- JJ: I wish I could write stuff that didn’t require 10 hours of research for two sentences. This is probably why it takes me so long to write anything.
- JJ: Why can’t I write something simple, fluffy, and contemporary?
- Wicked Cool Riley: Because even then you’d find something strange to research. Your protagonist would be a speed Rubix Cube solver or something, and you’d have to research exactly how to do that in minute detail. Researching is in your blood.
Ain’t that the truth.
Actually, two of my very good friends in high school once raced to solve the Rubix Cube onstage for a talent show. I have the best and nerdiest friends in the world. I figured out how to solve one face of the Rubix Cube, plus a row around said face, but never tried to solve it beyond that.
I’m a big fan of a lot of initial, world and context establishing research and then the “need to know” basis kind of research. I like worlds (fantastical, historical, futuristic, or contemporary) to have weight and significance, and I really do think in order to bring that to the page, a lot of research is necessary.
You know, except when it’s really a measure of procrastinating from writing the next bit of your book.
What about you? Do you writers research for your projects, historical, contemporary, or otherwise? Are you like me, where you use research as a method of procrastination? (I really did do about two hours of research for one tiny little throwaway joke line.)
Ugh, yes. In theory I am writing a steampunk novel. In practice, I procrastinate because, “I have to research! But I have no time to research! HOW DID THEY DO THIS TINY LITTLE THING, I can’t possibly write another word until I know the answer.”
This is why I’ll never write historical fiction. As a historian (well, baby historian), I’d spent sixty years on research alone and then die in the dusty corner of an archive* without writing one single word of my historical novel.
* You know, there was this one thing I just NEEDED to look up.
I like reading those awful “Other Boleyn Girl” books (the name of the author is escaping me, and ironically I don’t feel like researching it) and TRUST ME, “historical fiction” is pretty heavy on the fiction, and not the history part. I fancy myself a bit familiar with the period,and it is just painful to slog through the “poetic license” she takes with well-established facts. So, maybe just lower your standards? Then again, no.
I love that our gchats have become a semi-regular feature on your blog. Wicked Cool Riley, Dispensing Literary Advice and Telling People “Actually, I Think You’re Wrong” since 2001.
Research nerd books are my favorite, period. Well, worldbuilding is my favorite favorite, which needs a lot of research, but even like…Stephenson’s modern fiction is my cuppa.
I love researching. In freshman year of college I wanted to write a story set in ancient Sumer. I ended up spending a whole semester reading journal articles about religion, government and economics circa 2000 BC. Got credit for it too!
I research for work, and then I get over-involved, and end up researching for the love of it and procrastination. For example, for work, I will be researching some term from a client’s medical records (lawyer stuff) and end up reading about the life and times of Marie Curie and Polonium. You’d be surprised how easy a leap that is to make.
Just FYI, It’s a Rubik’s cube –named for Erno Rubik. I don’t know if Rubix is a knock-off brand or something?