Research is vital to writing an immersive story. You don't have to write what you know, but you should know what you write.
If you can get out in the world for your research, great! But not everyone is able, for one reason or another, to travel or take up a new hobby or do whatever is needed to get that research done.
Don't despair! You can get plenty of real-world research done online and by reading nonfiction books. You just have to know where to look. My two favorite resources?
Google Scholar and Google Books.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is my #1 favorite research tool. It's so good, y'all. So many articles!
When writing my circus story, A Lucky Star, I didn't want to nail down an exact year because I wanted to play with anachronisms, but I wanted to give a general 1800s-ish vibe.
When researching, you want to start with broader terms, and then narrow down your research.
A Lucky Star centers around a young female performer, so I searched for "female circus performers 1800s" and came upon a wealth of information—not all of it relevant, but all of it interesting. I was fascinated to learn about the role that women, particularly women of color, had in the early circus days.
Google Books
One of the books recommended to me by Google Scholar was Women of the American Circus, 1880-1940. It's $26 on Kindle. Was I going to pay $26 for that? No, I surely was not.
Before you spend any money on any book, you should check two places to see if any or all of it is available to read for free. One is Archive.org. The other is Google Books.
In this case, Women of the American Circus, 1880-1940 was partially available to read for free via Google Books. Score!
There you have it! Research is an invaluable tool for any writer, allowing you to create rich, believable worlds and characters even if you can't experience everything firsthand.
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