Research and Re-Search

A writer must love to research, but also have a passionate desire to write or one can get wrapped up in re-search.

Oh the joys of Wikipedia's knowledge and Google Search with links and images--love it! Researching for me is similar to being sidetracked by bright and shiny objects where I'm constantly yelling "Squirrel!" I must rein myself in, kick myself or just plain turn off the internet so that I can write and get my story done.

Links are called links for a reason. Last week I researched submarines for one of my novels. I needed basic knowledge such as whether or not a sub has stairs or ladders, how the bunks or berths were situated and I wanted to find types of subs and specifications. I needed knowledge about the life of living in a submarine that could be drawn into my writing so my reader would feel the tight confines and realities of the quiet spaces or the fear of the dark. Two days of research later I woke myself up from yet another link--did you know that drug cartels use Narco-submarines to stash their substances in a clandestine effort to bring them around the world? Yeah, fascinating stuff! But I found myself chained to my chair by these unending-push-a-button-links.

I had written almost a paragraph--ok only a sentence--in two days--maybe three.

Unless you have an uncanny and amazing ability to stay on task and you also have an innate mind, capable of ALL knowledge and understanding of absolutely EVERYTHING, you have experienced the above--at least once.

We need to know when to say stop! And write! Whether you set a timer for your duration of research time, or write a certain number of pages daily before researching the details and then insert them later, we must write or our books do not come to fruition.

Another basic thing to keep in mind if you spend days on research is what type of items you've spent days researching. After I explained my new knowledge of submarines and warfare to my husband and told him how fun it was to research, his one comment to me?

"You've just been flagged by the NSA."

I hadn't thought of that. But if so, I may be on to something real for my book, descriptions that would resonate with my readers and bring them in and hold them spellbound, and that is what I truly desire.

Now to put pen to paper or NTPPTP!