Category Archives: Researching a Topic

The Thrill of Sharing

Writers Contribute to Our Common Knowledge

All writers are probably in some way dependent on the work of other writers, either for style, subject-matter expertise, technique, and so on. Nonfiction writers are dependent on others in a far more obvious way. We often quote other writers, use their research, or otherwise turn to them for information and background about our own subjects.

I am sometimes awed by the amount of work that some writers have given to their topics. Studies that took years to complete or assessments and surveys are so helpful, and yet are so time-consuming for the author(s). Even gathering data and going through it just to draw out statistics or numbers can take days or weeks, and I appreciate the dedication it takes to do it. We all know to give attribution for the information we take from others–with great gratitude–but it’s even better to be the giver.

Seeing your own work cited in someone else’s manuscript is a thrill. For one thing, you know someone has actually read what you’ve written, plus you know he or she thought it was important enough to use. What a compliment! I hope everyone can have that thrill; it’s a great reminder that all that effort is worth it.

Remember the Trivial

Man Reading a Newspaper, circa 1842

Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you must become something of an expert in the time, place, and people involved in your narrative. This means knowing some of the intimate details that make a scene or time period come alive. For that, I believe you have to be concerned with the trivial.

I remember reading a novel set in the Victorian era that mentioned–in mere passing–that the butler had ironed the newspaper to set the ink so his master’s fingers wouldn’t stain. What a fascinating detail about the materials of the period, the duties of servants, the luxury available to the upper class, etc.,–and all in one small snippet. Every novel needs these kinds of details, but I think that much of nonfiction needs them even more.

Most nonfiction writers get hold of an idea or event that fascinates them, and hope to stir the same passion in their readers. To do that, readers must become invested in the lives and events of the people studied. Details bring people and time periods to life. Of course you need to make sure you don’t bog down readers with a lot of meaningless detail that does no more than show you’ve done your research. But as you do that research, be sure to grab the little things that might catch your attention. Does a newspaper recount a terrible local tragedy, city event, horrific weather? Does it have advertisements for local businesses or talk about land transfers or social events? These things make places come to life.

Though your narrative will undoubtedly focus on major–and important–issues and people, glimpses into the intimate are also powerful. Make sure you can give that to your readers, and weave these little details into the story. They’ll remember everything else so much better for your effort.

More to Learn

This Book Was Published in 2016

You might think there would be little to add to many historical topics, since nothing new is going to turn up on something that people have already researched for a couple of hundred years, right? That may be true, but researchers do find new information about the past more often than you might think. For instance, historians writing a book about Cambridge (Massachusetts) were intrigued to find a note on a map from the 1870s that said “Tomb,” near Walker Street. They traced land titles and eventually found out that a little settlement called Lewisville off Garden Street had been founded by freed slaves in the late 18th/early 19th centuries. No one previously knew about this settlement or its inhabitants.

Old documents continue to be unearthed, or people make connections that had eluded earlier researchers. In my own case, I’ve seen that as more newspapers, journals, and other documents are digitized, I can find information through the internet that would have been the equivalent of searching for a needle–not in a haystack–but in the entire hay field.

What I’m saying is that if you find a topic intriguing, don’t give it up just because several books or articles have already been written about it. Check to see when the research stopped. If all the information out there is even as recent as 10 or 20 years old, there may be new information available which can add to the story.

Internet Research . . . Is it Enough, Part 2

Internet Research Can Be Faulty at Times

In my last post, I gave reasons why internet searches may not be the best way to find people to interview for an article or book, background information for a personal project, and so on. What might you do, instead?

For one thing, perhaps go old-school and find (on the internet!) the professional organization for your topic. Contact it and explain your needs; people there may be able to suggest members who are experts in the exact area you need to discuss, who are doing interesting studies or fieldwork you may be able to mention, or who have developed a new theory or slant on your topic. Similarly, you can look at the organization’s last or upcoming conference agenda to find the names of speakers and the kind of information they’re presenting. Conference sessions usually present something new and interesting or not generally known–and editors love that.

You may want to contact a university with a good program related to your topic. Most of the time its teaching staff will be working on relevant projects or have specialized knowledge that again, will be new and fresh for your readership. How about a research group? This is a great way to find out what’s going on now and/or what the current concerns are in the field. Look at professional papers that have been recently written on your topic; either the author or co-writers could be good people to contact. Research papers usually list team members or cite other papers and expertise tapped for the project. Those sources could also be great.

My point is this: If someone or something is easy for you to find on the internet, it will be easy for 10,000 other writers to find. If you want to stand out, tap more than the “same old” sources, and give your editor and readers information that not everyone else is going to find,.

Internet Research . . . Is It Enough?

Libraries Once Held The Only Readily Accessible Information for Most People

I became a writer before the internet existed, so I remember how hard it could be to dig up information on almost anything you wanted to write about. I wrote a lot of freelance articles, and to find an expert, I usually had to go to the library first. There, I’d browse through a Directory of Associations–and there seems to be an association for everything–so I could find the appropriate professional organization for whatever I wanted to discuss. I’d get the phone number, contact the group, and find someone suitable to interview.

Nowadays, of course, writers can meet this simple need by a quick search on the internet. This is a great way to find people, of course, but it may or may not always be the way to find the best people.Here’s why I say this:

First, some experts who are truly leaders in their field or very well known may be almost impossible for the average freelancer to access: An interview with Steven Hawking for a small educational magazine will probably be impossible. Second, some people who are out there to promote their business (and there’s nothing wrong with that) will be glad to speak to you; however, they can become a “go-to” expert simply because they’re available. You get only their perspective, and readers can get tired of seeing the same person constantly interviewed. (A lot of other writers will also be using them.) Third, you may find someone on the internet who has the initiative/funds/contacts to set up a web site, use a publicist, and so on, who isn’t actually the best person to speak with on your topic–he or she is just the one you can find.

These points are enough, but there are likely several other valid reasons to not always rely on the internet to source people–or your facts. In my next post, I’ll talk about what you may want to consider, instead.

Thinking it Through

There’s Always Room for One More if You Have a Different Angle

Since I’ve just sent out a book proposal, I’m reminded of all the work that creating one involves. There’s the actual cover letter, which is very similar to a query in that it tries to grab an editor or agent’s interest with a quick overview of the project. Then there’s the table of contents with its chapter synopses, sample chapter, and so on–whatever a particular place asks to see. One other essential is your market analysis.

This particular step really ought to be done before you tackle much else. If there’s no market for your book, why bother writing it unless you have a very focused niche and are willing to self-publish it? If you’re writing for a mass audience, you need to convince the powers that be that your book will stand out among similar titles. (And, I will say right here that most people will not be inventing a new genre–competition exists!)

This can be a heart-rending process if you realize that your own book idea does not really differ all that much from what’s already out there. If every relevant book on your topic is out of print or more than ten years old, you may indeed be able to make a case that it’s time for a new look at the topic, even if your take on it won’t differ too much from the past. But, in most cases this won’t be true. Bottom line? Unless your book is going to include material others aren’t offering, why would a publisher want to take it on? This kind of information doesn’t have to be earth-shaking, just something no one else has covered or covered well. Is there new research available? Are you going to approach the material from a different angle? Have you found new sources of information that no one else has used? Are you going to be easier to understand in some way?

Anyone perusing titles in a bookstore or online can see that there’s room for several books on any one topic. Your job is to make yours different enough that you can demonstrate an unmet need in an audience with a past history of paying for information on the topic.

Getting it Dead Right

A Vault to Prevent Death by Premature Burial

I had an interesting experience during recent research on a strange Victorian obsession–premature burial. This situation occurred when people fell into a coma or coma-like state that fooled doctors into believing they had died. Apparently, “corpses” revived at their own funerals (or unfortunately, afterward) just often enough to keep people wary that it might happen to them. When graves were re-opened for some reason, gruesome evidence of a mistakenly buried victim’s frantic attempts to escape made for great news copy and kept the public terribly aware of the horror they might endure from the same mistake.

People invented various devices to alert the living to such a disaster. These generally consisted of bells and alarms that a buried person could ring, and shovels were sometimes buried with people so they could work their way out of the grave. A person’s family might also check on the body via tubes in specialized caskets, that allowed them to see the corpse. Once decomposition set in, the survivors could feel assured that their loved one was really dead.

One device I have read about–and even seen mentioned in reference materials–was called a Bateson Revival Device or more commonly a Bateson’s Belfry. This device, “of proven efficacy, in countless instances in this country and abroad” according to its advertisements, relied on a sturdy metal bell mounted on the lid of the casket. The bell was connected to the dead person’s hand by a cord that went through the casket; the slightest movement would set off an alarm to alert the living that the “corpse” had awakened.

The information about this device and its mechanism was similar to other so-called “safety coffins” on the market. The problem is, the Bateson Revival Device is completely fictional. Michael Chrichton invented it for his novel, The Great Train Robbery, and did such a convincing job that researchers relying on secondary sources have been taken in. The Bateson device is mentioned as fact, simply because many writers did not trouble to find a primary (original) source of information about it.

This huge mistake shows how historical misinformation can be perpetuated as fact.

Your Idea’s Next Step

An Inspiring Quote

I wrote in my last post that writers generally approach an editor/publisher with a nonfiction idea through a proposal. An advantage to the proposal process is that you don’t have to write the entire book. The disadvantage is that you have to expend enough time and money to do the research for the first few chapters out of pocket. If you can’t convince an editor that you know what you’re doing and can do it well, you aren’t going to get that contract. Unfortunately, it’s absolutely to your advantage to suck it up and do what it takes financially and time-wise to make the first three chapters sparkle.

You will want to avoid costly trips and/or buying a lot of books or other resources that you may eventually need if you get the contract, but you still need to show an editorial team that you know what you’re talking about and can handle the topic. That’s why thinking through the material you need to cover is so important–you’ll go on fewer unproductive tangents right from the start. When you have a structure and know what you’re going to discuss, you have an efficient road map for your research.

There’s no one way to conduct research or present information for all nonfiction, of course, but in a general way, here are some things to consider:

For original research or first-hand information, is there somewhere fairly close that you can visit to give a flavor of the type of research you’ll be doing?
Is there someone relevant that you can interview for your first chapters?
Are there studies or reports from reputable sources you can reference?
Are there clubs/associations/professional groups devoted to your topic that you can tap?
Is there anything strong enough in your own background to use as expertise?
Can you at least suggest the sources you’ll use when you actually write the book?

Your job at this point is to give an editor confidence that you’re familiar with the subject matter and know where to go to dig deeper. Combine that with two or three strong chapters, and you may have a book deal.

Obscure Information

Archival Center in Boston

On the website I maintain to support my book, Vanished in Hiawatha, someone wrote to me and asked me to help them find information about an ancestor who had been a patient in a New England insane asylum. Of course I don’t do research of that sort, but I do like to answer anyone who has taken the trouble to write. Other people may have similar questions, and I know it can sometimes be like trying to grope through a maze to get at a speck of information you need.

The first thing I have to say is that unfortunately, information sometimes just isn’t there. Documents of all kinds are destroyed over time for legitimate reasons–sometimes just because there’s not enough room to keep storing them. This may not be a problem in the electronic age, but it has certainly been one prior to it.

If your particular record still exists, one of the starting points for you to look for it would be within the institution that originally housed it. By that, I mean that if you’re looking for records on a patient who was in an insane asylum, try to research the original institution to see if it has changed its name (or moved) over the years. If the place still exists and is now a hospital of some sort, for instance, its administrators may have stored these original records somewhere. In the worst case scenario, the administrators will probably still be able to tell you what happened to them.

If records are not readily available at the institution, the next most likely place to look would be in a local, and then state, archive. Again, either of these places may be able to tell you where the records are if they don’t have them. If they were destroyed, you’re probably out of luck so far as detail is concerned, but you can still go to a library (at the original location) to see what they have. A library probably wouldn’t have actual patient records, but many libraries have town/county/family histories which may mention your relative’s name.

Each place you look may lead to another, so don’t automatically give up just because a record isn’t readily accessible.

Remarkable Women

Susan La Flesche Picotte, courtesy Smithsonian Institution

As I write this post–interestingly enough on Election Day–I have just finished some research on a remarkable Native American woman named Susan La Flesche. Her achievements are especially striking when you consider the barriers that existed for women in her time; women today are frustrated because of an uneven playing field in certain areas of life, but La Flesche lived in a time when women couldn’t vote, and as a Native American, didn’t even have citizenship.

La Flesche was born in 1865 in a buffalo-hide tipi on a Nebraska reservation. Before she died at age 50, she had attended the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (graduating at the top of her class), become the nation’s first female Native American doctor, and established a modern hospital on her impoverished Omaha Indian reservation. La Flesche was a crusader of staggering energy, fighting against land fraud, whiskey peddlers, and poor health conditions among her people. Before her own health failed her, she served more than a thousand patients scattered over nearly 1,500 square miles of reservation territory.

I have been continually amazed at the achievements of women who lived without the right to vote, own property, or sign legal contracts. My own paltry achievements are nothing in comparison, and during this season of thanksgiving and appreciation, I am indeed grateful for the inspiration and example they offer.