Hey Writer,
This week I am continuing work on the outline for my novella. I’m finding myself falling into what I call the “research trap”. Have you ever dealt with this? You research one thing that you need for a specific scene and all of a sudden you’re researching all of the different traps that trappers used in the 1850’s. This then leads into a rabbit hole of what everyone else lived like during that time. Useful information? Sure, but it wasn’t needed at that moment.
I don’t know if this is just a thing with historical fiction or if other genres experience it too but I fall into this trap a lot. Like all things, researching can be okay if done in moderation. It’s always important to get back to the writing, but I also think it’s awesome to see the different stories that can unfold the more you know about your topic. The more I learn about the world that my story exists in, the more excited I get to get back to it night after night.
Octavia E. Butler- Forever a Student
Octavia E. Butler was a science fiction and speculative fiction author who used her writing to explore racism and inequality in society. She was raised by a widowed mother and was very shy as a child, finding comfort in her local library where she read extensively in the fantasy genre. At only 10 years old, she asked her mother for her own typewriter so she could start writing stories of her own.
Butler went on to become very successful in the science fiction genre, eventually becoming known as the “Grand Dame of Science Fiction”. Her success came from the belief African American characters could appear in science fiction stories without their race being crucial to the plot. She went on to win many awards and helped open the genre to other African American and female writers.
Octavia Butler believed that she was able to depend more on the habit of writing than any kind of motivation. In the early years of her writing career, she would wake up as early as 2 in the morning to get some writing in before she worked her various jobs. As she became more established in her writing career, she would wake up later at 5 or 6 am and finish housework before beginning to write at 9. She aimed to write at least four hours a day, treating her writing like a job. When the words wouldn’t flow, Butler often read books or listened to books on tape then she would be able to 'write furiously’.
Writing Exercise:
Wake up earlier than you normally would, read something that inspires you, then write without stopping for ten minutes.
Writer’s Block Autopsy: The Research Block
This one is for the overthinker. Have you ever had a story that you have been planning to write for years but it never starts because you’re always preparing to write it but never actually writing? You convince yourself that you just need a little more information before you start so that you can fully understand what you’re writing about. Just one more article, one more Reddit thread, one more history book. Days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months and your notes grow but you’ve made no progress on your actual story.
Research gives us all the feeling that we are making progress without the actual act of creation. When you’re researching, you can’t hit any of the pitfalls that you’re afraid of in your actual manuscript whether it be a weak character, telling instead of showing, or a bad chapter. It gives us that feeling of safety that writing doesn’t.
A well researched novel is ideal if you want to fully capture your reader’s attention but you need to know when to stop studying and start writing. What you want to do is ask yourself if the thing you are researching is serving the scene that you are currently writing. If the answer is no, close the browser and open your manuscript. Your story doesn’t need to be perfect in every aspect, it needs to have momentum. What have you been researching at the expense of your writing? Shoot me a reply and let me know.
The world is filled with stories, the only one missing is yours.
See you next week.
-Mike