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Saturday 15 June 2013

How do you keep track of research?



Recently I’ve been working on Book 2, The Painting for my submission to the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme, which needs to be sent in by the end of August.

Occasionally I stop writing/ editing because I need to reach into that mountain of research taking up too much space and find out a detail such as:
What did a dining room look like in the eighteenth century? Today I found out that dining rooms in country houses tended to have paintings of hunting scenes on the wall, whilst special paintings by Van Dyck for example were hung in the drawing room.

How do you keep track of all this information and where it came from?

Spreadsheet:
I have a spreadsheet for the Bibliography, which mentions the book/article etc and includes notes relating to what it can be used for. After losing track of books etc read for Book 1 and having to locate them in various corners of the house, I won’t make that mistake again. (More on spreadsheets: How useful are outlines?)

Pinterest
Creating a board in Pinterest for a novel is useful for collecting information. I have one for Book 1, The Grandson but I don’t want to show a board for Book 2 to anyone until I’ve finished writing it-as things will change. In this situation, it’s possible to create a Secret Board. Here I’ve included links to paintings I’m using for research (The BBC Your Paintings website is lovely to browse if you’re an art fan). Also I include links to books read for research, paintings of famous people from that period; and other pictures I see which inspire or may be useful later on.

A4 pad
I use an A4 pad to write notes about anything relating to my novel. That way, if I have a random thought such as ‘what if the heroine doesn’t know what to do after finishing university?’ I can make a note of it and write for a few minutes whether that’s a good idea. It’s amazing how plot ideas can be developed in this way just by asking myself questions such as ‘Maybe the hero can offer her a job and she realises it’s exactly what she wants to do’ and then ‘but where will she live?’ etc. Underneath all this I can add my note about dining rooms. That way nothing gets lost like in the days when the house was littered with post-it notes which didn’t make much sense.

Ring binder
When reading a book for research, how do you make sure that you: a) draw out the relevant info without getting side-tracked by other stuff?; b) don’t forget what you’ve read in six months’ time and have to read the book again (another lesson learnt with Book 1)? These days, if a book is full of handy facts, I make notes and file them in a ring binder.

How do you keep track of research?

Thought I’d include a photo of this beautiful Chinese cedar tree at RHS Garden Wisley from a lovely walk last weekend on a day when the sun decided to shine (where’s it gone?!).

7 comments:

  1. I love doing research too - and it is sometimes tough to keep track of it all! I've used spreadsheets as well. I also have tons of folders in my favourites list that I've renamed with the relevant facts. :)

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    1. Hi Jemi, thanks very much for visiting. I have to be careful not to get lost in the research, especially as the period I'm reading about at the moment-the eighteenth century-is so interesting.

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  2. I adore research and sometimes wonder if I prefer the research to the writing... I have a spread sheet (love a good spread sheet), notepads and for some books files to keep all the pictures, snippets, etc together in one place.

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    1. Hi Georgina, thanks for your comment. I quite enjoy the challenge of finding out information required to make the plot work. I love it when I discover a fact which can enhance the story eg. the other week when I realised many eighteenth century country houses had lakes made in their gardens. Now my country house has a lake which I'm using to my advantage in a scene. This week when I found out paintings of hunting scenes were hung on the walls in dining rooms, I had to adjust a scene where 'the painting' used in Book 2 has to be moved to the drawing room instead.

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  3. I use a notebook and also keep a file on my lap top. Bk 3 is my first to involve detailed research of a different time period and location and I'm loving doing it. Great post, Anita and lovely picture too. xx

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    1. Hi Elle, thanks for your lovely comment. Book 3 sounds interesting-can't wait to find out more!x

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  4. I saw an interview with Hilary Mantel in her studio and she had an mountain on ring binders for her research. So efficient. I hadn't thought of using Pinterest like that. I've been researching art for Book2, Book 1 was adoption. I enjoy research too! SD
    http://www.sandradanby.com/

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