Research Tips for Writing Nonfiction
I recently moved into a new house and office, and was faced with carting along decades of writing research in the process. Books, albums, boxes of photos, cassettes—that was the easy part. Assembling the stacks of files, the collapsed cartons of photocopies, insect-infested pamphlets and newspaper clippings, the 10,000 pages of...
Research vs. Observation: What’s Your Preference?
This excerpt comes from Writing 21st Century Fiction by Donald Maass. Do you research your novels to the point of obsession, or do you not research at all? Historical novelists are research junkies. Coming-of-age novelists mostly rely on memory. The majority of fiction writers fall somewhere in between: They study just...
How to Improve Your Researching Skills and Write Accurately
Whether or not you’re already an expert on your topic, it’s vital that you do all the necessary work to get accurate information. Here's how to guarantee you do that.