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.