General Research Question Involving Nanowri

[Cheryl Loux]

As I write my story for NaNoWri I'm trying not to freak out. My historical fiction needs lots of research and as I write it, I am finding that there are a lot of wholes because I don't know a lot about duties/life in that particular time period. Should I just keep writing and worry about that later or shall I spend time researching and then continuing on with my novel at the same time? Any help/suggestions would be great. I'm trying really hard not to get knocked out game here! Thanks. Sorry if this is in the wrong place...

[LtSonya]

Don't worry about the research right now unless you feel like you absolutely cannot keep going with the story. If you've hit a break wall, then research enough to climb over and keep writing. Come back later with your extra, intensive research and crash that wall down.

The goal of Nano is write. Chances are you'll be ripping your draft apart during the revision process anyway.

Have fun!

[Cheryl Loux]

Thanks!! That's what I'll do!

[ccmal]

You can even leave yourself tiny messages in the manuscript as you write it (need to know what to call tool this man is using) things like that so you don't forget.

Honestly, I can't always write that way and I found my lack of research to be an obstacle the last time I participated in NaNo; but if you can work around it, then I say go for it.

CC

[galatyne]

Gala is of two minds on this. My one mind agrees with cc that the goal of nano is just to write and not get hung up on things that can stall you like editing, research, etc. In that respect, it is a useful exercise in overcoming some the blocks to writing.

My other mind reminds me that like editing and research, writing just to get words on the paper can become as much of a detriment to the creative process as either of those other two blockers. I have had stories change significantly because of a little research I did. It was one of those things that only a handful of people may have picked up on (a blacksmithing technique), but what I found out completely altered my approach to magic and changed what the character became... for the better. Had I just written through it, I either would have had to toss out all the work to fix the story or keep something that was "good enough" but not as powerful as it could have been.

Putting my two minds together, I think the thing to remember is that anything that is used to get you past some kind of block, is, itself, just another tool/exercise that can also become a block. We see them as beneficial and lean too much on them because they helped us. But, putting too much weight on any one of them can create as many bad habits as it eliminates and set up an imbalance in your art. Remember that your loyalty is to your craft. Do whatever you need to to enhance it, whether that's writing 50,000 words in one month or getting to 49,000 and deciding you've hit on something critical that requires setting aside those last 1,000 words to explore something more valuable.

[ccmal]

I can almost always ignore the editing bit because I know I will be doing that later on. Ignoring the research part can be hard and I found myself today checking out a couple of things as I wrote. I am also dealing with the fact that most of my writing time is away from the PC right now, so in addition to writing it out, I need to make time to enter it. I am going to try to make at least an hour a day in front of the PC dedicated to writing, but who knows if that will work.