How Much Research is Required in Historical Fiction?

As an historical romance author, I love history. I love learning about different historical time periods and the events that took place during those periods. I love learning what life was like during those periods: what people wore, what they ate, their jobs—everything about their lives. I love including  many of these historical facts into my stories. However, this presents two problems: 1) how much research should or must I do; and 2) how much of the historical facts can actually be used in the story.

Let’s take a look at these problems one at a time. First, “how much research should or must I do”? If you talk to historical writers, many offer a different answer when asked how much research they do. One writer told me they spend months or even a year researching before they even begin to write their story. Another writer told me they do “as little as possible”. So I have come to the conclusion that there is no real requirement or “must” in the amount of research to be done.

Next, “how much research should I do”? I can’t say that either of the writers, mentioned above, is right or wrong in the amount of research they do, but here is my own experience. As a pantser, I did some research before beginning my current WIP—enough to have a solid, well-rounded main character and enough to know what his job required.

As I wrote, I sometimes had to stop to research something I hadn’t thought about before starting to write. One of those things was horses—my main character’s job deals with a lot of horses, and I knew little about them. Other things gave me pause throughout my writing as well, but I had no problem stopping, doing some researching, then continuing my story.

One thing I had to learn: there is such a thing as too much research. What do I mean? Well, some friends and I were shopping in a used book store, and I was about one-half to two-thirds finished with my novel, when one of my friends shows me a book she found on something that was paramount to the life of my main character. I got excited and bought the book.

When I got the book home and began to read it, I grew frustrated as I was learning more about the subject than I already knew and felt like I’d need to go back and rewrite and change a lot of stuff in my novel to include more historical facts.

Once again I spoke to other historical fiction writers and was told, “You have to draw the line on research somewhere. Otherwise, you could research for years.” I realized the truth of those words and put the book away. Besides, I write historical “fiction”. That means not everything in the story has to be historical fact, and maybe, in the future, I’ll write a short story or some magazine articles using that book.

Where do you draw the line between too little and too much research?

Kelly F. Barr lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She is married and has three sons. She writes historical romance. She has also been a blogger for ten years, and every Friday, you can find her Flash Fiction stories posted for your reading pleasure. She loves her family, including the family dog, books, walks, and chai lattes.

You can find her online at:

Website: https://kellyfbarr.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kellyb_26

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