I do a lot of research. I don't think I do it very well. I never do it in the right order. And then I rarely keep it organised. (Bad writer! Bad! No cookie!)
Latest example: I've been writing my novel about Hild of Whitby for a while, now. I have more than 650 pages of the first draft of volume one. At this point, Hild has been in York several times. I've never bothered to really imagine the city (or fort, or ruin, depending on one's perspective). Oh, I've visualised, very clearly, specific parts of it: the undercroft of the principia, the basilica/main hall of same, the path, south of the walls (well, south of one set of walls) by the Ouse. But now, finally, I've been forced to sit down and picture the whole. And, damn, what a pain in the arse. I spent the entire afternoon scrolling through (sometimes unfolding) maps, squinting at schematics, blog posts (amateur and academic), photographs, eighteenth century diary entries etc. They all come at the problem/city from slightly different angles. They all enrich the view very slightly; they add a wash, a smidge of depth and texture.
So: hours and hours and hours of work, now reduced to a single sheet of paper detailing Roman walls (of the fort and of the civilian settlement) and the bridges and roads. And then what bits would have fallen down by Hild's time, what abandoned, what under repair--and with what kind of stone laid in what arrangement, hindered by what climate conditions. Where the docks might have been. Good spots to grow things (taking into account drainage, aspect, access). All so that I will know how if feels to be Hild on that moment on Easter Sunday, April 12th, 627, when she stands on Roman cobbles under a newly-sawn Anglo-Saxon roof, and is baptised.
Now I just have to write the scene...
I spent all day working on it (and I haven't even got to the vestments, or the music). I doubt it'll run more than 400 words. Four. Hundred. Words.
One day, I'll be able to afford to pay an expert to do some of this. But, eh, maybe not. I wouldn't want to deny myself the pleasure of productive frustration. Meanwhile, thank god for Wikipedia.
But, y'know, I'm not complaining. Really. I love my job. Love it.
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I do tons of research too, and you don't know how relieved I am to hear that someone like you claims to not do it very well. I've never felt very good at it, much less remembering it later (I constantly thumb through reams of unorganized notes and cards). But I still dig in, obsessively.
ReplyDeleteAmen! This perfectly describes three of my writing days recently...just to get about two paragraphs and a few sentences sprinkled here and there. But the thing about research is, it *feels* productive. =)
ReplyDeletessas, I've at least learnt not to use a fountain pen--after a spill of tea destroyed six months' notes. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteBrett, oh, that's all writers' guilty secret: we love it, and can waste hours on this particularly productiveness :)
I just wrote a piece of 150 words, and ninety percent of the time I spent on it was research. Even as I was doing it, I knew that I was really just procrastinating. But it was fun, nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteJames, I don't think I've ever met a writer who doesn't procratinate. I, for example, will happily spend an hour this morning redrawing my map, in bright pretty colours, so that I can scan it, pin one copy on the wall, tuck copies on various thumb drives and in Dropbox, and put it safely in it's special folder. (Then, y'know, probably forget to look at it ever again.)
ReplyDeleteOne of the most telling comments I ever read in a review was that the reviewer could tell that the historical novelist now had a paid researcher because chunks of research were dumped into her novels, the specifics were bland, and there were no interesting asides of information or unusual historical info that affected the plot or the characters.
ReplyDeleteMore than one novelist has gotten into trouble, too, with copying verbatim from a researcher's notes which were supposed to be paraphrased from other material but was verbatim, too, so that the novelist was accused of plagiarism.
Early research on the subjects in your novels can also affect the entire novel by giving you ideas and directions you'd never have otherwise. That has happened to me more than once.
For general details, etc., I have no problem with putting [insert description of historical object here] instead of doing the research at that moment so I won't bog down my writing.