What I Hate About Writing
Research. It's like a four letter word concealed in eight . Don't let if fool you though, it is just as offensive and nasty as those others. In my world it is anyway.When I began writing to publish, (because before I was writing to...?) I didn't consider the amount of time that research sucked out of a writer's life. If you say it sucks no time out of yours because you never have to do it, then I'm frightened to see your work. (and I hate you a little) Every writer has to research at some point. Setting, characters, psychology, dates, times, cars, and the list goes on--you have to get this stuff right. There are some things you can't just make up. You might not think googling the year that the New Kids on the Block recorded Cover Girl is research, but it is. And why do you need to know that? Just asking. It's a strange fact to include in a book.
But moving along, I also write articles. Those are nonfiction folks. The ones on writing I assumed would be simple. Write what I know. Not so much. I know tons, but still have to confirm that what I know and what the world knows are the same thing. Writer jargon, publishing industry news, etc. have to be right. Just as I term almost every mechanical item in my house "the thingie" I also term some writing methods, rules, etc. as thingies. You can't do that in an article.
Book reviews and author spotlights also require a lot of digging. Sure, I interview them, but if I were to ask them every question I need answers to, they'd run for the hills. Authors, apparently, do not enjoy talking about themselves. I'm the minority. So I have to dig up facts, check websites, read book covers, find sources, in order to write about these people. This is the fun stuff.
The not so fun? This week I wrote articles about how to assemble a pool, install a tin ceiling, types of transmission mediums, and this morning I began an article about winches. No, not wenches, w-i-n-c-h-e-s; with an "I". Good times. This is the research that makes my brain explode. But Mommy's gotta keep her girls in food and clothes, right.
Earlier this week I shared a story I'd set aside because it felt like it was going nowhere. I didn't know how to approach it. I had too many questions without answers and I'd already spent a month just researching a damn plane crash. Plus, the actual process of writing it felt stilted and weird, so I just set it aside. When I picked it up again I felt my earlier excitement about the story. I couldn't wait to dig in. But then I encountered a problem I'd forgotten. The question of phone versus radio nearly sent me headlong into Crazy Town. Actually, I even pitched a tantrum over it. I do NOT have time to research this stuff, freelance, take care of my family, and write the damn novel. It's going to take me years to finish this thing and when I do, it won't be published because it will be 1000 damn pages. (insert crying, head banging and flying objects, dogs hiding here) But then, a calm voice from across the ocean somewhere said I was behaving very childishly. (not in those words, but that's basically how I was behaving). The world righted itself, I looked again and said, "So I research. Again." The answer is phone, by the way.
Research is not fun. It makes my brain hurt and sucks the creativity from my soul. It is not at all a pleasant experience for me and I hate it and I wish that I didn't have to do it. The reality is, I have to. Not only in my daily "job" but as a writer of fiction, it is necessary. If I want to be taken seriously, if I want my work to be the best that it can be and because I don't enjoy people laughing at me or asking why, how, when and who after I've written the story, it's going to be there, waiting.
All I can say is thank you Google. You are my best friend sometimes. The library is also a handy thing to have.
The other reality is that every writer has something about the process that they hate. Outlining, dialogue, synopses, queries, editing, rewriting, writing...the list is endless and I have a few on mine. Queries? Another four letter word. What part of the writing process sets you to tantrums or crying jags? Come on, I know there's at least one thing that triggers the crazy button in you.
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Thanks Minnie. You're absolutely right. Essays I think are equal to article writing in terms of research and fact checking, just different structures or 'styles' of writing. Having the facts correct is crucial for both. More so if you're pointing fingers. Good luck. Point me to your articles or essays when you can. I'd love to read them.
I've read that Leslie McFarlane, a Canadian journalist who wrote many of the original Hardy Boys mysteries, had hated writing them, had done it strictly for money, and had never reread any of the stories after he finished them.If I were going to write essays, I think I'd prefer to write descriptive essays, memoir style, in which the research is primarily a search of memory.
Sometimes the research can be interesting, even fun, but I find I'm often having to research the most mind numbing things. With the freelance writing, sometimes you have to claim assignments that are just awful because that's all that's available. That research makes me crazy. I've had a couple of issues in my fiction writing that were as bad. This post apocalypse novel has required a lot of research because I can't just pull an apocalyptic event out of my ass. I could, but I don't like reading books like that and I won't write one. So I have to make what happens 'possible'. Might be a one in a billion chance, but it could happen. And after that ramble, I think you're onto something M. McFarlane wrote them for money and hated doing it. Any writing I do that is strictly 'job' related, as in I have to do it to pay the bills is so much less enjoyable than something I write because I want to.
I can see why a novel set in a post-apocalypse world would be difficult. In a short story, at least you can be sketchy about the apocalypse itself and get right to the exploration of a particular character.I'm intrigued by the idea that you've made a workhorse of your mind, made your writing negotiable in a general, varied way, apparently somewhat as newspaper writers used to do. Years ago, William Morris of Amrican Heritage came out with a vocabulary assessment instrument, and I remember reading that, as a class, journalists have the highest working vocabularies (about 50,000 words), even higher than that of college professors. To me, the kind of mind that can reliably produce writing that sells, for a variety of markets, is a fascinating thing in and of itself.
It intrigued me too before I started freelancing. The thing is, most articles require that the writer avoids commonly used phrases and words in order to keep their articles fresh and unique. Typically you'd have several writers (or journalists in news writing) covering the same topic. How does yours stand out above the rest? It's in how you write it; what words you use, pace, information, description, etc. Length is also an issue. The shorter you can make it while still conveying all the important information, the better. It's definitely improved my fiction writing. Now...publishers, take notice. :)
And yes, the apocalypse novel is challenging me in more ways than I anticipated. It's good for me, but every time I realize I have to go more in depth about something, my brain cringes. I really don't enjoy researching some things. Science is not something my mind naturally accepts and learns.
Renee, check out "Paradigm" on my blog. If the link below doesn't work, go to the other link and look in the archives. I'd like to know what you think of my assessment. I sent it to a guy friend and haven't heard a word from him yet. Ha!I think you're going to have to cut and paste them.
http://msprissy-dreamweaver.blogspot....
http://www.millerscribs.com/blog
What I get from that is this: So he had sex; paid for sex. Big deal.My take: How many men haven't? Probably not many. Actually, there are probably just as many women who have paid for sex in one way or another, they're just better at hiding it perhaps. The problem is that in the position he chose to aspire to, such things are frowned upon and can be used against you if you piss the wrong people off. He committed no real crime that would warrant his downfall, but he should have known better.
With power comes responsibility. Right?
Yes, with power comes responsibiliity, also with power comes enemies. It seems, reading the news about these powerful people, that they leave their brains behind. Or they think, what the hell, I'm at the top of my game, they can't bring me down. They (the money-people) will forgive him and he will probably go on to be a very important person in politics. He already has a new talk show on CNN.
Thanks for stopping by.
Does he? See then, it didn't really hurt him. People love to judge. But then they quickly forget when someone new comes along for them to sink their teeth into.
Renee, I'm moving into writing essays, I think it second to writing articles, except I point fingers.
I'd better know that what I'm writing is fact or make it absolutely clear that it's rumor. I'd better be extra careful there. I could get sued.
Thank you for bringing this subject to the fore. And I say to all, it is well worth reading.
The best with your added job. ^o^