Rabbit Holes

by Kaye George

 

Some writers like them, some don’t. I love SOME of them. No, not holes where rabbits live, holes we fall into when we’re doing research.  

I’m trying my hand at a project that’s out of my wheelhouse, if I may say that. Do we still say that? I never knew what a wheelhouse was, so I should probably research that. Later.

For starters, I laid out my characters and plot. So far, so good. But these are brand new characters. The more I write about them, the more I realize they need fleshing out. My main character (MC) needs more depth to her life. She had a family and a former boyfriend, a best girlfriend, and a job.

She needed a pet, right? This isn’t a cozy, but you can have pets, even so. That wasn’t too hard to come up with. I gave my son’s dog to her, a chocolate lab. His dog is very young and so adorable. MC’s dog is a bit older so she won’t have to do all the training. It interferes with everything. So hers is two and well behaved. And still adorable.  

 

But she still needed more depth. She had to have an interest in something besides work and family. Most people do. I came up with archery for her hobby.

 

THERE’S the rabbit hole.

 

The last time I pulled a bow was back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth and the continents were forming. I’m SO lucky to have a group of experts at my fingertips. Literally. I type up something about needing archery information, and the Guppies come through with bells on. Or maybe with those gloves and armguards on, the ones that archers wear. It’s good to have a group of 1000 people at the other end of the interwebs. There’s always someone there who knows whatever it is you’re asking about.

 

I’m almost ready to find a range and do some shooting. If it weren’t The Time of Covid, I totally would. And totally will one of these days.

 

If you’re a writer, do you like falling down the research rabbit holes? Or are they unwanted distractions?