Researching The Game

Hello World!

I’ve been thinking a lot about research lately. Most of my life I’ve worked in social science and educational research, which includes a lot of writing. Writing this book, I’ve discovered that writing includes a lot of research, as well. It is fortunate for me that the two fit so well together.

Of course, if I wrote non-fiction, I’d plan for lots of research – after all, think of all those facts! Yet day after day during the writing phase of my novel, I’d come up with answers I needed so my setting and characters would remain believable. Some were quick googles, while others took deeper research. Occasionally I lost an entire day to exploration. ! even took a class on one of my research topics.

The working title for my novel is The Game. My research made me feel like I was one of my characters, involved in my own game. Below are some examples.

Research topics for my novel The Game (selective list)

• What has contributed to various peoples growing taller in some parts of the world than in others?
• In what months do various crops mature in Eastern Washington?
• How are body hair, pubic hair and facial hair similar and different?
• Had the past 60 years of U.S. defense/war resources gone to our space program instead, where might it be today?
• What happens to the mother and the embryo during the first 3 months of pregnancy?
• What allowed the Love Israel family to continue so much longer than other communal groups?
• What changes have occurred over the past 30 years in Walla Walla and the surrounding area?
• Historically, which nationalities and ethnicities immigrated into Eastern Washington and when?
• How long do cows and goats give milk after bearing young?
• When is the yearly rodeo in the Walla Walla area?
• What advances are anticipated over the next 10 year in genetics?

Perhaps my research has been more difficult, in some ways, than non-fiction research. The variety of topics I’ve had to consider may be wider, for instance. However they compare, I now understand why some authors hire researchers on various questions. If I didn’t love the search, I could easily bog down in the writing.

Writing and other jobs I've held

Hello World!

I’m about 1/6th of the way through my first rewrite of my novel. I don’t find rewriting to be nearly as much fun as writing. Although I expected as much, I had hoped I might be happily surprised once I got going. Instead, this part of the process has the feeling of simply plodding along.

Rewriting is far more structured, for one thing, than writing was in the haphazard fashion I chose that fit my personality. Going through the list of attributes each scene has to contain, and figuring out how to fit them all in smoothly can be difficult as well, especially in a short scene.

On the other hand, I love being back with my characters again. I’m quite fond of them! And watching their story get tighter and more interesting is very rewarding.

A wonderful surprise has been how much I love throwing scenes away. I’ll find one I wrote mainly for myself, so I knew where the story was going, and I’ll read through it, getting ever more excited as I realize how much I can cut. I love looking at the total number of pages at the bottom of my Word window, blowing the scene away (wheeeeee!), and seeing how many pages have vanished. I keep deleted scenes in a separate file, in case I need something from them later, and that gives me freedow from worrying that I’ve lost anything. Watching those drearier scenes go is seeing improvement in real time sans slog.

Every job I’ve held in my life was similar in that no matter how much I really enjoyed suggesting books as a librarian, counseling a client, or discovering new information as a researcher, there were always the tasks that I needed to plod through: shelving books, doing paperwork, or entering data. The difference is that the enjoyment level of the writing, for me, was far above the enjoyment level of many of my jobs, and so far, the plodding part is still better than most of the past mud slogging.

I wonder how running the publishing gamut will feel? I suspect it will be my least favorite part, but I’m not ready to go there yet. I’m going to stay in the now as long as the rewriting lasts.