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Use research to deepen and broaden your stories.

  • Go on the internet or to your public library. Check out a history of your ethnic, religious, or cultural group. Read it carefully, looking for both statistics and for background details to increase the richness of your stories. Be ready to have your memories multiply as you discover phenomena that you suddenly realize are familiar.
  • Investigate a local university or college library to see if they have more or better materials for your research. Can you get a community borrowing card or do you need to work on-site?
  • Find out about your state, provincial, or county library and learn how to use Inter-Library Loan to get books from distant collections. Many of these may not be available on the internet.
  • Rework your stories to incorporate the new information your research has uncovered about your family or personal history.
  • In a story, incorporate an actual event into a typical day your characters would have had.