Abstract:

Methodologies are presented for successful research application to creative writing assignments. The suggested approaches will include exercises and techniques designed to explore research options to build stronger creative narrative writing. For the creative writer, the use of research can range from the inclusion of specific dates to ways in which time period, place (or setting) and characters can be developed authentically, for example. The student writer can sometimes struggle with integrating research into their creative writing; e.g., when is research necessary? How much is too much? When to research and when to focus on getting the story told? This paper will also include when research is most effectively used in creative writing (not limited to historical fiction), and researching beyond the predictable boundaries of the internet.

In her essay A Creative Writing Research Methodology, creative writer and researcher Nicola Boyd raises the question, “So, why bother with examining methodologies at all?” and articulates that the creative arts remains a marginalized discipline, despite the healthy 7% of the higher education market it maintained in 2007 (Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations 2008). This may not sound like much, but compared with Engineering’s 5%, Information Technology’s 6% or even Education’s 11% and Health’s 12%, the creative arts have significant market share, but despite progress over the last twenty years, remains a site where research outputs are not taken as seriously as those in engineering or other disciplines. A clearly defined methodology or set of methodologies, which are embraced by a body of academics in the discipline—providing a somewhat unified front—might go a long way to move the discipline from marginalized to mainstream. This need not mean one methodology for all or close the door on new methods; the method itself could include the ability to hybridize a number of methodologies to explain the individual’s method.

Keywords:

Research, creative writing, narrative writing, historical fiction, exercises, techniques.