Advice on organizing research for historical fiction

General
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Hello everyone :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I am now working on my first historical fantasy novel; set in 18th century Europe; and I use structure as my primary writing tool. I am amazed by the software flexibility; but I am having trouble successfully arranging my research materials. Given the enormous amount of historical material; character notes; storytelling ideas; and visual inspiration I have collected; I would like to learn how other people in the community addressed similar assignments.

My novel has several locales around Europe and a vast cast of people. I have comprehensive notes on everything from political happenings to cultural expectations at the time; as well as rich character histories and complex storytelling lines extending several years. I have collected a large collection of photographs; maps; and reference materials that I wish to keep handy when composing.

  • I have organised my binder into four sections for characters; settings; plot; and research. I have separated each part into folders based on distinct topics. This arrangement works well for the most part; although it can be tough to discover particular sections of material when I am deep in the process of drafting.
  • I have saved all of my visual references; pictures; maps; etc. in the Research folder; but it is a little difficult to sift through them all when I need to find something specific. I have considered identifying and using keywords; but I am not sure how to do it efficiently.
  • I use document notes to keep on top of additional information related to specific situations and sections; I am concerned that as the project progresses; I will lose sight of certain critical aspects hidden in these notes.
  • I have tried using the outliner and corkboard views to draw out my plot and keep track of important events. While these tools are useful; I believe I am not taking full advantage of them. I would appreciate any advice on how to use these capabilities to keep a clear picture of my narrative.
  • I am curious how others have dealt with similar difficulties. how do you organize your research materials in Binder so that everything is easily accessible? Have you found efficient methods for categorizing and cross referencing various types of data? Are there any lesser known scribe features that could help simplify this process?

Also I explored some topics related to this https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/ddrag-and-drop-pdf-files-from-a-file-manager-to-an-item-in-the-binder-does-not-work-anymorepowerbi but I did not get the sufficient solution of my query so I would really want to get some help from a more experienced person

Any advice or insights are greatly welcomed I am keen to learn from individuals who have successfully negotiated the complicated nature of managing huge research projects using chapters.

Thanks in advance for your help :hugs: :hugs:

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Your project bookmarks and metadata (tags etc) are great tools to incorporate. If you find color-coding helpful, tags, corkboard items, and (labels? Or is it status? Iā€™m not at my computer) can all be color coded and set to show as a background color in your binder and or a colored dot in your binder items. There are many posts describing various ways to use these features for organizing.

Here is a [post] (Can't add characters to multiple chapters - #7 by Kevitec57) by @Kevitec57 that details using character sheets in project bookmarks for quick access. This concept can be used for any of the topics you mentioned. He has also posted other detailed ā€˜tutorialsā€™ about how he uses Project bookmarks for other topics.

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I have another approach which I call Sub-Project Bookmarks, found in the post below, which I find useful.
I use it to access similar categories between multiple books saved to the same project, but it can help you to sub-categorise commonalities on the fly from bookmarks without having to create an endless list of bookmarks. It helps to eat an elephant in small chunks, so to speak.
Sub-Project Project Bookmarks - Scrivener / Wish List - Literature & Latte Forums (literatureandlatte.com)

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My advice would be to start writing. Look up research briefly when necessary, and keep on writing.

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Though not Scrivener advice, Iā€™d recommend Ken Follettā€™s BBC Maestro course. He covers his entire writing process (including research) and should help give you the confidence to make up your own system to use.

Personally, I use a separate Scrivener file for historical notes. In it, I organize research thematically (eg. Religion (folder) Burials, Christianity etc. (notes); Healthcare (folder) Illnesses, Medicine etc. (notes.) , and use a new template that includes different eras for each note. Below these notes, I have a folder for sources and link each note I make to the source info. That sounds a lot more complex than it is. Iā€™ll give an example:

Social Structure

Ancient Period (3500 BCE-476 CE)

East Anglia divisions between roman/none roman settlements echo through time: 7.2, Wood 2022

Medieval Period (476 CE-1450 CE)

General structural overview of medieval society: X-xi (Introduction), Goodman 2015

Early Modern Period (1450 CE-1800 CE)

Victorian Period (1800 CE-1900 CE)

Contemporary Period (1900 CE-Today)

Other Notes

Iā€™ve only included a couple of notes as examplesā€“I tend to write just enough of what Iā€™m noting and where to locate more information, rather than making longer notes. I find this way much quicker when studying and writing it all up. The part I link to the source notes is the authors surname and year of publication. The numbers are page and paragraph, eg. 24.2 = page 24 para 2. For each source I have a file like this:

Goodman, Ruth - How to Be A Tudor

Research Code: Goodman 2015
More Information

TRAVEL BACK IN TIME WITH THE BBCā€™S RUTH GOODMAN

We know all about the dramas that played out in the Tudor court - most notably those of Henry VIII - but what was life really like for a commoner like you or me?

To answer this question, the renowned ā€œmethod historianā€ Ruth Goodman has slept, washed and cooked as the Tudors did - so you donā€™t have to!

She is your expert guide to this fascinating era, drawing on years of practical historical study to show how our ancestors coped with everyday life. Using a vast range of sources, she takes you back to when soot was used as toothpaste and the ā€œupper crustā€ was served to the wealthier members of the house.

Exploring how the Tudors learnt, danced and even stood according to the latest fashion, she reveals what it all felt, smelt and tasted like, from morning until night.

If you enjoyed the writing of Hilary Mantel and Philippa Gregory, you will love discovering the true stories.

Publisher ā€ : ā€Ž Penguin (7 July 2016)
Language ā€ : ā€Ž English
Paperback ā€ : ā€Ž 352 pages
ISBN-10 ā€ : ā€Ž 0241973716
ISBN-13 ā€ : ā€Ž 978-0241973714

This is the end of the source note. The part that says Research Code (it this case Goodman 2015), is what I copy and paste into the notes above (I use the edit menu and link this back to the source note itself.) When writing up notes from a book, once the source note is created, I just need to copy this code and then Iā€™m good to go.

If I use a webpage, I tend to print it to PDF and then save it in a relevant folder on my computer. I then copy it all and paste it into a Scrivener note, which I file in a documents folder for each thematic heading (eg. Religion (folder) > docs (folder). I then write a brief note in the main notes and link it to this note.

I hope that all makes some sort of sense lol :flushed:

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