Research: is it worth it?

True Fact: I wrote a mythical fantasy story set in Ancient Athens. In real life, Athens was a land-locked city but I thought it was built next to the sea so in my story it has a harbor and a wall bordering the sea. No-one who has read the story so far has seemed to mind. XD

I know the feeling, I feel like I should know what I'm talking about but the amount of stuff that a writer needs to know to make a story as realistic and believable as possible is huge. And I feel like if I don't know this stuff then I shouldn't be writing about it. That's one of the reasons I write fantasy too.

I do like to do as much research as I can because I think it can actually give you new ideas that improve your story. But at the same time one person can only do so much; research as much as you can and make up the rest of it.

I'll usually look up specific things on a chapter-by-chapter basis. For example, if in one chapter I have to describe a medieval house, I'll look up what houses were like in certain periods to make sure my description is at least somewhat accurate.

I think that research can improve a story, but it's not essential to telling a great story.

I actually catch myself mostly researching for small, seemingly unimportant details.
Like, have you ever wondered whether other people (or people from another culture) use a spoon or a fork to eat their cake (Do they even eat cake?) or if they just pick it up with their fingers? I guess the latter might also depend on the type of cake we're talking about and maybe different people have different preferences for how they eat their cake. At least I've seen all three possibilities used in my family and in friends' families. But I just couldn't help but wonder when eating cake came up in my story one day.
Oh, and then I feel like I'm constantly researching on car brands. I don't have a particular interest in that subject and I knew next to nothing about it but I felt that if one of my characters buys a car, then the brand would be important since it conveys something about him. So there I sat reading up on the history of those brands and the different models of some series of cars and the interior design and then watching the ads
So much time spent on something that doesn't influence the story that much but I still feel good about it since I think that if it's something important to the story (the cake not so much but the car definitely was) then I should invest at least some time to make it fit with everything else.

Oh, btw, it's a romance story so I'd say there actually are a lot of things you can research in that genre too

it totally depends - on your story, and what you mean by research.

like... research can include the works you read / watch for inspiration, the reference photos you take, location scouting (yes, ive acc done this for comics, its a lot of fun), era research, costume development... so much. and not all of that research is necessary for every comic; location scouting can be great for a comic set in a particular city, but useless for a space opera; era research is pretty important for a historical fantasy, pretty irrelevant to a modern drama.

however, i will say the inspo research and reference photos can and will be valuable in any project - and its mostly stuff you wont class as research, the inspo bc its mostly osmosis of ideas, and the references because they crop up when needed, as opposed to being a stage in pre-production.

i spose a good example is smth im working on right now - its a horror set on a farm. ive done extensive research on horror and monsters as a social phenomenon (i love my media theory) and drawn from all sorts of films and comics for conceptual and aesthetic inspiration. ive taken countless reference photos to create the best environments i can, and experimented in all sorts of image-making methods. but i got a friend to read the script a while ago and she was like 'all this sheep stuff... is wrong.' my only research was watching gods own country. im not gonna do that research. its poetic license, its not important to the core story. maybe thats naughty... i just hope no farmers read it haha

yeah :') im always overly thorough on the research phase, and then pare down intensely. but for TWAW, my research comes in bits and bouts, and theres a lot of poetic license.

word

I think it depends on what it is... like the amount of blood gushing from a wound? I don't think that matters. But if I have to draw a specific city, then I will have to research what that city looks like, how the people look and dress, etc.

For example, I have a flashback in one of my comics to a certain time period and have had to research about it. I want it to look somewhat accurate. But apparently men typically had beards and I hate drawing facial hair... so they might not have beards, at least the main characters involved. lol But otherwise I do want the clothes and the city to look like it would have looked back then.

I also do look up science/math related things to help try and explain the things that happen in my world (since my comic is scifi) and I'd like something a little more substantial than "quantum whatever", but it still has to be basic and easily understood so ordinary people like myself can even understand it.

I think it's important, but doesn't have to be done to a T. If you're adding a certain time period, a certain location, certain medical condition, you should know at least the basics about it. For example, in Prince of Tennis one of the characters had guillain-barré syndrome and there was a significant plot point about one of the characters missing the match because he was having surgery for it.... except surgery isn't really a treatment/cure for it and then the author had to apologize.

I think it depends on the story. To be frank, I don't think anyone would care if you're not exact in how much blood your character would lose if they're cut. We all see inaccurate stuff like that. Especially in movies, where things are more obvious. I would personally care much more though if you make your character be really bad at fighting in every scene but they out of the blue beat up the most extra villain without any previous training. It would also be unrealistic for me if you make your character have some specific trait (ex. being shy) but then without any reason they change. For example, if you're writing romance and your character had a really bad sexual experience before and got some form of PTSD, you should probably research about PTSD first and shouln't make them go out to pick up some stranger for a one night stand that easily (without explanation).

What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that you can probably get away with a lot of stuff, as long as you know your characters well and give people an explanation of their actions. Making the STORYLINE realistic is much more important to me than making their blood and swords swing the right way.

My thoughts:

• Depicting something very accurately isn't usually necessary for the actual purpose of a story, such as creating interest or emotional impact, or exploring a theme or perspective. If it is part of the actual purpose, then significant research is probably warranted.

• All stories require the viewer to suspend disbelief to a certain degree. Further "accuracy" just lessens the required amount - but since readers are fully capable of suspending disbelief to a large extent, why not just let them and take advantage of it for narrative purposes?

• If there is a minor "flaw" in the accuracy of a story, chances are 95% of people won't notice and 95% of those who notice won't care. If a small handful of people get nitpicky about details but the rest enjoyed it, then it's not the end of the world.

Personally, I used to obsess over details trying to make everything I wrote as accurate and realistic as possible, but eventually I realized that I was basically just spending a lot of time and not getting anything done. Now I usually don't bother to research unless it's, like, some gaping hole in the plausibility of a story that would actually pull many readers out of the experience.

RESEARCH? HECK YEAH IT IS

Plus, it can help give you ideas you may even use for later stories.

I’m a researcher for my works. The novel I’ve been writing has a lot of military/university themes and I’ve googled so much about military systems/rankings and a bit about being a POW just to get things right. I’ve never been military nor have I come from a military family so I didn’t want to just spew nonsense. Then again, these are all surrounding themes while my story really just focuses on the characters and their relationships.
I’ve also done a lot of YouTube researching to see how people use certain art apps on the IPad Pro and to view different styles and techniques since I’m new to drawing on iPads. (Drawing in general, really. I often oil painted before I got into this).

Anyway. I just do research for my own benefit and my story’s benefit, but when I can avoid it I do lol. (Has been interesting to learn though)!

They say we should Write What We Know, and if we don't know something, research it. Yes, research is important, but in particular I think it matters about what type of research you do based on your target audience and story goals. Sure, it might not be necessary to research how much blood is going to spill out of a specific laceration, but I'll be darned if you're going to try and write a story about surgery without knowing any of the jargon. The amount of technicality should be linked to the understanding of the assumed audience as well as the characters. Moreover, research lends itself to credibility. Even if your audience isn't comprised of experts on your given topic, showing a little bit more care into the topic shows that you are knowledgeable, or at the very least, that you care, and that means a lot.
As for how I go about it, generally if I can help it, I try to be derivative. Even for fantastical elements, I think it helps to do some digging on relevant mythos, events, or history to help inspire or fine tune anything I happen to be writing about.

I deeply respect people who do thoughtful research for their creative work.
I myself try to do it, too, when I'm not too tired. For example, I've read a bit about different types of weapons and how to use them effectively to draw fight scenes better. But honestly, I haven't immersed very deep into it.
Also I more often write/draw about things I'm already somehow familiar with. Particularly, I tend to invent sci-fi things on the basis of the existing technologies, which principles of operation I already understand (more-or-less).

I mean yes, it is somewhat important?
I'm working on a fantasy universe but that doesn't mean you get away with everything. Of course you can't be an expert on all things in the world but at least trying to be well-informed really doesn't hurt, especially when it comes to major elements, things your characters are supposed to be competent in, or use/experience on a regular basis. (I will need to do a lot of research on traditional Chinese and 12th century Arab medicine because that's basically the technological standart my world has. I won't be super accurate either but having a broad idea of the fields, process of treatment etc. just helps not looking super stupid or like I'm completely missing the philosophy behind it. Then more intense research on the details I need to actually show.)
We learn a lot of half-truths through entertainment, and without doing research ourselves, it easily becomes Chinese Whispers, which ... isn't really good either? Sometimes it is exaggerated or even deliberately misinformed in a way that it does more harm than good just for a more dramatic look, but maybe think about why it has to be super dramatic in first place, or if you can't achieve more drama with other tools than throwing accuracy under the bus. Not to forget that some topics in media might even have been censored to fit a specific status quo (I'm not targeting any specific movement/organisations etc, it's just something you also should be aware of.)
And a lot of that knowledge is actually recycleable! Whether it be to file the info away for future stories or just so you have something to contribute to small-talk, it just broadens your horizon and might even become a great contribution to your creativity (because let's be real, how much medieval Europe fantasy is there just because people are just too lazy to explore other options through research. By now it just feels kind of uncreative and very limiting.)
Doing research imo helps you to also see the connections in the bigger picture and dissect processes, correlations etc more easily, which is a quality that helps you even outside of any creative endevours. And researching gets easier with practice!

I know that I sound very idealistic like that and I mean research can be scary, especially when you get deeper into a topic, then realise some correlations to other parts of your creation and then technically would need to change that part entirely. But that's just how it is. I don't think it's necessarily laziness that makes us not wanting to do research, though, I think it has more to do with being scared of the black on white proof that your previous assumptions were "wrong" (generally speaking.)
Can you over-do it? Of course you can get lost in research, but I don't think that this is a super bad thing either.

I personally believe that only because everyone else is doing/getting away with it, it doesn't mean we should do that, too. If you know you can do better, try to be better. It might even make your work stand out much more than it does without proper researching. (btw trying and failing is already better than being too scared to even look in the right direction. again, practice makes perfect.)

ok that was an unexpected rant

Short answer: yes

Long answer: yes, but if you're inaccurate/wrong, only your asshole readers will take the time to point it out.

My conclusion: so long as you stay consistent, you can claim artistic license XD

OH MY GOSH YES
DO RESEARCH

Truth is stranger than fiction so darn straight you better reference reality for even the most farside of possible fantasy world.

There's two ways I look at it, neither of which are easy.

1. Research is worth it if you wan't to have a series grounded in reality as the reader can only suspend their disbelief for so long.

2. You can make up your own facts but you then have to set up a whole new internal and consistent logic within your story.

I think a mixture is always good. Research can help you get inspiration from real world mythology, history, and people. There's nothing wrong with making it up as you go, but research can help spark ideas that you never would have come up with on your own.

I also find fantasy interesting and more fun to write, because you don't need to ground the story in real world logic.
I think the amount of research depends on what kind of story you are telling.

My advice is not to overthink it too much. As long as a story is engaging/interesting I don't really care if too much research was put into it.

I try to do so, especially with things that take place in THE REAL WORLD(TM).
I'm writing a historical fiction with a slight supernatural twist, so I'm trying to research the mid-late 70's as much as I can.
However, the hard part is things that I can't just like, look up?
For example, ice trucks are an important element in the story. Recently, thanks to first-hand experience, I have found out that these things are as LOUD AS THOR, GOD OF THUNDER. This will effect how I write the story, and whenever I looked up designs and important elements of these trucks online, none mentioned how loud they are! And that's a modern one, I can only imagine how an ice truck from the 70's must sound. It's stuff like that makes research scary as hell to me; really obvious stuff that is learned in 10 seconds from being there, but is so common knowledge that nobody ever actually states it to people who don't already know.