On Writing and Research (R)

[Peg Herring]

I couldn't say which I enjoy more: writing or doing research so I can write. Whether it's silly trivia or serious research for an upcoming book, I jump in with both feet and can spend hours at it without realizing it.

A library pulls me in and keeps me all day, and suddenly I wake up and wonder whether I should have lunch, only to find that it's more like dinner time. I take ten times more notes than I can even use when I'm using a historical setting. There's just so much of interest, and writing it down seems the least I can do. Museums are another place where you'll find me digging in my purse for a scrap of paper and a pencil or pen so I can write down a stray fact that may fit somewhere. Even driving is research, because these days I really look at the scenery, setting it to "memory" with a small tape recorder I carry in the car.

Maybe it's because it all takes you away from the cares of life, maybe it's just plain fun. I just know that research these days is something I look forward to, and I don't remember that from the good days at U. of M!

[Peg Herring]

But details make good fiction, right?

[Tom Cooke]

Ahaa, another victim of researchitis. I too fall into binges of research. I currently have about 100 chapters worth of research on what will eventually be about a thirty chapter book. I would be through with the book by now if I had not searched through the minutia of the times involved in the book. I can't help myself. I need to know more about the history and area and geography and cars and ....fill in the blank...and the book takes place in an area I grew up in during my lifetime. It's a crazy but necessary step for me. I'm terrified that someone will tap me on the shoulder and say, "Hey Tom, that green building you wrote about was yellow back in '79."
And I write fiction.

[I. J. Parker]

It can be the most horribly frustrating occupation there is!