How To Research for Writing a Book: The Book Writing Process Explained.

Good old fashioned research; The foundational building blocks of every good book, whether it be a non-fiction, short story, autobiography- even science fiction! While some authors dread the research process and fight the urge to jump straight into the next steps, we highly encourage all of our authors to spend a thorough amount of time with it.

Research can expand your creativity in so many more ways than you can imagine, and is a crucial step in the book writing process. There are three main levels of research, all of which increase in nuance and depth: Basic Information, Fact Checking, and Full Contextual Understanding.

Basic Information

You may have already gathered most of the information you need for this first step in research unknowingly, as it’s the easiest to do. If you’re referring to New York in your book, google maps the areas and refresh your memory of all the sights. New memories may come flooding back, too! Use Google as a library for all of the major events, keywords, and subjects in your book. You should also be gathering information about people, dates, historical events, etc. This is also the time to double check spelling while you’re gathering the information, so as to save you time and money in the editing portion.

Fact Checking

The last thing you or your readers want is to be in the groove of reading, and then to stumble upon blatantly incorrect information. Whether it be just one person who experienced it with you, or a historical event that many might recognize, do your due diligence by fact checking your stories, dates, and all parties involved.

Full Contextual Understanding

No matter if you’re writing an opinion piece, or science fiction, it’s important your readers can jump into your narrative and be provided enough context to follow your story. Does your book have connections from start, middle, and end? Where can you fill those gaps? If you’re writing a non-fiction or opinion piece, does the reader have the full context of your argument? If you’re creating a new world for your reader to escape into, have you creatively given them definitions and an understanding for all this new vocabulary in your fantasy escape? This is the time to connect the dots before you jump into writing.

Learn more about the entire Publishing Process with Elite Online Publishing by reading this blog, or schedule a 1:1 call with founders Melanie Johnson and Jenn Foster in our custom VIP Book Writing Days made for you.