Guest blog: Michelle Prima - Organising research for historicals

When I was asked to contribute an article about writing Victorian romances from an organizer’s perspective, it started me thinking about the process from an entirely different angle. 

When I began writing over 20 years ago, I was a stay-at-home mom.  It was long before I began a career as a professional organizer.  Yet, when I look back, I realize writing historical romances perfectly fit my personality.  Why?  Because of the extensive research I had to do for each book and the need to keep it in order.

Rather than write about my own familiar world, I chose the Victorian Era. That meant having to delve into every aspect of daily life in the 1800s.  That wasn’t a problem for me, because I love to learn as much as I love to write.  The problem was how to keep it organized to find it when I needed it.  After all, although I read everything I copied, I couldn’t remember every detail.

I began by indexing every resource I used.  Mind you, this was when the internet had first appeared, so most research was done in the library.  I either wrote notes by hand, or made a photocopy.  So I needed to keep track of every book.  Now, I use less books and more online resources.  But I still index my sources.

I found the easiest way to organize my research was by subject.  That way, if I was writing a scene where the characters were at a dinner party, I could quickly find my notes on social graces and food.  Where should the Lord of the Manor sit, who sat to his right, and how did they file into the dining room?  These notes came from many different sources, so I wanted a simple way to keep track of the source.  I didn’t want to have to write the bibliographic information every time I added a note to my pages, so I created an indexing system.

For every book I used, I photocopied the title page, then assigned it a number.  So my index looked like this:

#1.  “Title”, author, publication date, publisher, ISBN# and where I found the book (library, etc.)

The list was as long as it needed to be for the number of sources I used.

When I wrote notes from my sources, or copied a page, I recorded my index number by the entry.  If I ever needed to check a fact, I’d be able to look up the source, then find the original book again.  This was especially helpful when I began another project and wanted to look further into a subject that I’d only skimmed for the previous novel. 

All my notes went into a binder, with tabbed index pages to mark each subject--Architecture, geography, transportation, etc.  The binders worked well because I could move pages around or expand into a second binder. 

While this method still works well, my computer works better now.  I still use an indexing system.  I compose notes in a Word document, and keep the index in an Excel spread sheet, which is both searchable and sortable. 

How you file your research isn’t as important as filing it.  You never know when an editor or reader will question your facts.  If you’ve kept detailed records, you’ll be able to support your story.

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Michelle Prima has been writing historicals for over 20 years.  She is a former Golden Heart finalist, and contributor to magazines and web sites.  She is the author of Researching the British Historical: The Victorian Era and 101 Organizing Tips for Writers.  Visit her web site at: http://www.literary-liaisons.com/ for more writing tips.