Topic Research Brief for Authors and Writers

What a good one includes

• A chronological timeline of major events, scientific milestones, or historical shifts that directly impact your story’s timeline.
• Sensory details highlighting the specific sights, sounds, smells, and textures of the era or environment to enrich your descriptive prose.
• A curated glossary of period-accurate slang, technical terminology, or cultural jargon to ensure your dialogue rings true.
• Socio-cultural norms and etiquette of the time or group, detailing how characters would realistically interact, dress, and behave.
• A breakdown of everyday technology, tools, transport, or weapons relevant to the setting to prevent anachronistic slips.
• An annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources, giving you a quick pathway to deeper exploration if a scene demands it.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Focusing solely on macro-history while ignoring the mundane, everyday details that actually make a scene feel lived-in.
• Failing to define strict geographical or chronological boundaries, leading to anachronistic details that pull readers out of the story.
• Presenting dry, academic facts without translating them into the sensory and emotional elements that writers need for world-building.
• Neglecting to cite sources, which makes it incredibly difficult to double-check a specific detail during the final editing phase.

Frequently asked questions