Research methods for writers

Today's article was written by our online friend Lyn Horner, who resides in Fort Worth (Texas, USA) with her husband and several beloved cats. A former visual artist, Lyn began writing while working as a stay-at-home mom. She loves crafting action-packed historical and contemporary romances featuring psychic characters and sizzling romance. She has won several awards for her engaging novels. She invites our readers to visit via her Website, or her FaceBook page... and don't forget to check out her Amazon Author Page. :)

Research Methods For Authors (& writers of all sorts)

If you’re an author, whether fiction or non-fiction, you may love researching time periods, settings, fashion styles, speech patterns, etc., as I do. Or you may hate it. Either way, you must do it if you want your book, short story or blog article to read like you know what you’re talking about.

I’m an author of historical, paranormal suspense, and time travel romances. As such I’ve done hundreds of hours of research and, at Lillian’s kind invitation, I’m here to share my research methods with you, dear reader.

Years back when I first started writing, the local library was my only source for research. I lived in a suburb of Chicago at that time and was fascinated by stories about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. When I decided to take up writing as a stay-at-home mom with two small children, I decided to have the heroine of my story live through the great fire, and off I went to the local library. It wasn’t a big one, but being near Chicago, it contained several books about the fire. One was written right after the terrible event. Jackpot! I also found books about the Transcontinental Railroad, over which my characters would travel west. One book included ticket costs and a schedule of stops along the train route, very helpful for my story plot.

Books are still my favorite way of finding out arcane details from any time period, be it historical or contemporary, but nowadays I usually search for them online. Amazon is a treasure trove, of course, but did you know you can also find great titles on Walmart.com? Yup, I recently ordered two volumes written in the 1800s by a man who lived through the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the setting for my current WIP (work in progress.) These tomes have been re-published in paperback, and I grabbed them at very reasonable prices.

So, if you’re looking for books on a specific subject, google for them and compare prices at various sellers. Library sales and Half Price Books are also good places to check out. You can build a nice collection of resource books without going broke.

FREE is even better! Google topics on the net and you will come up with sites to investigate. While researching my Irish historical, I have poked around on dozens of sites based in Ireland, including museums, county and military records, and personal blogs. You can do the same for any country or time period. And if you find a good site, don’t be afraid to post questions. Most folks are happy to share their knowledge.

In-person interviews are an invaluable resource. I once met with an elderly gentleman whose father was a cowboy who drove cattle on the long drives from Texas to railroad towns in Kansas, which I wanted to feature in one of my western historical novels. This man was amazing! He was in his 90s and almost blind, but he accompanied me to the exact place where thousands of cattle once crossed the Red River into the Indian Territory (Oklahoma.) He was a wealth of information he’d learned from his father. And he was eager to share!

If you can’t meet with a person, try calling them. When researching my first book, I called the National Archives in Washington, D.C. I needed to find out who commanded an army post in Utah back in the early 1870s. The man I spoke to was gracious and happy to find the info I needed. He promptly emailed it to me, allowing me to move on with my story.

Most fun for me is visiting places I use in my books. My Texas Devlins series brings three Chicago-bred siblings with Irish roots (yes, I’ crazy about all things Irish) to a ranch in Bosque County, Texas. Wanting to get a feel for that area, I took three trips down there, south of Fort Worth, where I live. I visited a local museum, learned about Norwegian immigrants who settled there, and loved imagining my characters living, working and loving on this wide-open rangeland.

In conclusion, read books, make phone calls, interview knowledgeable people, and visit settings if you possibly can. Make your research fun!

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