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Real World Research

This is, I guess I would quantify, research based on how things work in reality. If you’re writing something that goes into great detail about how cars work, you go out and do research on the subject, right? You read about its top speeds, its fuel consumption, how long it takes to get from 0-60 and so on. Even better, if you can, you go out and drive the damn thing to see how it handles. If you’re writing a thriller about an aeroplane crashing, then you do research into past crashes, you study how a plane might break up when it hits the ground/mountain/lake, what could cause such a crash, how some psycho might engineer such a thing, and so on. Better yet, if you can, you go out and hijack a plane and crash it into the ground/mountain/lake. Though that might defeat the object. Anyway, I’m drifting off point.

Market Research

The other kind of research, that isn’t real world research, of course is market research. If you’re writing a fantasy book, you go out and buy a truck load of fantasy books and see what else is out there. This does of course have its drawbacks. I know Matt doesn’t like to over-read in his genre for fear of (consciously or not) being too influenced by who he reads (that is a bare-faced lie! I say the opposite here – Matt). If you read a lot of stuff by one particular author, then this is a danger you face, you start to write like them. I guess I can consider myself lucky in this regard in that I am not very influenced by a particular author’s style. However, if I’m reading Neal Asher for instance, I will heavily get into the mindset to write grand space opera. Which is what my new book is. If however, I read some cyberpunk (still desperately looking for any Pat Cadigan I can get my hands on) then I’ll be in the mindset for Wasp Whisperer. Anyhow, you do your market research to see if your budding fantasy novel is too similar to stuff that is already out there. If you’re unfortunate enough to be writing fantasy, then the probable answer is yes. I have tried so many times to come up with an outline or idea for a fantasy story that hasn’t already been done a million times, and mainly failed. Once you get into elves, wizards and magic swords, it’s probably time to consider switching genres.

Atmospheric Research

This is the thrust of my post. I have recently returned from a two week stint in the US. First time I’ve been stateside. And while I haven’t done anything particularly researchy while I’ve been here, I have absorbed a lot of incidental information. It has influenced new ways of thinking about not just Wasp Whisperer (which I have set not too far from where I was staying), but about all my major writing projects.

So what is the point I’m trying to make here? Well, if you do find yourself not just in a rut, but in a drought, then a change of scene is highly recommended. I didn’t do much writing while I was away, but the trip did certainly shake things up enough for me to re-evaluate the projects I’d stalled on and give them a new lease of life. So what I’m suggesting is go on vacation! I know writing is a bizarre kind of career, one that you can do from home, but even so, a vacation every once in a while is needed. If you’re writing about a particular place, then go there! (Unless your book is set on Mercury, don’t go there – unless you want a killer tan and instant death) While I’m not going to be loading any of my books with an in depth tour around DC, I’d like to think that I’ve gathered a clearer understanding about some of those pesky “hazy bits” in the book, details that I have thus far glossed over. Even an offhand statement or two that I’ve overheard in conversation has set my mind whirling into overdrive with new ideas and thoughts.

So if you’re finding yourself stagnating, take a break, change your routine, go somewhere different, a different city, a different country, and absorb.

I’ve now had a look at each one of those sites to see if I like them, and have subscribed to a fair few. Guess what

Nooo! Its happening again! I know what you’re thinking -what’s Matt going to do? How does he know which ones to read? Surely he can’t read through all of them? Oh the humanity!

I know. Tense, isn’t it.

Don’t worry (as if), I have a plan! It’s something I heard on the Boagworld podcast and seems guaranteed to boost my blog subscription reading productivity (and other mouth-watering keywords)! In fact, my boss is using it to organise his subscriptions to business and marketing blogs (I’m currently subscribing to business, marketing, writing, science and videogame blogs, just so you know).

The trick is folders

A revelation, huh. Okay, not really. I had folders before of course, but I used to organise by subject. Now though, I organise in such a way that the ones I am most interested in get read first. This is lifted pretty much wholesale from the Paul Boag method, but here are the folders I’m trying:

Must read. My absolute favourites, that I just can’t miss out on, and where I will always go first.

Frequent posters. I like these posts too, but there are just too many of them! Still, once the count for Must Read hits 0, I can sift through these to find interesting entries. By the way, as I was adding to Google Reader, I saw that some bloggers post as frequently as 9 times a week! I mean, it’s just not happening, is it? What’re they trying to do to me?

Not too bothered. Let’s be honest, I am probably never going to read these, but they may very well be good if I am researching a particular topic and want some reliable sources to search through. Other than that, they’re not really on my radar.

Finishing touches

Now here’s the bit that makes it all work – my trusty iPod! The regular reader’s wifi enabled dream device (or at least, until the iPad takes off)! Want to read what you’ve subscribed to on the train; while you’re walking (watch out for that curb); while your other half has some godawful trash *cough*dancingonice*cough* on telly? There’s an app for that.

In fact, there are probably around fifty, but the one I use is MobileRSS, because it’s free, and I can save the money to buy games *cough*timewastersthatdistractmefrommywriting*cough*.

And what about ones I want to keep? Well, I also have an account with a handy dandy thing called Instapaper, which will strip my favourite articles of clutter, and allows me to store them in topic-based folders (because I’ve already read them, you see).

In addition, I can also save any individual article I happen to come across when browsing the web. And guess what, there’s an app for Instapaper too. And you can save to Instapaper directly from MobileRSS. Brilliant!

As I said, Paul Boag goes into great detail about these methods, to so you may want to check out the full article.

But there’s still the sticky problem of reading through 100+ blogs and deciding which folder they go in, so that’s enough rambling from me. I’ve got reading to do.

When you sit down to do some research, your intention can be very different. You know the kind of thing you are looking for and it’s a matter of digging out the relevant information. If you’re like me (and many other people these days), your first port of call is the internet. The wealth of information is so huge, and so varied.

But, as I’m sure you know, it’s a double-edged sword. You are bound to find what you are looking for, but how much tripe must you wade through first? I have a few trusted sites that I have used in the past and know to contain good information. But I don’t keep these in a list. And it is a real pain to go from one to another of these trusted sites in turn.

What I need is something like a Google search, but only for those sites that I know and trust.

Well, an RSS aggregator can be that tool. I use Google Reader. Although you can use it as something to spark inspiration, that relies on you regularly checking it and reading the articles you’ve collected. The trouble is I now have quite a few website delivering information to Google Reader for me, and I simply don’t have the time to wade through it all (Google Reader has given up counting and just says 1000+).

But I do keep it as a bank of trusted information I can go to when I want to do some research. It’s simply a matter of typing what I’m looking for into Google reader’s search, just like you would with a normal web search. Google Reader will go through all the articles I’ve automatically collected and pull out the ones it thinks are most relevant. Plus I can filter it by folder (I have a load of blogs in a “science” folder for example). Job done.