Truth Be Told: Research and Write Your Novel or Short Story
with Briana Una McGuckin
June 25, 2025
4 Weeks
Original price was: $345.00.$295.00Current price is: $295.00.
Zoom calls Fridays at 3 PM Eastern
Original price was: $345.00.$295.00Current price is: $295.00.Enroll Now
In this multi-week workshop for fiction writers, you will gain practical research skills, and immediately turn them into pages of your manuscript.
Good research will enrich any story you tell, no matter which genre or time period you’re writing in. It deepens character by helping you understand people’s very different lived experiences and perspectives, and it provides you with the right details to bring your story to life in ways that feel immersive and true.
Throughout this course, you’ll learn research tips, tricks, and habits of mind straight from an academic research librarian turned published author to help you research your novel or fiction piece. You’ll get strategies for integrating your research into your story, and you’ll share your writing for feedback each week to ensure that the two elements—narrative and knowledge—flow together as smoothly, and powerfully, as possible.
Each week, you’ll tackle a specific aspect of the research process—from formulating the right questions to finding reliable sources to seamlessly integrating research into your story. Through a combination of guided lessons, search exercises, and writing prompts, you’ll gain practical research skills and apply them directly to your work-in-progress.
Weekly submissions provide opportunities for you to draft your research into your narrative and get helpful notes from me for future revision. You’ll walk away with a toolkit of research strategies, and newly written scenes that bring your story to life with well-integrated details.
Research can shape every aspect of your fiction—from setting to character to historical accuracy. Whether you’re diving into historical records, interviewing experts, or simply figuring out how to make your fiction feel more real, this course will help you strike the perfect balance between storytelling and fact.
Who This Course is For
Any writer working on a piece of fiction—whether you have a finished rough draft or are still in the drafting stage.
What Will You Get Out of It?
- Guidance in directing and narrowing your research focus in order to suit your project needs
- Tips for searching effectively for materials and information (sometimes in unexpected places)
- Strategies for working research into the story, with readings, lessons, and writing exercises on world-building and exposition
- Resources beyond the written word: ideas about who to reach out to, and what to ask
- Advice on balancing research and writing: when to stop, and when to possibly start again
Learning and Writing Goals
Learning Goals
In this course, you will:
- Build a personalized research process that supports your specific fiction project.
- Learn best practices for interviewing authorities on a subject or in a field.
- Learn effective strategies for finding, organizing, and evaluating a wide range of sources.
- Understand how research can inform and enrich character development, setting, and plot.
- Develop techniques for seamlessly integrating researched material into your narrative.
Writing Goals
In this course, you will:
- Draft new scenes or revise existing ones using research-driven detail to deepen realism and voice.
- Practice embedding research naturally into narrative through weekly prompts and feedback.
- Receive weekly feedback to refine how research and storytelling are working together on the page.
Zoom Schedule
We will meet on Zoom weekly on Fridays at 3 PM Eastern.
Weekly Syllabus
Week One: The Research Question
So much of good research is first figuring out what question we are asking—and often it’s more than one. We’ll look at how I did this work, both for my debut novel and with my former students as an academic librarian, and then you’ll distill and share the research questions you have regarding your own project. We’ll also submit some exploratory writing—about why the research topic is important to each of our stories—to allow for discussion around the opportunities and limitations involved. Doing this pre-work thoughtfully will keep us focused, and prevent us from falling down the research rabbit hole.
Week Two: Looking for Answers
This week will be all about searching. I’ll cover places to search, and search strategies that work as well on Google as they do in any library database. I’ll also go over what different source types have to offer us. This week’s writing exercise will be a scene focused on integrating research through a protagonist’s (or narrator’s) perspective.
Week Three: Beyond the Written Word
Sometimes the answer we need isn’t on the page (or screen, as the case may be). Sometimes what we need is an expert. Now, for many years I collected oral histories to be submitted to the Library of Congress! This week, I’ll share insights as to what to ask an expert or authority on your topic, even when you’re not sure what it is you need to know. This week’s writing exercise will focus on integrating research through dialogue or other interaction.
Week Four: Say When
There is so much information out there. How do we know when we have enough? This week, I’ll talk about the good, and the bad, that comes from digging deeper into whatever topic we’re studying. We’ll check in with ourselves about the information we’ve gotten and the information we still need. I’ll share some perspective that will help us to return to the page without regret, and at the right time, while leaving the door open for more research as needed. Our last writing exercise will help us to determine whether we’re ready to pause researching—and, if we’re not, it will show us the quickest path to pausing.
Original price was: $345.00.$295.00Current price is: $295.00.Enroll Now
Student Feedback for Briana Una McGuckin:
With Briana’s encouragement and support along the way, I was able to complete a 60,000-word first (very rough) draft in twelve weeks, just as the course promised. This was exactly what I needed. A terrific experience. Kevin Holland
This was just what I needed to get me well into a first draft of my novel! Having deadlines and some feedback kept me motivated. Briana was a great cheerleader and source of inspiration. The readings were helpful, but it was the sense of accountability that I valued most. Catherine Martin
Briana is so knowledgeable and sees big picture things that I was completely blind to. She is a wealth of encouragement and understands the philosophy behind getting the first draft on the page. I wouldn’t have finished my manuscript without her. Becky Lees
June 25, 2025
Length: 4 Weeks
Open to AllText-Based
Zoom calls Fridays at 3 PM Eastern
Original price was: $345.00.$295.00Current price is: $295.00.
Original price was: $345.00.$295.00Current price is: $295.00.Enroll Now
