Sometimes you do research to come up with ideas for what you’ll write about next. Sometimes you do research to get all those nagging details just right. Sometimes you OH MY GOD YOU HAVE LIKE THIRTEEN BINDERS FULL OF NOTES AND YOU HAVEN’T EVEN COMPLETED THE OUTLINE HOW WILL YOU FINISH THIS PROJECT WITHIN YOUR LIFETIME?!
At least you’ll earn the “research” merit badge. Even if that’s the only one.
This is part of the merit badges for writers series, and may be posted on your site or blog. Have you earned this badge? Will you never earn it? Tell us why in the comments.
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I have a 3″ binder full of notes, maps, you name it, about Harlan County, Kentucky – that’s not counting my gigs of photographs, my Evernote program, and all the FAQs I’ve created since 2004 …
Yesterday right in the middle of writing I had to jump up and look up at date. I’m not one of those people who can draw a carat around something and come back to it – because what I was looking up yesterday was central to the current stretch of dialog. :sigh:
Did you write out “equals squared” in cursive? Also, tiny Einstein! Love this one.
Most of my research is in Scrivener at this point — write ups and references, plus some images. It’s . . . a lot of pages. I take research seriously.
Research helps me answer the question, “If [this thing] were to happen in the past, how would a society develop as a result?” Or, “If I know [this thing] is true about my society or people today, what would have to be true in their history for that to develop?” That kind of thing. (This would be mostly soc-sci research.)
I don’t see research ending for this WIP until it is in its final, final polish stage. I’m taking this badge because feel I’ve done enough to say I *have* researched (many, many hours). I will never be done with research anyway! There’s always the next project.
143MB later I’m okay admitting that I am the person who needs to have a mound of research & links to sit on before I can write. A comfort blanket if you will.
I HAVE A DECREE:
It is not official overkill until you have a 30″ binder, a Scrivener file of notes about your notes, and 1 TB of data stored.
REACH FOR THE STARS, LADIES!
Oh, I can claim this badge. On my own I noodle around a topic finding the most obscure and interesting items possible. And, because much of my work is educational, I need to have every fact and assertion verifiable by two independent sources—sorry no wiki up here.
Did you know that NASA has a team of odor “sniffers” whose job it is to smell items before they can be flown in the space shuttle! [http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/support/people/galdrich.html]
Oh yeah I need this one. See what I wrote about the mapmaking!