My Research Revelation
By John Vorhaus | March 1, 2016 |
So I’m trying to bootstrap my writing game to the next level by investing time and hard work in research. Now, those who know me know that “I hate research like a cat hates baths.” But just now I made an amazing personal breakthrough and since I love process as much as I hate research, I wanted to share it with you at once.
There I was, reading source material and taking notes. I had my .pdf research file and my “store notes here” file open side by side on my big computer screen, and when I read something useful on the left side, I’d write it down on the right. This wasn’t going okay. I was bored. The act of doing research didn’t engage me at all. It wasn’t telling me what I really wanted to know, and it seemed to be taking way too long. Worse – worst – I was impatient to write; I’m always impatient to write. I never feel particularly good when I’m not writing, and even laying the necessary pipe of research doesn’t quell the itchy feeling that “I’m falling behind in my existence.” Yuck, right? Yuck.
Then I had a thought – a revelation, really – and it stemmed from my bedrock belief that “all assumptions should be questioned all the time.” At that moment I was operating under two assumptions. One was that I hate research and the other was that I was doing research the only way research could be or should be done. Determined to challenge those assumptions, I asked myself what my research was really meant to do. Add data, right? Give me enough information to “solve the problem of the story.” But there were other storytelling problems to be solved as well: problems of event, voice, detail, characterization, dialogue and so on. I was using research to do this one narrow thing – add data – but I suddenly realized that it could do much more.
So here’s what I decided to try: Instead of just mechanically recording relevant information, why not try interpreting it? By these means I could interestingly multitask, not just completing the “odium” of research, but also bench-testing my characters’ voice, vocabulary and point of view, plus the many ways I might choose to convey this world on the page. To put things in an even neater little nutshell: Instead of just gathering information, I decided to build a relationship with my research – a dynamic relationship that didn’t just store future building blocks of story but put them into story right frugging now!
What changed? Everything changed. Suddenly my research document wasn’t just something that I would build now and mine later for detail. Suddenly, and without any real effort on my part, it was my door into story. Sure I was researching, but I was writing as well – writing without expectation and without consequences. Seeing what would happen just… well, just to see what would happen. My impatience quelled, my creativity took over, and – literally for the first time in my life – research started to be fun.
My mistake had been in thinking that I needed some “critical mass” of information before I could start. First things first: I had to finish my homework. By (finally!) challenging that assumption, I turned research from a boring burden into an integral, real-time part of my process. Let me see if I can give you an example.
In the world of my story there are these city gates. Eventually I will need to know those gates quite well: what they’re made of; how they operate; how to assail them; much more. Instead of just recording “gate data,” I tried placing two characters in front of a gate and let them discuss it. Now I’m not just learning about gates. I’m learning about gates, about attitudes toward gates, about characters’ conflicts rooted in those attitudes, and abundant other stuff about how my characters talk, act and think. All because I made the one simple change from recording to relating.
What happened next? I was transformed. Each turned page of research became a treasure hunt for interesting story elements – and the treasure was totally there. After a lifetime of doing research in my head (making stuff up), I found myself doing research – real research – and converting it into story stuff at a fantastic clip. I wrote more words, much faster, than I ever had before. Usable words, too, backed with the authority that real research brings. And all of it was fast, easy and fun – the way writing is meant to be but so often is not.
Suddenly I no longer hate research. All day, every day, I can’t wait to have at it, because now I know what exciting discoveries await at the breathtaking intersection of what I’m learning and what I create.
This is no small matter, folks. I’m north of sixty now, and I have a feeling that if I knew then what I know now about research – about how to appropriately approach it and engage it – my writing life would have been very much different. Do I feel regret for all that lost time? Not exactly. As a teacher of writers I’m always telling my students that there are some capabilities you can’t rush, you just have to grow into. For me, research was one of those things.
But I can’t begin to describe how turned on I am right now. I’m writing at a deeper, richer and manifestly more authentic level than ever before, and it all stems from that one simple change: I started having a relationship with research.
May I commend the strategy to your attention? Next time you’re “reading for information,” try reading and writing for information. You may or may not find the real spine of the story that way, but if you’re willing to fail on the page (and we should all be willing to fail on the page) then it won’t matter, because you can always go back and find the spine – or fix the spine – later.
As for me, as a writer, I know I’ll never be the same. I’ll probably never write another novel without a rich vein of research to draw upon, a steady stream of facts that I can turn into story stuff. My writing will be much better. How do I know? Because, hey, it already totally is.
So what’s your approach? What do you know about research that I can only imagine? What strategies do you use to get out of the information-gathering stage and into “real” writing? Or does nobody draw that distinction but me?
[coffee]
John Vorhaus has written seven novels, including Lucy in the Sky, The California Roll, The Albuquerque Turkey and The Texas Twist, plus the Killer Poker series and (with Annie Duke) Decide to Play Great Poker. His books on writing include The Comic Toolbox, How to Write Good and Creativity Rules!
Really clever, John. Thanks for sharing this idea. Personally, I research on the fly, as and whenever I know that typing one more word might reveal my (or my characters’) ignorance. Can’t have that, can we?
Ah! You’ve hit upon a strategy teachers frequently try to convince their students to use. Well, maybe not *exactly*, but the narrative and making connections aspect of it. What a great example to show how you’ve made it work! Also, I need to practice what you preach – I think it would definitely help me keep better track of my characters ages and the eras they live in for various scenes.
An elegant solution. Very writerly. Kudos. I’ve never before seen the dialogue-with-your-characters approach applied in this way.
Perhaps the technique can be made even more applicable to the story? What if in discovering necessary information, the two characters involved argue about it?
Opposing agenda, differing needs…what was supposed to be dry facts and dull data become the source of–or occasion for– dispute. The Da Vinci Code made extensive use of this approach.
Love this post. Us guys north of sixty can still have some creative breakthroughs, eh?
I, a beginning writer anxious to learn, am most appreciative of this insight. I will use it to put some spark into my writing. Thank you.
It’s never to late, is it? I imagine there are whole new countries of JV gray matter waking from forty years of hibernation.
I’ve been having my two main characters have technical discussions around subjects I have no knowledge of . One of them informed by the research, the other as dumb as I am. It’s great fun.
J- “ You put the knife in there, just below that notch, and lean on that bitch with all your weight.”
A- “So there’s no way to do it without getting sprayed?”
J- “Think of it as warpaint.”
(Thanks to you, I have discovered that this does not work for poker playing. One MUST play to know.)
Will give this process a try!
Fantastic! Excitement and fun are always a good thing. Thanks for sharing. I also want to comment on what led you to this discovery: challenging assumptions (and with that our attitudes.) With this one piece of advice, there is nothing we can’t accomplish.
You’ve discovered my favorite thing about research: it can be tremendous creative fuel when you don’t see it as gathering facts, but as a tool for understanding people. Okay, sometimes it is gathering facts, but I love trying to figure out how people lived, how all sorts of people in my chosen time period lived, how their assumptions and attitudes would’ve come out in their daily lives, in conversations with peers, with family, with people of lower and higher status. How are they the same as me and what I know? And how are they different?
After your description of what your newfound love of research is fueling in your writing, I’m excited to read it!
Thanks for sharing your revelation. I am beginning my second novel and feeling paralyzed about how to start. It’s good to realize that I don’t have to figure it all out before I can begin. I am definitely going to try developing my characters WHILE I research.
John, love your take on research and enjoyed hearing your ‘Ah Ha’ moment. Personally, I write the story first, keeping a side list as I go of topics for research after the basic story is ‘on paper’. That way the basic timeline is established, era, geography, nationalities, etc. are determined. Then it’s back to the beginning in earnest and I develop the characters, their personalities, language and add any other research subjects needed to the list. You’re right, sometimes the research adds a topic the writer didn’t think of and enriches the story from a whole new aspect. Ain’t writing grand?!
Love this, John! I’m always trying to balance “just write” with not knowing where to go because I need to research. I’m going to give your approach a try. Glad you found a way to love the process. :-)
This was so helpful. I have a manuscript languishing from lack of research and I have been dreading revisiting it. But this gives me hope and a new approach. Thank you!
What a great idea! I will be looking through my reserach files with a whole new eye! Thanks for the suggestion.
@sheilagood at Cow Pasture Chronicles
I advocate a philosophy of write first research second. A lot of writers get held back thinking they need to know every in and out of all the minute details of their world and story before the begin. Research for some can become an excuse to not write. When I mentor writers I offer a pretty mind blowing approach, especially for fellow sci-fi and fantasy writers, Don’t research!
At least not at first. Instead, write the first draft and anytime you find yourself needing a ‘fact’ put a placeholder note in that that section needs research and then keep writing.
The best thing about this approach is it significantly cuts down on how much research you end up doing because when it comes time to research you are only looking to fill in the gaps. It also prevents you bogging down the story with all the cool things you learned in your research that actually don’t matter at all to your story.
I do love your idea of creating a relationship directly to your characters as you research and think it would be a great way to help you find a characters voice, etc. Still, I’m all for doing research second and writing first.
I love doing research! I always have…even before I wrote a novel I had to do a lot of research as a costume designer. So when I wrote The Sleeping Serpent, it was no surprise that I chose a lot of situations that required research including places I have never been like Buenos Aires, and the Q’ero tribe of the Andes Mountains. The book includes a lot about Kundalini Yoga that I knew very little about when I began. The protagonist is Argentine and I also had him do a lot of cooking….so had to research the foods and recipes! It was so much fun… Thank you for bring up this topic