5 Ways to Avoid Common Research Pitfalls in Historical Fiction
I started doing historical research for my novel before I even knew what I was writing, who the characters were, or anything else. I was in Mexico City, and I visited Trotsky’s house, where he had escaped from the Soviet Union and lived in exile before he was murdered. He did not make it into my book, not directly, but being able to see a physical space, preserved in this way, set my imagination on fire.
(12 Dos and Don’ts of Research Travel for Writing.)
One thing that had always intimidated me about writing anything historical was lacking the ability to accurately imagine the space that my characters would have moved through, the objects they would have interacted with, the beliefs and ideas they would have taken for granted, and so on. Being able to visit a space that was historically preserved, full of the objects from the time period, clicked the hazy time period into focus for me.
It was going to be a while (I means years) before I knew where I was going with all the research. I knew I wanted to write about the Russian Revolution and the effect of history on the present, but I also knew I wanted to explore these ideas in an unconventional way. In my novel Mother Doll, Zhenia a millennial immigrant from the Soviet Union, living in Los Angeles, gets a call one day from a psychic medium who has been channeling her great-grandmother, a Russian Revolutionary. My research for this book taught me five common research pitfalls—and how to avoid them.
1. You don’t have to know EVERYTHING before you can start writing.
I did research for a very long time before I let the character of Irina come to me. But once I had a sense of my story, I made a point of researching alongside the writing. Otherwise, I think it would have been too easy for my perfectionist tendencies to take hold, and to start using research as a form of procrastination.
Ultimately, you can get it close enough, and you can fix it when you edit. You might never be an expert, but you just need to know enough to tell your particular story.
2. Reading only contemporary sources about the time period.
Reading history books about a time period is definitely helpful, especially at the beginning as you are getting your bearings. But the sources I found most valuable were journals, diaries, and oral histories—they included the details of everyday life that are very useful for writing fiction.
Also, depending on what time period you’re writing about finding photographs, films, or paintings—visual representations from the time period. And, I also found novels written at that time period about that time period incredibly useful.
Check out Katya Apekina’s Mother Doll here:
(WD uses affiliate links)
3. Not using other people’s bibliographies as jumping off points.
A lot of the primary source material I found useful, I found in the bibliography of contemporary history books. Research often feels like following a trail of breadcrumbs. One source will lead you to the next. You don’t need to know all of them when you start.
You can let your research evolve with your project. And you can let your project evolve with your research. Let them be in a symbiotic relationship!
4. Research is not just found in books.
One aspect of my book that I researched in a more “hands on” way was the mediumship storyline. I took mediumship and psychic meditation classes while I was writing this book to better describe Paul’s experience. Some of the things I saw during these guided mediations made their way into my book with some embellishment.
With a growing catalog of instructional writing videos available instantly, we have writing instruction on everything from improving your craft to getting published and finding an audience. New videos are added every month!
5. Don’t get too in the weeds.
After doing all that research, you might be an expert, but your reader probably isn’t. You want your novel to be engaging, and the research in it should be serving a purpose—not just showing people how much you know on the topic.
If it’s not serving the story you are telling, or creating texture and depth, maybe it does not need to be in there? There were parts that I wrote and then cut for this exact reason. I wanted the reader to understand the context and not feel lost, but I also wanted the reader to feel engaged with the story and not feel bogged down with historical information.