My favorite time to research is when I'm stuck. Doesn't sound very smart, does it? What I mean is, I don't necessarily research the place I'm writing about, the profession, the weather, etc. before I start writing. The beginnings of stories, for me, are kind of like epiphanies. Some of my writer friends talk about 'seeing' a fully-drawn scene and writing it down. I'm like that, kind of. I see a character, maybe two, hear a bit of dialogue and I'm off. The more the character 'talks' the more I see - foliage, buildings, beaches. It kind of draws itself in my imagination. All because the character is talking to me.
So I let that character talk and talk and talk. Until they can't talk any more. Sometimes they stop talking because I've written them into a corner or because I need to know something they aren't telling me. In either case, from that point, the research starts. I look up websites with pictures of the place I'm writing about, research the professions of my main characters, what homes in that area are built like/from, what the decor is..you name it, I look it up. Google is my friend, although I try to look at at least three sites before making a decision on anything. I also ask my friends and CPs (Facebook and Twitter are my friends when questions come calling), but I also try to look through professional sites - journalism, investment banking...and, on sites like the one for pro surfers or rock stars, the eye candy isn't bad, either.
From that research I may - or may not - find pictures of my main characters, people who remind me of them or look like them in some way. I make a collage of the 'best' pictures I find that evoke the feeling of that book on Pinterest and I make a collage pic that I print off and put on my writing board. While I'm making the collages, I'll also make my WIP playlist. Sometimes this is fast - less than an afternoon. Sometimes it takes days and I write a little and research a little. It's a clunky process but it works for me.
How about you? What's your research process?
Kristina Knight’s latest release is <a href=“http://a.co/0fWvqvP”>Breakup
in a Small Town</a>, the third book in her <a
href=“http://www.kristinaknightauthor.com/slipperyrock.html”>Slippery Rock
series</a>!
This isn't the man she
married…
Jenny Buchanan never considered what "for better or for
worse" meant when she married Adam Buchanan at nineteen. Six years and two
little boys later, "for worse" arrives in the form of a tornado that
ravages Slippery Rock and injures Adam. Now he's a stranger to his family…and
love won't be enough to bring him back.
Only when Jenny asks him to move out does Adam become the
husband she needs…but Adam isn't the only one who's changed. As their
attraction sparks back to life, Jenny and Adam must learn what it is to grow
up—and grow together—before this small-town breakup lasts forever.
1 comment:
I look for something online, then I click here and there, and suddenly an hour or two has passed. lol. Hopefully, I'll have found something useful.
denise
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