Research/the Deadly Interestingness of the Internet and an Editing Update

Over the course of working on Laz, I’ve come to learn a lot about myself as a writer. One of those things is that sometimes I have the attention span of a goldfish. This is particularly dangerous when conducting research.

Research is usually necessary for writing fiction novels. Writers are bound to run into topics that they are largely unfamiliar with, but need to include in a story. Research can’t solve this problem every time, but it helps.

Now I’ve done my fair share of research. I’ve learned a lot of important things that have made my writing better. But I’ve also done plenty of research that didn’t help my writing at all. The internet is a dangerous place for someone like me. There are plenty of days where my research goes something like this:

1. Sal is happily writing
2. Sal encounters a theme that he’d like to know more about, such as potato farming in Ireland.
3. Sal Googles the aforementioned theme.
4. Sal reads various internet articles pertaining to this theme.
5. Sal notices a related link that also seems interesting. He clicks on it.
6. Sal continues clicking links, gradually getting further and further away from his original intent, until he is brushing up on the rise and fall of the Ming dynasty, rather than the ins and outs of potato yields.

And in all the time spent “researching,” how much actual writing got done? None. Be careful out there, writers. The internet can steal your book away before you’ve even written it.

Editing Update: I was able to get a little bit of editing done over the Holidays, and I hope to have what I’ll call the second draft of Laz done by the end of January. Wish me luck.

Until next time,

-Sal