Céline asked me to do my next writing craft post on research. A welcome suggestion as research is one of my favorite parts of writing historical fiction. As with many facets of writing–plotting, character development, drafting–i do my research in layers. Often it’s a piece of research from an earlier book that gives me the original idea for a book. My fascination with the Congress of Vienna. My research into Waterloo and the White Terror for the backstory of various books (and the central plot of Shores of Desire). An intriguing historical character like Wilhelmine of Sagan or Dorothée Talleyrand. As I plot the book, I need to do more research, and that research in turn inspires plot developments. A duel between Dorothée Talleyrand’s husband and lover became an important sequence in The Paris Affair. One of the early things I do is make a timeline of historical events for the period of my book (Scrivener makes it easy to keep the timeline and other notes handy0. Then I can layer my fictional events in with the real ones as I plot.
When I’m writing the first draft, I do more specific research, particularly into settings. For instance, with Vienna Waltz I knew enough about the Carrousel to know it would be central episode in the book, but I didn’t research it in depth until I was writing those scenes.
With later revisions, as now with The Paris Affairohv , there are details to check like whether or not there were benches in the Luxembourg Gardens in 1815 (which resulted. after inconclusive hours, in me having the characters sit on the ground).
I like to use primary sources–letters and diaries and other accounts by people who were actually observers of or participants in the events I’m writing about. I used to spend a lot of time at the Stanford and University of California, Berkeley, libraries. i still use those libraries, but I can find more and more on the internet now. A lot of the books I used to check out are now available through Google Books (mostly free because they’re in the public domain), so I have a research library I can carry with me. And I can highlight and type notes in the books. much easier to decipher than my handwritten scribbles. Some details that don’t make it into a book end up in the Fraser Correspondence as in the letter i just posted where Mélanie/Suzanne writes to Simon about a military review.
I also gather up nonfiction books by contemporary authors about the events I’m researching. Then there are some resources I return to again and again like my Oxford English Dictionary with historical usage examples, so I can see when a word came into use and how it was used. even though I’ve been writing in the same era for all of my writing career, there are always new things to learn. which is one of the challenges–and one of the delights.
Research is one of my favorite things to talk about so do ask any questions you have. Writers, how do you balance research and writing?
Photo: Raphael Coffey Photography
Tracy Grant - Novelist 
August 2, 2012 at 10:55 am
Thank you so much for writing this post about how you do your research!! It’s very very interesting!
I’m in the middle of plotting a book (all the while trying to write another one, with great difficulties, I have to admit!) and as it involves time travel between two past periods and the present, and though I’m really excited about it, the amount of research involved is kind of frightening me right now… I’m still struggling with a piece of information that I can’t find and that is key to the development of the story. It concerns the present time.
Writing in the past, have you ever had to actually ask people, specialists, for exemple, for a hand in finding a piece of information? Or is it something that only contemporary authors need to do?
August 3, 2012 at 10:16 pm
Thanks for the topic suggestion, Céline – I love blog topic suggestions. Your story sounds fascinating. And my sympathies on your research dilemma. I actually think in many ways writing about contemporary settings must be harder than historical ones – because there are so many people who may read your book who will know if you got it right or wrong. And modern life is so complicated – the map of a modern city is likely to be a lot larger than an historical. And there are things to worry about like one way streets and traffic signals. Even to write about San Francisco, which I know well, I’d have to do a lot of research. I have had to search out historians or experts in details like historical clothing or weapons with specific questions, but in general I think it’s more a problem faced by contemporary authors. Good luck with your project – I think taking it one bit at a time is the best way to make it manageable.
August 4, 2012 at 3:11 am
Thanks for your advice! I’ll try to put the pieces of my story together little by little, as you suggest. There will be a day when I’ll have all the pieces that I need to pull it off, no matter how long it takes!
But good thing that I’m not published at all and writing for myself, just for the pleasure of it… No pressure about a deadline! 🙂
I have one more question about research and plotting. Out of curiosity… do you plot / research your next book while you are still writing the current one, or do you wait until the book it finished to think about the next one? I’m in this situation right now, writing a story and finding myself more and more obsessed with another story (the one I was talking about), other characters that demand my attention and there are times when I find that a bit difficult to handle… Wish I could clone myself and send my clone to work so I can have a few hours to myself to write more often! 🙂
August 4, 2012 at 6:25 am
it’s amazing how the little bits add up, Céline! I usually start thinking about my next book while I’m writing the book before – usually toward the end, but sometimes sooner. And I have ideas i play with in my head for several books farther along in the series. i don’t tend to take time off to research future books, but i do make notes of material i come across while I’m researching my current book. For instance, i found things researching IMPERIAL SCANDAL that I used in THE PARIS AFFAIR. And I will make notes of subsequent character and scene ideas. I have scenes I’ve been playing out in my head books in advance before i write them.