All right. So, I’m gonna channel my best Mediocre White Man™ and write on this topic as if I know what the fuck I’m talking about.
Ok, I mean, I kinda sorta know what I’m talking about. I’ve done research for a historical novel, and plan to do it again (like some kind of dummy). I’ve also written more than my fair share of research papers in college, and I work in libraries, so I have a decent set of research skills.
But I feel I really need to clarify that I am talking about lowercase r research here. The sort of sprawling book-learning that one does for themself in order to become more knowledgable about a given topic. Not capital R Research that involves science and math and peer review.
No amount of research for a novel is going to make me an actual expert on the subject. And I think that’s very important to understand from the onset. The point of research when writing a Historical Novel, isn’t to become an expert. The point is to learn enough, to build such a strong foundation of authenticity, that readers assume you are one.
Where to Begin?
So, like, there’s a lot of history out there. Like, more info about the world and its people and places and events than a single person could ever consume. Sitting down to start learning about anything can be intimidating purely from the sheer scope of it all. That’s why you need to know something about your book.
For instance, for my current work-in-progress, I knew it was set in “pioneer Oregon”. So, my initial searches were super simple:
- “When did Oregon become a state?”
- When did settlers come to the Willamette Valley?”
- “When did Salem become the capitol of Oregon?”
These simple questions offered relatively simple information, but the more you search, the more you learn, and the more questions you start to have. For instance, in learning about the capitol, I learned that there was a period of time where the capitol moved from Salem to Corvallis and then back again. Well, that seemed strange, so I looked into it. Oh, the capitol burned down so it temporarily moved, but then – not even two weeks after reopening in Salem – it burned down AGAIN!
I don’t know about you, but that seemed like something that just HAD to be in my book. Which then gave me a date: 12/29/1855. Now I knew when my book would take place, December 1855, so now I could start narrowing in and getting more specific with my research.
The more you learn, the more you start to find the pieces that make sense for the story you want to tell, the more you can focus in on the facts that can aid (or perhaps complicate) that story.
That’s when you’re ready to dive deeper.
The Plunge
This is where research can get tricky. Topical google searches are easy, skimming for the big details that act like guide posts for your journey back in time. But once you start wading into the minutiae you might be desperate for an actual guide.
Might I suggest a librarian?
Now, I don’t just mean your local Reference Librarian – although they’ll be a massive help in connecting you with research resources and more general texts about a given topic. I’m talking about an Academic/Research Librarian. If you’re like me and researching a topic that takes place in your state, then you probably have a local historical society that can help!
I made the trip up to the Oregon Historical Society Museum and Research Library several times to sift through documents, maps, and photos in order to learn as much about my novel’s time period as I could. Shout out to amazing Reference Librarian Renato Rodriguez for not only helping me decide on what documents to view, but being an enthusiastic and encouraging presence during my visits!
I might be biased, but librarians are the shit, gang.
During these visits, I took a lot of notes and A LOT of pictures. The real hurdle for me was a lack of time. I only had about 3 hours per visit to get through multiple carts full of documents. It became apparent almost immediately that I would not be able to actually read every document I’d selected. So then my visits became a race against time to assess which items were useful for my particular project. Return the ones I didn’t need and either note the ones I wanted to revisit or make a copy (if permitted for that particular doc) or take a photo of it.
I have so many photos on my phone of random documents from 1855! And it was an absolute blast going to the library and grappling with history. The experience really proved to me that I am a top-tier nerd.
But, enjoyment aside, what do you do with all that knowledge once you have it?
Organize and Implement
After hours spent in the library, taking feverish notes and photos, I had to organize all that info into something easily navigable and searchable. I’m not too proud to admit, I probably could have done a better job of this, especially when it came to the photos.
My typed notes were copy/pasted into a research file in my Scrivener project (Scrivener is a drafting/revising software that offers so many features I could never list them all. But one of those features is a place for research within the same document as your manuscript, which makes for very simple note consultation mid-draft). The photos… languished in disorganized chaos on my phone.
But, I found I didn’t really need to access them. I’d already internalized so much from the time spent sifting that I found I had enough of a foothold on the setting and time period to start drafting. And remember, that’s what research is for – a foundation of authenticity.
So I wrote the book, and occasionally, when the writing highlighted a particular gap in my knowledge, I’d do some quick, topical research (like learning about Printing Presses circa 1855). But otherwise I used the research as a grounding layer for the story I wanted to tell. Sometimes it helped crack open a plot block, and sometimes it offered interesting limits that I had to tell the story within.
The research guided the draft, but didn’t control it.
Round Two
Now, with the rough draft done, I find myself at another stage of research. I know the story inside and out now, I know where setting and worldbuilding are thin, and I know where I shied away from certain themes or topics because my knowledge wasn’t deep enough.
That means it’s time to do the time warp again! And by time warp, I mean sit for hours reading about life in 1855. Now my research can get very pointed:
- What did meals look like in settlers’ homes?
- How did people dress? How did gender and race affect their clothing?
- How were Indigenous, Black, and Queer people treated?
- Spoiler Alert: Not well.
- How long would it take to get from X location to X location by horseback? By Stage Coach?
- What were inns/taverns/lodging like and where did they exist?
- How and where did people cross the Willamette River?
This sort of stuff is where I’m starting this second round of research. The answers to these questions will inform the revision process, and really shore up the foundation I’ve already built. Each round offers new opportunities for detail, and the more accurate those details, the more authentic the book will feel to readers.
At least, that’s the hope, right?
Decisions, Decisions
To me, the hardest part of writing a Historical Novel is deciding where to blur the lines between actual fact and emotional truth. What creative licenses am I allowed? How many tweaks to the past can I make before the book starts to feel “off”. How many non-authentic choices can I make before the book’s authenticity starts to suffer?
I don’t know the answer to this and I suspect that it varies for each and every book. Because of course it will. For this book… I don’t know yet. Right now, the draft is sticking pretty close to the world as it was in 1855. I’m not setting out to rewrite history with this book. I’m using the confines of the world that was to tell a story with very modern sensibilities, and that in and of itself is challenging as fuck.
But I’ve made some concessions. For instance, a man who was nicknamed “Whiskey” because he loved the stuff so much has become not just an alcoholic in my book, but a bootlegger too. That’s a creative reinterpretation of the man, but other parts of his life remain true – he lives on an island in the Willamette, his house standing on 8ft tall stilts, and he’s a foul-mouthed slob. These are all recorded “facts” about Whiskey Brown.
But, the further you get in your research, you might find that the facts sometimes contradict themselves. Or you’ll find that you’re reading someone else’s research, and they’ve put a spin on it that reflects who they are and when they were researching this topic. They’ve come to different conclusions than you or other more modern researchers might.
Or it could even be a simple matter that, you’re reading a document from almost 200 years ago, and the original writing is simply wrong. Fact-checking was a hell of a lot harder in 1855 than it is today, and news was painfully slow to travel from the Eastern states out West.
It’s for this reason that I highly recommend consulting multiple sources on the same subject. From there you can draw a conclusion from the consensus, or play with the wild What-If of the oddball out.
Whatever you decide, whether it’s to cling to history or to play in the margins, just remember to do what best serves the story you’re trying to tell. When faced with a choice, ask yourself, “what will make this book better? What will make it best?”
Then do that thing. For me, I want to do that thing in the most historically authentic way possible. That’s the goal. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
BZ
