Creative writing research was one creative writing strategy employed by writers of the
Back to the Future trilogy.

Each creative writing strategy used in movies such as Back to the Future, a science fiction trilogy about time travel, shows how writers can wholly embrace the concept of creative writing research. The movie is fictional. There never was a time-traveling Delorean (sorry to break that to those hard-core fans out there!). The magic of the movie, however, was that we, as fans, believed that this time machine existed. The history of it was perfectly laid out. The nitty-gritty details, down to knowing the second that lightning was going to hit the clock tower, created a phenomenal sensation that skyrocketed this movie to becoming the classic that it is. Each creative writing strategy that the writers used to pen this classic trilogy made each line, each dilemma, and each emotional connection we felt with the characters all the more special.

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The town of Hill Valley needed to have a history in order for the movie to work. When Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) first went back in time, he wound up in the year 1955, and eventually met his parents, who had not yet fallen in love. His job was to get them together, all the while avoiding the conflicts that inevitably plague a well-written movie, novel, or other piece of writing. All of the facts that we had already learned from the beginning of the movie, about present-day 1985 Hill Valley, fell into place when we learned about 1955 Hill Valley. We could see how the town and people from 1985 had evolved from the 1955 town and characters they had once been. All three Back to the Future movies dealt with the creative writing strategy of creative writing research that the writers worked so hard at for the purposes of their story. The town had a history all its own, including how different portions of it changed over the thirty years from 1955 to 1985.

So, you see that it doesn't have to be something real that you can do creative writing research about. Any creative writing strategy you use can be helpful even in writing a fictional history, such as in Back to the Future, or a fake mythology, such as on Lost.

Write what you know, and add in what you have been lucky enough to find in terms of creative writing research you have done, or your character mapping. You'll find that the combination creates an impact on your readers emotionally and characteristically. They will be more able to identify with the setting, characters, and ideas that you relate if there is some evidence behind your writing to back you up. You want to show your readers that you truly cared enough to write the very best by doing some creative writing research.

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