How to Research Historical Details for Your Book and Bring Your Story to Life
How do you research historical details for your book?
History starts beyond the dates, the major events, the heroes and the villains. History is what happens beyond the statistical chronology of events, though those details matter.
History also starts with a family sitting around the dinner table. A husband slicing the bread. A wife serving the meal. Children wearing clothes stitched and repaired more than once. Hands washed in a bucket instead of under running water. Bread baked in a wood-fired oven instead of an electric one.
The details matter because those are the details that turn history into a story.
When I research historical details for a book, I don't only want to know what happened in a particular year. I want to know what an ordinary Tuesday looked like.
What did people eat?
What did they wear?
How did they wash?
What was on the kitchen table?
What did the house smell like?
What would have been completely ordinary to them but completely unfamiliar to us?
These are the questions that help you move beyond collecting historical information and start building a believable world for your reader.
Research the World Around the Historical Event for Your Book
You need the dates, the politics, the geography and the wider events. They create the background and help you understand what was happening around your characters. But the smaller historical details put people inside that background.
If your character walks into a kitchen in 1963, for example, don't just research what happened in 1963. Research the kitchen.
What kind of stove would have been there?
What food was being prepared?
What was on the table?
Who cooked?
Who ate first?
Who cleared the plates afterwards?
The same applies to almost every part of daily life. The point isn't to cram every piece of research into the book. Most of it may never appear on the page.
It is there so that the details you do use help you bring your story to life.
Understand Why You Are Researching for Your Book
There are many ways you can go about historical research for a book, but if you don't know why you're researching, you can easily end up collecting data rather than details.
You don't necessarily need to become an expert on an entire decade before writing a scene set within it. You need to know enough about the wider historical context, and then go deeper into the specific details your scene requires.
Research beyond the event. Research the life surrounding it.
Because research makes the details believable. And those scenes make history live.
Are You Writing Your Book?
If you are writing a book, there are several ways I can help.
From developing your initial idea and researching your story, to writing, editing and publishing.
Visit Book Consulting Service here and don’t hesitate to contact me if I can help you bring your story to life.
Tamara Forrest-Smith
