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?
Rabbit holes can be such fun. I love to research - probably because I do so much of it in my day job. The hardest part is making myself stop. Archery is a fun sport. Although I don't think I could pull a bow anymore, I did enjoy target shooting with my compound bow.
ReplyDeleteI love research! The hard part is distilling the topic down to just the essence.
ReplyDeleteI’m researching now. Lots of fun, but need to sometimes hold myself back.
ReplyDeleteKait, I wish I had kept up with archery because I loved it and wasn't half bad. I wonder if I could still hit the target.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, yes! I have such a wealth of information now, I have to be careful not to give my readers a wiki.
Susan, it's a welcome distraction from the current news and it's easy to just keep going, I find.
Ah, yes. I go to look up something, and that leads to another article, which brings up an interesting point, which touches on something I know little about, but sounds like something I could use...
ReplyDeleteIt's as bad as the distractions I find while trying to clean the house, KM!
ReplyDelete