Have you ever written a story, then research parts of it when you rewrite? Take a look at The Foundling. When I first wrote it (a year and a half ago), I made it up completely. I didn’t use any research – I didn’t have any research to use. If something seemed right, I wrote it.
And then I showed it to some friends and family members. They told me that several parts in my story were inaccurate – for example, that a hunter would be lucky to find and kill more than one deer, and that having several on the sled might be more than the dogs could pull.
About a month ago, I looked through the beginning of my story and began researching. I found out how much meat can come from different animals; how much weight a dog can pull; how meat can be preserved outdoors and how long it takes to preserve it. I looked up several different kinds of hunting and fishing traps. Then I rewrote my story. I still made some things up, but I tried to give a reason for why the made up “facts” make sense in the story (for instance, Stan still catches a lot of meat – but that’s because his dogs are special, not because he ran into a lot of deer by chance).
For this week’s prompt, look at a story you’ve already written. It could be about something you’re familiar with, or don’t know a lot about. Research something about the story you’re unfamiliar with, and rewrite the story using what you now know.