For the past few months, I've been doing lots of research for the nonfiction book, The Everything Kids' I Want to Be a Police Officer Book, that I'm co-writing with my friend Lee Lofland. When we started on the project, we did a proposal, with a basic outline of chapters. At that point, we mostly talked about topics we wanted to put into the book, things the kids would find interesting and fun. Then, after the proposal was accepted, we started writing. And that's when the research started.

Now, I've got it lucky. Most of the information is coming right from the horse's police officer's mouth. Lee is a retired detective, and he's written his own wonderful book for writers--Police Procedure & Investigation. Still, I go out there on the web and I read, looking for fun tidbits and extra details.

What's interesting is how focused the research seems to be for nonfiction. Maybe because we already did the outline, I find myself, on Google, typing out very specific searches. I look at the outline, think about the subtopics, and start hunting. Of course, I find surprises--that's the cool part of this and what's going to make kids like the book,  I hope. In general, though, I know what my questions are, and I'm looking for answers.

Then there's the fiction WIP I'm just starting. It's going to be a middle-grade, historical fiction, maybe even a historical mystery, and I'm setting it in 1913. I LOVE this time period. In graduate school, I studied the Victorian novel, and I've always been amazed at the huge change from how the people, women especially, were living--dressing, thinking, behaving--in the late 1800s to how they got to live in the early part of the twentieth century.

So, like I said, I love this period. But...I know very little about it! So, research. And it's totally different from research I've done before, SO different from the research for the nonfiction book. I know one or two things that I want in the story, and that's it. My first job on this project is to LEARN--everything and anything that's out there about these years in the United States. I don't even know what state I want to set the book in, for pete's sake, let alone what city! So I have a stack of books coming, and I get to read, read, read. 

I'm thinking the facts I need are going to jump out at me, and the ideas are going to just bubble and boil around in my brain. (Okay, I'm hoping!)

On the one hand, it's intimidating. The nonfiction research seems so much more controlled, organized. It's manageable--I have a deadline, I know what I need to find out, and I know I can do it. On the other hand, of course, is the excitement of NOT knowing what's coming. And of being able to just let my brain roam free in the texture of an era.

I'm curious about your techniques, especially on the nonfiction. When you start a nonfiction project, do you already know all the subtopics? If you've had to do a proposal, you've outlined right, so you have guidelines you're supposed to follow. Or have some of you started writing a nonfiction book the way I'm doing this fiction one--with an idea, one idea, and that's all? 

I'd love to hear your comments!

In fact, maybe Debbi Michiko Florence can fill us in on her research process for her new picture book: China. Debbi's hosting a contest today at her blog--it's an easy one with a great prize. Just go comment on her post, and she'll enter you in a drawing for a copy of the book. I'm heading over as soon as I finish here!