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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.

In truth, no.  I am merely in a place where I feel “Meh, is that it?  So what now?”

I shall be honest.  I have never completed a project before.  Sure, I’ve finished that novel (despite doing endless redrafts) but it’s still sitting in my hard drive, as opposed to sitting on the shelf of the local bookstore.  I’ve finished several screenplays, but again, they live in my hard drive next to my novel, as opposed to being on several screens at the local multiplex. 

This is the first project I’ve finished which is actually going to be in the public domain (Albeit after that final do over to incorporate editors notes.) 

But that isn’t why I don’t feel the achievement.  And I’ve been finding it hard to place why.  Is it just the typical artist thing of never being happy, or satisfied?  Is it because I’ve been working on this for so long, and more importantly, so intensively that to get to the finish line (or damn near) that it seems like an anti climax?  I promise this will be the last time I drag out this whole writing/marathon metaphor. 

It’s All about the Race, Not the Finish Line

This is the only way I can summarise this feeling.  Of course, now that I’ve finished it, part of me wants to take a break, while another part of me wants to move on to the next project. 

But none of this is useful advice.  I shall move on to that now.  So for this final post I want to write about that evil thing- 

Research

I never had a problem with doing this for academic essays.  Mainly because it was a requirement to do so, and I wouldn’t have known what I was talking about otherwise.  Research for fiction on the other hand, I’ve always been a little more lax with.  Mainly I always figured it was about making stuff up.  Which is hypocritical I know, because I personally hate it when books I read (or more particularly) TV shows I watch get basic principles entirely wrong.  Watch pretty much any episode of the X-Files to see what I’m going on about. 

Well, the final episode of my series is set in a place I haven’t been to in a few years, and have sketchy recollections of.  This is one of the reasons why I had to entirely re-write the last episode, because the geography that I remember and the actually geography didn’t match at all.  So I decided to do a little (lazy online) research. 

And it’s a good job I did. 

Because I discovered that the main location of my final episode hasn’t actually existed for almost three years!  Which is especially bad since the episode in question is set three years ahead of us!  When I found this out, my heart sank.  Did this mean I’ve have to entirely rewrite the whole episode over again? 

Thankfully, no! 

A little further research led to some significant relocation, just to clarify the geography, which in turn led to further edits of several of my other episodes. But in a way it helped to ground the episode more, and certainly in my mind at least, made it feel more solid and real, as opposed to taking place in this ephemeral head space that it had taken place in before. 

So yes, never underestimate the value of research, even just a bit of quickie research like I did.  Even if you’re writing something about spaceships with hyper-drives fighting ice breathing dragons in space, it still might pay to look up some basic physics, just to cover your bases. 

I’m still not entirely sure when the first episodes are going to be posted, but in the meantime, still do check out the site at www.owango.com 

Now, in traditional writer’s style, I think its time for copious amounts of alcohol.

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.

• Podcasts
• RSS aggregators
• Twitter

Now admittedly, these will take some setting up initially – there is some searching involved. However, once set up, the information comes to you. I subscribe to several science and skeptical podcasts using iTunes, and update my iPod every weekend. I now have a bank of information to absorb over the week during my walks to and from train stations to get to work. If something catches your ear, many podcasts have an associated website where they keep show notes. These normally take the form of a series of links to further research on the topic in questions.

Blogs (as you know ), are another great source of information. But wouldn’t it be great if you could access all the blogs you are interested in in one place? No problem! Every blog has an RSS feed. I forget what that stands for (tsk), but it’s basically a stripped down, information only feed of all the entries in the blog. This lets you subscribe to the feed using an RSS aggregator of some kind. This is  where you gather all your feeds into one place. A lot of the time you can order them into categories or give them tags so that you can find them more easily. Now you have access to all of them at once, and it’s easy to see what new posts have been submitted to each of these blogs while you’ve been away from your computer. It all comes to you. There are loads of RSS aggregators (or RSS readers as they are also called) out there, and chances are you’ve got one already. You can subscribe straight through the Firefox web browser for example, and the new posts will be put into a handy dropdown in your toolbar. Apple Mail also has a way of showing the blogs you’ve subscribed to in the left-hand column, beneath all of your email folders. There are loads of free ones too. Personally I use Google Reader, as it’s a web app, so is available on every computer with an internet connection (plus my iPod Touch, and even my Nintendo Wii), and it is easy to arrange feeds into categories.

To subscribe to a feed, just look for this symbol, either on the site itself, or in your browsers address bar. Depending on the reader you are using, this alone will subscribe you, or you may need to copy and paste the URL into your reader.

Twitter is perhaps not the most obvious choice, but I am loving Twitter for exactly this purpose at the moment. Twitter is a kind of microblogging service. You sign up, and get to write 140 characters about something and post it. This goes out to anyone who happens to be looking at everything coming out of Twitter, or are looking at Twitterers (‘Tweeters’? Actually, I think ‘Tweeps’ is the popular term at the moment. That may change tomorrow),  in their local area, plus it goes out to anyone following you. Following is the thing that makes Twitter powerful. There’s a whole load of people out there who are interested in the same things as you, and they’re providing links, talking about events, and responding to questions all the time. All you have to do is ‘listen’.

All this does sound like a bit of work, but it’s not nearly as much as it looks. For Twitter, start by searching for celebrities that you’re interested in, or friends that you know are on there. Don’t know who to follow, then take a look at my Twitter profile for ideas. Other than that, the whole thing kind of snowballs and feeds off itself. You only need to find two good blogs or podcasts that you like and it’s not long before you are referred to a couple more from within those posts or episodes. Believe me, you will soon have what feels like a little community of like-minded people feeding you information. And don’t forget, podcasters often have blogs and visa versa, and many of them are on Twitter too. And many of them know each other. It’s this fact that means your collection grows, but it’s brought into sharp focus when you see the conversations between the people you are following on Twitter. It’s interesting to watch in itself.

Practice

One other reason why inspiration doesn’t come easily any more might simply be that I am out of practice. It sounds odd to say you can ‘practice’ at being inspired, but as long as there are activities you can do towards something (see above), you should be able to become better at it. In theory, this means that the more you look for inspiration, the more used to this activity your brain becomes and the more automatic it becomes. The big upside of this is that even if we don’t feel inspired very often now, the more we graze on our interests, the more we will be inspired and the easier it will come.

That’s not to say you can’t do anything about it. I have quite naturally been getting more and more involved in my various interests over the last couple of years, without any particular organised intention with it helping directly with my writing. However, it was when I was brainstorming a new idea the other day that I realised two very obvious things:

1. I do still get inspired!
2. why

And it is precisely to do with gathering information about things I am interested in. So I thought it would probably be a good idea to document the means I use to gather information and how it can fit into a busy schedule.

Go and find your inspiration

There are basically two ways to start gathering information that might inspire you. You can go out and get it, and (excitingly) you can get it to come to you.

The go out and get it part is fairly obvious. If someone is interested in something, what activities might you expect them to be engaged in?

• Reading books
• Looking out for documentaries on the tv
• Buying dvds on the subject

They’re the things that immediately spring to my mind. It’s worth mentioning that this does not (and shouldn’t) be restricted just to documentary style productions. If you write science fiction for example, you might be interested in futuristic technologies, the way technology influences society and culture etc. But of course you are also interested in science fiction, and should be reading and watching it (I remember a university lecturer condemning the attitude that some novice writers have: “I don’t want to be influenced by another writers’ style,” they would protest. But why not? You have to be influenced by something – that’s a large part of inspiration, so you may as well be influenced by a writer you admire. It does not have to control the development of your own voice to write with, or the subjects you write about).

Other ways to go out and get your inspiration might be more niche. For example, you may be interested in ancient civilisations, so may visit museums often. Or you might enrol on a course that teaches you something about the subject you’re into. There are sure to be numerous other ways. So get commenting! Let’s build a list and see if we can surprise each other with things we hadn’t thought of.

A lot of these seem like research tasks, and they are. But, the point is, if you engross yourself in your interests (whether you are researching something specific or not), something may spark an unexpected idea for a story, or an article, or a song, or even just revealing a further area of research you would like to get into.

And, incidentally, don’t leave out writing here. Any resources on writing should also be on your radar.

In the early stages of a project it feels really creative to get some ideas down and start shaping the thing that’s lurking in your mind. And it’s most joyous when it is as instant as possible. It allows me space to think, generate more ideas and importantly, not forget any! (How many times have you been writing a paragraph where an idea to include in the next paragraph comes to you, only for you to forget it by the time you’re ready to write it?)

One fantastic piece of software I use for this is Freemind. It is a mind mapping tool, and although it is not hugely sophisticated or feature rich, it is incredibly easy to use and quite flexible with the kinds of things you can include on your mind map. The software is designed around generating flow between your brain and the ‘page’. So everything is quick and easy to do and you almost never have to use the mouse – everything can be done through the keyboard. A lot of people may not like this concept, but you have to write if you’re taking notes, and constantly swapping between mouse and keyboard wastes time.

As well as adding long bits of text as nodes, you can add notes (if you want to write a couple of paragraphs for example), links to pages on the web, images, and links to other nodes (drawn as arrows on the page). You can also add little pictures to nodes to indicate what they are for, or format the text.

Another great thing about it is that it is written in Java, which means it can work on any operating system. And best of all – it is FREE!

Download it here, familiarise yourself with the keyboard shortcuts, and have a go. Let me know what you think in the comments section, and if you know of any other great software for writers, let everyone know!