One of the most common questions I see from writers of historical fiction is how to balance research with writing. First, you want to know how much research is necessary. Then, you want to know when to stop researching and start writing.

Use reader expectations as your guide

For many historical fiction writers and readers, historical accuracy is paramount and no straying from the facts is acceptable. For others, entertainment is the most important factor of the story and adherence to historical fact is appreciated but not absolutely necessary. Most authors fall somewhere in the middle. They do their absolute best to adhere to the facts, but feel comfortable with changing minor details to better suit a story.

If you want to write a story that will be read and enjoyed by many readers, then it is important to understand what the reader expects from your book. Understanding your target readers and their expectations will help you decide how much research is necessary.

A novel marketed as a telling a true story will require a higher level of adherence to historical accuracy than a story that focuses on relationships but uses history as the backdrop. For example, most commercial historical fiction will need to be grounded in historical fact and deviations should be explained in an author’s note. Some subgenres such as historical fantasy will have much more leeway for imagination. Readers of romance often place more value on the relationship’s portrayal than historical accuracy.

Sometimes readers expect historical accuracy, but are unfamiliar with the real facts of an era. There are so many anachronisms in historical movies and TV shows that people believe things that are not really true. Even if you write in a genre where expectations for historical accuracy are lower, you can often stand out as a superb writer if you exceed those expectations.

Once you know your reader’s expectations, you need to decide your own comfort level. This is of course, where difficulties can arise. Many writers of historical fiction get mired down in the details and either never move beyond the research phase or include so much detail that the story gets lost. If you want to share your story, you eventually have to move on from the research and start writing.

When to stop researching and start writing

Research can be a form of procrastination but it can also ground your story and set it up for success. Many writers are told to write first and research the details later because looking up every little detail will slow them down. But, while that is probably the right advice for contemporary stories, it doesn't work well for historical fiction. Writers of historical fiction need time to absorb the research so they can reimagine it for their characters’ world.

While it is true that writing before you research is bound to result in plot holes, I do think there is some value in not waiting too long before starting to write. It takes time to learn how to tell a story well and that can only be done by trial and error. No matter how many books you read or courses you take, you have to try it out in order to improve. Write with the expectation that practice writing and research are two elements that eventually will be brought together to make a publishable historical story. You can't really skip either one

At a conference a few years ago, I heard several successful authors share their timelines for completing a book. They all had different strategies but one thing they all had in common was that they spent several months researching the historical details and time period before they wrote a full draft. It was important to them to feel as though they were well-versed in the time period before putting too many words on the page.

As a writer, you have to reimagine the facts within the context of your own story. To do that, you have to know your history and then let it all mulch down and compost together so it emerges fresh on the page. Even if your story is based on true events, the story world is not exactly the same as the real thing. The facts have to mean something to the characters of your novel, and in making them mean something, they become part of the story world.

In academia, researchers strive to achieve saturation, which is essentially when the same information keeps coming up from different sources. There is also a rule of three that is commonly referenced. You search until you find three separate primary sources of information that corroborate a fact.

So how does all this work in practice?

There is no right way to balance the research with the writing but there are some methods that can help you avoid diving deep into rabbit holes for details that do nothing to move your story forward. Test them out and see which work best for you. You might even find that it changes for each book you write.

1. Set some research goals and parameters so you know the limits of what you need to learn in order to tell your story well.

2. Research until you can write the story without having to look up day to day experiences. Give yourself a deadline for the research or you could make this go on forever. I like to set regular times to check in on what I have gathered and compare that to what I have set as my goals and parameters.

3. Do a base level of research then write a draft or outline before researching the finer details. This can be helpful when you only have a rough idea of the story. There is no point in studying menus and train schedules if your character never hops a train.

4. Write an exploratory draft of the story using brackets to indicate where you need to do more research. This can help if you have an idea you want to run with before getting bogged down in the research. This method is more likely to need serious revisions if you find that parts of your story are not plausible after doing the research.

No matter how you approach the research and writing process, you will ultimately need to do follow-up research as you revise. Remember, no writing or research is wasted. The research you do on one book might trigger an idea for another book and any writing you do is practice that can help improve your skills or be revised into something new later on.