Donis here. I've about reached the middle of my new WIP, the spot where everything changes for the protagonist, and now I'm neck deep in historical research as she moves to San Francisco in 1886 and starts a new life.
Now, the 12 books I've had published are all historical mysteries set in the United States. This new MS is not a mystery, really, but it is historical, and like every other historical fiction author, I do about ten times more research than shows up on in the pages of my books. I try for as authentic a depiction of my characters lives in their place and time as humanly possible. What is their daily life like? In pre-20th century America it wouldn't be realistic for a fictional amateur sleuth could just run off and chase clues whenever they want. She has to fix dinner, do the laundry, weed the garden. He has to plow the north 40, take care of the horses, go to work at the bank/land office/mercantile. It's a much more physically demanding life than most of us post 20th century denizens have to live.
When I write a historical, I want the reader to feel like my character is a real real person who has a life that matters, to care about her. I dearly want to create her world and make the reader believe in it.
Thus, the tremendous amounts of research. When it comes to historical mysteries, you really have to be careful not to make egregious mistakes about the time period - events, language, clothing tools, conveyances. What mystery-solving methods were available to your sleuth during his time period? Sometimes recent past mysteries are more difficult to get right than distant past mysteries. When did smart phones become widely available? No Reeboks for Caesar - that's easy. But what about Reeboks for your character who is on his way to Woodstock in 1969? How about Oxydol Detergent for your housewife in 1930? Levis jeans for a farmer in Oklahoma in 1918? (Note: Levis were available, but not so much in Oklahoma. I know this because the official historian for the Levi Strauss Company told me so.)
It's a tightrope. An author wants to create as realistic a world as she can, but the whole point is to engage the reader in the story, not to write a history book. Strive to at least be accurate enough not to alert the anachronism police!
Only a very small percent of the research I do for each book finds its way onto the page. It's amazing how little it takes to add just that perfect touch of authenticity to a story.
Why, then, spend so much time learning everything you can about the times, lives, and mores of your characters when you know you're not going to use most of it? Because your own familiarity with the world you're writing about is going to show without your having to make a big deal of it. The characters are going to move naturally through their world without thinking about it, just like we do in our own world.
One single sentence in a book may represent an hour of research and quite an education for the author, yet the information may or may not ever be used again. But sometimes one perfect little detail can trigger a mental image for the reader and put her in a country kitchen early one spring morning in 1915.
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