Love it or loath it research is key part of
writing a book even if you know your subject. You need to check facts – that is
important but only a small part of the joy of research for me.
I could do nothing but research – I love
it. Now with the Internet, it is easier than ever to become lost moving from
one click to the next - eventually finding yourself reading new and interesting
facts that have moved a long way from where you started. So I have learned to
restrict myself to minimum research before writing because, to be honest, the
book may never be completed if I did it all before. I need just enough
knowledge to write the first draft. This will be filled with lots of XXXX,
which means more research is required. If I stopped to do it then and there I’d
never finish the book.
But I love coming back to those points when
I begin to rewrite - because I have found that doing the research at that point
is when I find the layers that can make a story more interesting or thinking
cakes – tasty.
In Under A Cornish Sky, I knew from the
start that the garden would be important, but it was in choosing the name for
the house, Boscawen that new layers were added. Boscawen means dwelling by an
elder tree. I began to research elder trees and a whole host of wonderful
folklore appeared, which then added plot twists and turns. The same happened
with bluebells…
I didn’t plan these things - they arose
from research, from looking into the small details and that is what I enjoy
most, the unexpected. I find that research can lead to new books as it did with
A Cornish Stranger. I found the old Cornish saying – save a stranger from the
sea, he’ll turn your enemy – while doing research for A Cornish Affair.
At the moment, I’m writing and researching
my next book, The Returning Tide, which has a dual timeline – current day and
WW2. So much more research is required than in my previous books. But I’m
trying to hold off doing too much before I finish the first draft so that the
magic of research can help me twist and shape the novel like a cake with a
surprising element in all the layers that somehow works together to satisfy and
intrigue.
How do you feel about research if you are
writer and if you are a reader how important is it to you? Do you notice it?
