My Addiction to Research by Lisa Binion , Author of Softly and Tenderly
Research is one of my favorite parts of writing a story . I was once asked by my publisher to give her a list of things I needed to have researched , and she would have someone do my research for me . A tempting offer , but it wasn ’ t one that I took advantage of . I told her that wasn ’ t something I could do . Why not ? Well , I seldom know exactly what I will need more information on until I get to it in the story . And once I know I need to know more about death or beetles or cremation or whatever else , I don ’ t want to wait days or weeks to get that info . I want to find out right then .
I learn so much when I do the research myself . Not everything I discover gets put into what I am writing . Some of it may go into other stories or articles . And some of it may only spark ideas for future stories . What I do learn may actually change the route my story is headed and cause it to take off down a road I never intended to travel in the first place . Maybe it will give what I am writing more life or realism . It could even add more excitement and adventure .
How long do I spend researching a topic ? It is entirely possible to get lost in my research , but once the information being searched for is discovered , I write it into my story and continue on .
Since I write from home , I do most of my research over the Internet . The world-wide web is wonderful , but it is also easy to become distracted while searching for information on it . If you are able to keep your mind focused on what you are looking for , you will have a world of knowledge at your fingertips .
For Softly and Tenderly , I got the pleasure of researching death and what happens to the body once it dies . Just thinking about how a body decays once death sets in , I found disgusting . The thought of bugs crawling all over me once I was dead used to give me nightmares . Researching exactly what happens to the human body once it dies actually calmed those fears down for me . For the continuing story of Softly and Tenderly , I found out what I could about cremation . There are some very informative videos on YouTube about that process that really helped me out .
Along with death , I also got to research beetles . The only things I knew about beetles was that they liked to crawl on dead bodies , and they could get caught in my hair . I learned and am still learning some very interesting things about these insects . For example , lightning bugs , those insects I used to catch on warm summer evenings when I was a child , are beetles .
Research is not something to be dreaded . It is something to be enjoyed . By doing your own research , you can add new life to your story and create something that will be memorable .