Journals From a Land of Joy and Darkness: When Research Gets in the Way

Friday, July 1, 2011

When Research Gets in the Way

     So, I have been working on this story for a long time. About two years, to be exact. Gathering details, and setting everything up, so then I start writing it. I start laying things out, and BOOM! I realize I need more research. Now, for some people this might not be a problem, but being the worrisome perfectionist that I am, I want to know the details front and back before I start writing again.
     Unfortunately, this is a problem, because it may take a while for me to get all of the specific details that would give my troubled little mind rest, but I'm seriously getting to the point that I'm feeling like a failure. I really want to get a move on my story, so I think I'm going to set those unknown details aside and just write.
     This is only a rough draft, after all. A very, very rough draft..... Gee, I can't imagine how historical writers do it. Research isn't my strongest suit. But anyway, after my long, rant-like thing, you can see that I'm in a bit of a pickle. But not for long, because I'm going to get to the heart of it, and work through the specifics later. So I guess everything works out in the end. :)

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My Favorite Book Quotes

~" 'What is REAL?' asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. 'Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?'

'Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.' "

-The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams

~"My mother used to tell me about the ocean. She said there was a place where there was nothing but water as far as you could see and that it was always moving, rushing toward you and then away. She once showed me a picture that she said was my great-great-great-grandmother standing in the ocean as a child. It has been years since, and the picture was lost to fire long ago, but I remember it, faded and worn. A little girl surrounded by nothingness."

-The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan

~"She had never cried so hard in her life. The moon drew the sound out as if she were a dog. She cried because Muffet loved her and because Hyacinth didn't. She cried for Mrs. Lambert, who was nice, and for Caroline, who had died when she was eight years old. She cried because she had been left alone in a burning house and because she had not been good. She cried for fear, because she was afraid of the dark, and she cried for lonliness, because no one knew she was alive."

-A Drowned Maiden's Hair, by Laura Amy Schlitz