It was a knockoff Disney cruise, and Disney cruises are their own special kind of nautical adventure. This gave me a better idea of what my protagonist’s room might look like and what her schedule might be, but I was missing one very important detail. I set out to read as much as I could on what it’s like to work on a cruise ship, including the crazy hours, the cramped living quarters, and the personal dramas. But those details weren’t enough for the book, especially since my character wasn’t a passenger on a cruise-she was an employee. I had been on a couple of cruises in the past, so I wrote down as many details as I could remember about the experience-the seas of sunbathers who were starting to resemble leather suitcases and the extremely enthusiastic people spraying hand disinfectant at every turn. That meant I had to remain firmly on land and explore other research avenues.įirst, I started with what I knew. When I started working on the book, I was hugely pregnant and too bogged down with deadlines to be able to dash out of town. You just go on a cruise and write it off as a business expense, right? Sadly, not in my case.

Now, in an ideal world, researching cruise ships would also be the enjoyable kind of research. But when my editor at Scholastic approached me with the idea for a story about a girl who spends her summer working with her mom on a wannabe Disney cruise, I was instantly on board, even though it meant knowing a lot more information about cruise ships than was currently in my brain. ones that take place in completely made-up worlds) or ones that require the most enjoyable type of research (e.g. That’s why, when I can, I write stories that require minimal research (e.g. When I start researching something, I often feel overwhelmed by the amount of information I don’t know, and I start to panic that I’m going to get everything wrong.

For many authors I know, research is one of the most fun parts of the process, but for me, it can be paralyzing. It’s always fun and informative to have Anna on the blog! Diving Into Book Research by Anna Staniszewskiīefore I embark on a post about the process of researching my newest tween novel, ONCE UPON A CRUISE, I have a confession to make: I’ve never been a big fan of the research process. Prolific author and one of my writing buddies Anna Staniszewski is here today to talk about researching ONCE UPON A CRUISE, the first book in her latest tween series.

Once upon a cruise by anna staniszewski