is much, much greater freedom in writing fantasy novels. Six years seems like wayyyyyy to much time spent researching ‘magic’ related stuff. I do agree with you, research is always very imp, even in fantasy. I just think that if J.K. Rowling took six years doing research, I don’t think she was all that persistent (which makes sense, because if I’m not mistaken, she didn’t start off as a professional writer… or maybe I’m thinking of someone else. Anyways, she would’ve had other preoccupations besides just doing research). Because there are books that are far more complex (loaded with research) that are done within a year (Stephen King is good for this… I think).
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I may be wrong in much of what I wrote above. Ironically, I’ve done no research for this reply, I’m just ranting and I was second-guessing a lot. So ya, take everything with grain of salt.
Don’t get me wrong, great blog, fun read!