Friday, June 15, 2012

A Writer Must Research? Alas.

I'll be honest, I'm one of those writers who doesn't particularly enjoy the research portion of the process. It's unfortunately a vital piece, because even if you're writing a modern day romance there will still be some aspect you have to fact-check. And while the science-fiction genre allows me a bit of latitude in the time travel bits of my current novel, I still have to do a lot of research if I want to send my heroine in the past for more than ten minutes.

So I try to mix it up. Write up some notes, then get back to plot and dialogue, fudging it where I have to and tweaking facts later. I know enough about most of the periods I'm writing in to do the fudging bit, or at least to easily track down any random facts that plot points hinge on.

And sometimes my research has unexpected results. Last week I found a beautiful recording of the old Scottish song "On the Bonnie Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond" and it proceeded to get stuck in my head for the rest of the day - and the night too (that was a weird night!). Also, since my characters are currently traveling the normal way (in a car, in the present day) they are stopping at lots of different places to eat. So there's a lot of food. And that makes me hungry for British tastiness. Hmmm...

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