How to Conduct Research as a Creative

If you consider yourself to be a creative writer and are anything like me, you dread the research process. You probably have trouble believing that it is a—sometimes—necessary part of the job. Maybe you’ve even made it this far in your writing journey without intentionally researching anything. Yet, you want your stories to have purpose and depth. You want to be taken seriously. So, you’ve come here to learn how to incorporate fact-finding into your personal creations and have truth inspire your fiction. So you ask…

 

How do I begin?

 

I answer that you begin with the obvious: choose a topic that interests you. 

 

You want to find a subject matter that excites you, something that piques your interest in such a way that you always have more questions than answers. Just the thought of discovering more about this subject should excite you.

 

From there, you write all your questions down. Let’s say you are writing a story about a man whose dream is to live his life as a squirrel. Your list of questions may look like this:

• What is the longest amount of time a human has lived in a tree?
• What is a squirrel’s diet?
• Can humans survive solely on tree nuts?
• What effects are there on the human body when living outdoors for an extended period of time?

While compiling this information, you may find another topic that makes you go “oh, wow.” Follow this line of questions too. It will provide more context and inspiration for your story.

 

Where do I find sources?

 

Everywhere. But if that is too vague, there are quite a few places you can start.

 

The most conventional option is a scholarly article database like ProQuest or JSTOR. These databases can help you find information that has been fact-checked by experts in a specific field. Searching for information here is especially great for topics outside your field in which you have little to no former knowledge, like the habits of squirrels, the facts of which you need for your story. These databases are good starting places because the information found here is generally more reliable than a simple Google search.

 

Being a creative writer, though, it is likely you find it preferable to seek inspiration and information from other literary works such as novels, poems, and biographies. You can also watch interviews, dig through newspaper articles, and even reference art—like paintings. Each of these things can be used as a source to inspire stories and lead to more research.

 

How do I know if a source is credible and appropriate for my project? 

 

There are many factors to take into account when assessing credibility. You may want to investigate the

• author’s background
• author’s purpose
• date of publication
• comments from other experts in the field
• sources cited by author

This list is not comprehensive, nor does it apply to every source you may use. For example, the necessity of a recent publication date would vary if you are referencing a scholarly article compared to a piece of classical fiction literature.

 

As for appropriateness, that is for you to determine. The main question to ask yourself: “Are my findings related and relevant to my chosen topic?” If the answer is yes, and the source is credible, then you are free to incorporate it into your writing.

 

But how do I incorporate sources into my writing? 

 

In the case of a creative writer, incorporating sources does not normally mean directly or paraphrasing text. As I have mentioned, sources are generally used for information and inspiration in a more general sense. As our focus has been storytelling, let us discuss the case of a fictional story or a novel.

 

If you have relied on outside works—fiction, scholarly articles, interviews, etc.—to create your own piece, it is recommended that you mention or reference these books in an author’s note or acknowledgements section at the beginning or end of your book. 

 

If your reliance on these works was especially extensive, it might instead be best to include a bibliography at the end of your story. This method would be more detailed and would allow your readers to better evaluate your credibility and trust the facts you’ve woven into your story. In this case, it is likely you will want to refer to the MLA Style Guide to properly cite a list of sources.

 

Where can I find more information? 

 

For additional information regarding the citation of sources, please read the MLA Handbook.

 

If you are now curious about a human’s likelihood of survival while eating only nuts and seeds, read this article from the National Library of Medicine.

 

I have consulted Working in the Archives : Practical Research Methods for Rhetoric and Composition by Ramsey, Sharer, and L’Eplattenier, pages 290-299, for advice on finding sources; I also recommend this for further reading.

 

I also appreciate the information from author Jennie Liu in “Writing the Author’s Note for a Novel.”

 

Lastly, I would like to note that I obtained the cover image for this article from Rawpixel, a free site that hosts public domain images.