When research hijacks writing

Oh, yeah I do this all the time. I've got to force myself to just write and highlight the details that need looked up later. Otherwise, I never get anywhere. Which is where I am at with one WIP. So much so I shelved it and started another. Which is what I did with the previous WIP. Hmm.. two in a row. Is that a pattern?

Yep sympathise totally. I hate it when I see movies or read books and they don´t get basic stuff correct, whether through lack of knowledge/interest or ´cos it works better for the plot.

I find I often get hung up on those little everyday details and maybe I should try to make that a correction phase activity. Like Laurie I sometime put markers for things to check.

I find sometimes I also use it as an excuse to not write which obviously is not good.

I usually look for things I'll need before I write the section (and then very often still flag it during the first read through for a double check or more in depth). I'll have to say though that my historical WIP has been kinder to me on the research side than the science fiction I'm working on now. Puma

I once spent an entire morning trying to research the Subura in ancient Rome and wondering why I kept getting car sites.

Shame I'd typed in Subaru by mistake.

I'm working on a fantasy set in a feudal society. A year or so ago I got completely derailed on research once I realized I needed to know a lot more about feudalism just to continue. It was a very useful and enjoyable time, but I wrote maybe three sentences of actual prose. Since then I think I'm back on track.

When I'm in the flow of writing, I try not to let the details stop me. Whenever I hit something I'm not sure about I'll make an arbitrary decision and surround the section with <angle brackets> as a reminder to come back later and fix it. For me, stopping to correct the details easily becomes another form of waxing the cat.

Ah, research.

I love research. It's the best excuse for not writing!

I usually do practical research as well and travel to the places I'm working on, try the crafts I mention and maybe have a day without modern comforts to get the feeling of life without electricity. I do cook original recipes too.

I pin copies of old maps to the wall along with sketches of clothes and copies of paintings of people and street scenes from the time.

I have photocopies of old newspapers pinned up to show the adverts and entertainments.

I have files of ordinary people's printed-out diaries from the correct dates.

I have nearly 4000 reference books, many old ones or copies of old ones from the times I write about plus the latest in academic thought on the historical periods I enjoy.

My idea of heaven would be to live in my own home with all my books and research stuff around me so that writing wouldn't get derailed for an hour whilst I check that the Flying Scotsman was doing the London to Edinburgh run in 1888. (It wasn't!)

I do try to get everything I need read and noted first but little things will creep in. I sympathise with Arrowqueen. My spelling is erratic too and our stupid computers never understand the way a librarian does!

pdr research paradise!

I stopped writing one book because it needed to be set in several European countries that I had never seen. I just couldn't get enough 'feel' without having been those places. Anyone have that problem?

I too tape up copies of photos, get maps, regional cookbooks..

I get stuck on names. I want to make sure I'm using names that would have been found in that area in that time. I can waste an entire day wading through census material....

i'm stuck on researching dueling. it is a fascinating subject and very complex. just reading "the code duello" and coming to an understanding of the rules has taken me days upon days. but i think it will serve the duel scene i intend to eventually write (argh) well in the end.

henriette said:

i'm stuck on researching dueling. it is a fascinating subject and very complex. just reading "the code duello" and coming to an understanding of the rules has taken me days upon days. but i think it will serve the duel scene i intend to eventually write (argh) well in the end.

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Try 'The Duel, A History' By Robert Baldick. A good one volume history of duels and dueling.

I'm writing a historical fantasy. I'm already into chapter two which is an accomplishment for me. Although I'm in the middle of moving so...it's not going so well right now.

My WIP takes place in New England 1895-1905. I'm pretty much making it up and will do the research later. Although I have looked into some of the fantasy parts like ocean mythology. I know I will need to do a lot of research to fix the details about the historical aspect but I just want to get the writing done first.

Maybe it would be more appropriate to have a thread "When writing hijacks research"

My motto on another board is 'would rather research than actually write the thing'. I love this quote from an interview with Susanna Clarke:


''One way of grounding the magic is by putting in lots of stuff about street lamps, carriages and how difficult it is to get good servants.'' So her apartment is challenged by bookcases full of soldiers' accounts of Waterloo, the social anthropology of George Ewart Evans and dozens of slim books on such subjects as styles of visiting cards and mausoleums.
''I love books about very small things,'' she said. When a certain character draws a knife from a well-laid table near the end of the novel and holds it to a man's throat, ''I had to restrain myself from buying a book on 19th-century fruit knives.''



Reading that, I looked at the book on Georgian tableware sitting beside my own computer and thought "I'm not mad. I'm just researching."
-Barbara

thanks stumpfoot. much obliged!

Speaking of research ....

(Man, I need to come back later and completely re-read this thread with my whole attention.)

On my way to check in here this morning, I saw a discussion title relating to research on the Writing Novels board.

I'm trying to parlay the "Must Do Research" angle into some family trips to museums, historical sites and best of all ... some caves. Fortunately I passed my geek genes on to my kids and they like museums, too

How do you feel about perpetual motion machines? I visited a museum in New England (don't remember if it was Vermont or New Hampshire) that had a Rube Goldbergesque perpetual motion machine made of the most unlikely things. Spent the entire time in front of that one exhibit.

I agree with all those who write what they can, red flag notes for later, and move on to get the general story finished. I need to look up late 1600 sailing but the story wants to just flow out. I might skip that chapter and move on, returning later when I need to write it.

A good way to research ships, is to go on one. Actually, I'd say it's compulsory. I once read a fantasy novel partly set on a sailing ship, where it was blatantly obvious that the writer had never been on one. He was describing being on this ship very much as one would describe lying on a beach -- which is what I'm pretty sure he was doing.

Tip: Ships are windy places. Very often quite cold, even in summer. And the crew of a ship does not spend the voyage lying around sunning themselves! I almost kicked that book into a corner.

rekirts said:

Oh, I identify with that. I have a bookself full of books about Rome, the Roman army, daily life in Rome, Roman Britain, Celtic Britain, Hadrian's Wall and all kinds of stuff, specific and general. Also I have a couple of binders full of stuff from the internet.

I do love my books. Some of them are special ordered from Britain and cost an arm and a leg.

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Are we writing the same books? Except for the internet stuff which I use very sparingly, that sounds like my bookshelves.

Ah, at last another Roman historical fiction author! Good Lord, I see what you and Gabriele have written, and I wonder the same thing! Hey, as long as you guys aren't writing about the actual Roman Invasion in A.D. 43, we're good (I intend to use that as the plot for my final "Soldier of Rome" book). Can I stake my claim to that one now??

To answer your question, I am going through the exact same problem with my second Roman historical novel. In fact, I just started a new thread on that very thing. The problem I see is that we are dealing with sources that are 2,000 years old, and not always first-hand accounts. Also, you will see that some sources contradict each other, so which one do you believe? I see this most when reading about the Emperor Tiberius (who in my opinion got an unjustified bad rap from a number of historians). In the end, I always go with which source is PROBABLY the most likely to have it right. What else can you do?

In my stories, I take an event that I would actually like to read about, and insert my cast of characters into the story. I have actually changed events in my stories, because later on I found that I had my historical facts wrong. Where no hard source is available, all we can do is write our interpretation of how things COULD have happened.

Although the thread title is open-ended in terms of application, it is most certainly understood to refer to the writing of novels. However, perhaps surprisingly, and then again, maybe not, the same problem can arise for those who are feature article writers, in the realm of non-fiction.

These are usually research intensive, but, obviously, are of a much smaller length, and have a much shorter deadline. It is possible to do too much research, but one can also undertake 'just enough' research to acquaint oneself with the relevant details and background, so as to be able to write the piece 'meaningfully', or 'covering the bases'. The balance between too much and too little can be hard to maintain at times.