Tag Archives: research

Technique, Reading

Becoming a better writer: READ

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I’ll admit it: I love to read, but when I’m writing, I don’t do a lot of reading. (Oh, crud, there’s a secondary confession in there: I typically don’t write [i.e. write brand new material in a first draft] every single day. Gasp.) There are a couple reasons for this. (The reading, not the writing. That’s another post.) When I am writing a book, it usually consumes every second of “free” (read: writing or reading time) time I have for those weeks. But don’t worry—I still get my (non)fiction fix in! Here’s how!

Research!

Occasionally, I can work in a little bit of reading while drafting. For me, nonfiction research reading can often feed my creative beast muse—very important when you push it as hard as I do (we’re talking anywhere from 4000 to 8000 words/day while drafting).

I have to do a lot of research anyway (since I’m a little obsessive), and research reading is a great source of new ideas.

Fiction, however, is another story for me. When I read fiction while writing, the voice or style of the book I read often bleeds into the book I’m writing. That usually isn’t so good. So let’s just assume that we’re not going to be reading fiction while drafting, but we definitely can’t take off all our time from reading. What’s a writer to do?

Take a reading break

One thing I try to do periodically, especially when trying to get necessary distance from my book, is to take a break from writing/revising/editing altogether and just read. It’s a good time to catch up in your genre, explore another, try something new or completely different, or just enjoy yourself. Reading breaks are also a great place to find ideas. Way back when I wrote three books in one year (before I did crazythousand-word days!), the thing that got me writing that third book (insanity!) was an idea I just couldn’t resist after reading a fantastic book.

Read carefully while editing

Reading while editing will vary from writer to writer, but for me, I think I actually benefit from reading writing that I . . . don’t care for, we’ll say. If you’ve been editing your own work long enough, you probably rewrite sentences in published novels at least occasionally. (Admit it, we all do!) When you feed your editing habit, you may look at your own writing with a more critical eye.

I’ve also found it helpful to read really, really good novels while editing, giving me a mark to shoot for.

Set a reading goal

And make it public!. I pledged to read 50 books in 2011, and I thought that wouldn’t be too hard. I’d read 40 the year before (um, including a 6-week leave from all writing while I read [and had a baby]), and even very long books seldom take me a week to read. You know, except for the weeks I can’t, when I’m consumed by my own books (or, heaven forbid, the humans with whom I cohabit).

That public pledge ended up pushing me pretty hard, especially since I did NaNoWriMo, too. It came down to the wire, but I got in my 50 books, even if a couple were rereads of some classics of writing craft.

What do you think? Can you read while you write? If not, when do you read?

Photo credits: reading a book—Kendra; glasses on book—Antonio Mantero

Adapted from a post from May 2012

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Reading

TBR Tuesday: What makes you put down a book?

Goodreads conducted some research with surveys, Listopia and even digging into members’ bookshelves and reviews to find out what makes you put a book down. Their results, in a pretty little infographic:

putbookdown

via Sarah LaPolla on Twitter

So, what makes you put a book down? For me, it’s usually my insane schedule!

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Technique

Nano organization: Evernote

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The Internet is a fabulous thing. I do a lot of my research for my books on the Internet, from looking at historical sources to contemporary locations to costumes to fact checking and even some plot ideas. I used bookmarks for years to try to keep track of these disparate sources, but frankly it was too hard to find what I needed in my notes, especially when I only had one or two sentences that I really needed from a long article.

And then I found Evernote. It’s a website where you can store all kinds of information: pictures, text, whole websites. It can also “clip” these notes from your desktop, or, via a smartphone app, your photos, etc. You can not only tag the notes you add, but also group your “notes” by topics, separated into “notebooks.” Probably the best part is that you can search your notes to find just what you’re looking for I *think* there are other good programs that can do this, but this is the only one I’d used until this year, and I like it.

So what’s this got to do with NaNo? When you’re writing as fast as you can, and you need to stop to look something up, or to find something you know you looked up when you were plotting on or around October 23, or to remember that one really cool idea you had from that weird news article that would be perfect right here, instead of trying to dig through your bookmarks or search your web history, you just go to your account, and either search your notes, or look through the notebook for this book, and you’re set!

This year, I’m trying out Scrivener for Nano, and I really love that you can save your research right in your project file. However, I also like Evernote’s capability to highlight a picture, paragraph or phrase on any website (or from my phone!) and save it in your notebook with a single click. So we’ll see what I end up using long term.

I also like this because I’ve used it to save research on ideas I might write later—much later. Like for NaNo 2011, I wrote an idea that I’d been thinking about for probably two years. Some of my notes on the pseudohistory I unapologetically used were clipped in July 2010. As I was gearing up to actually write the book, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to remember a lot of the things I’d need, until I saw the name of the notebook on Evernote. Voila! Lots of cool facts that I wouldn’t have to hunt down again!

How do you keep track of your research so you can find it when you need it?

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Works

How to read while writing

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I’ll admit it: I love to read, but when I’m writing, I don’t do a lot of reading. (Oh, crud, there’s a secondary confession in there: I typically don’t write [i.e. write brand new material in a first draft] every single day. Gasp.) There are a couple reasons for this. (The reading, not the writing. That’s another post.) When I am writing a book, it usually consumes every second of “free” (read: writing or reading time) time I have for those weeks. But don’t worry—I still get my (non)fiction fix in! Here’s how!

Research!

Occasionally, I can work in a little bit of reading while drafting. For me, nonfiction research reading can often feed my creative beast muse—very important when you push it as hard as I do (we’re talking 4-5000 words/day while drafting).

I have to do a lot of research anyway (since I’m a little obsessive), and research reading is a great source of new ideas. I’m revising and editing right now, and I’m digging deep into my research reading at the same time—and the ideas I’m discovering are fantastic! Man, I wish I’d done this research sooner. Sigh.

Fiction, however, is another story for me. When I read fiction while writing, the voice or style of the book I read often bleeds into the book I’m writing. That usually isn’t so good. So let’s just assume that we’re not going to be reading fiction while drafting, but we definitely can’t take off all our time from reading. What’s a writer to do?

Take a reading break

One thing I try to do periodically, especially when trying to get necessary distance from my book, is to take a break from writing/revising/editing altogether and just read. It’s a good time to catch up in your genre, explore another, try something new or completely different, or just enjoy yourself. Reading breaks are also a great place to find ideas. Way back when I wrote three books in one year (before I did 4–5000-word days!), the thing that got me writing that third book (insanity!) was an idea I just couldn’t resist after reading a fantastic book.

Read carefully while editing

Reading while editing will vary from writer to writer, but for me, I think I actually benefit from reading writing that I . . . don’t care for, we’ll say. If you’ve been editing your own work long enough, you probably rewrite sentences in published novels at least occasionally. (Admit it, we all do!) When you feed your editing habit, you may look at your own writing with a more critical eye.

On the other hand, I’m sure some writers find it more helpful to read really, really good novels while editing, giving them a mark to shoot for. Me, I go for the petty alternative 😉 .

Set a reading goal

And make it public!. I pledged to read 50 books last year, and I thought that wouldn’t be too hard. I’d read 40 the year before (um, including a 6-week leave from all writing while I read [and had a baby]), and even very long books seldom take me a week to read. You know, except for the weeks I can’t, when I’m consumed by my own books (or, heaven forbid, the humans with whom I cohabit)(okay, or the frog)(and Randy makes his blog debut!).

That public pledge ended up pushing me pretty hard, especially since I did NaNoWriMo, too. It came down to the wire, but I got in my 50 books, even if a couple were rereads of some classics of writing craft.

What do you think? Can you read while you write? If not, when do you read?

Photo credits: reading a book—Kendra; glasses on book—Antonio Mantero

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Reading

Book review: Blowing My Cover by Lindsey Moran

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Okay, before I jump into this book review, I have to tell you why I read it: shockingly (um, not) my latest book is about a spy. I’ve actually written about spies a few times, but this is the first time I’ve used a contemporary CIA officer (not agent!) in one of my novels. Naturally, I had to run out and research.

As I was looking through books on the subject on Amazon, I came across Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy by Lindsay Moran, which was touted as “a cross between James Bond and Bridget Jones!” That pretty much sounded like what I was working on, and the back cover copy promised to answer several specific questions I had in the research process. (It didn’t answer the underlying question, however: why did you leave all your research until after you wrote it??)

Best of all? My truly, truly awesome library had a copy. I snuck out and checked it out that night, and read it the next day.
Continue reading Book review: Blowing My Cover by Lindsey Moran →

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Technique

NaNo organization: Evernote

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This entry is part 9 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

The Internet is a fabulous thing. I do a lot of my research for my books on the Internet, from looking at historical sources to contemporary locations to costumes to fact checking and even some plot ideas. I used bookmarks for years to try to keep track of these disparate sources, but frankly it was too hard to find what I needed in my notes, especially when I only had one or two sentences that I really needed from a long article.

And then I found Evernote. It’s a website where you can store all kinds of information: pictures, text, whole websites. It can also “clip” these notes from your desktop, or, via a smartphone app, your photos, etc. You can not only tag the notes you add, but also group your “notes” by topics, separated into “notebooks.” Probably the best part is that you can search your notes to find just what you’re looking for I *think* there are other good programs that can do this, but this is the only one I’ve used, and I like it.

So what’s this got to do with NaNo? When you’re writing as fast as you can, and you need to stop to look something up, or to find something you know you looked up when you were plotting on or around October 23, or to remember that one really cool idea you had from that weird news article that would be perfect right here, instead of trying to dig through your bookmarks or search your web history, you just go to your account, and either search your notes, or look through the notebook for this book, and you’re set!

I also like this because I’ve used it to save research on ideas I might write later—much later. Like this NaNo, I’m writing an idea that I’ve been thinking about for probably two years. Some of my notes on the pseudohistory I’m unapologetically using were clipped in July 2010. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to remember a lot of the things I’d need when I was starting my research, until I saw the name of the notebook on Evernote. Voila! Lots of cool facts that I wouldn’t have to hunt down again!

How do you keep track of your research so you can find it when you need it?

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Technique

You’ve done your research

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Yesterday, I shared some of the random facts I learned about Irish culture (and pseudo-Irish culture) in researching one of my characters. Call me weird, but I love research. I loved learning more about Ireland and its culture and language, as well as the other topics I had to learn about in writing my book (including the Catholic church and the FBI). (Oh, and having a brother. I had to research that, too—I only have sisters.)

My favorite resource for research is, of course, the Internet. Yeah, we’ve already talked about how cool the Internet is this week, and I’m sure you all know, so I don’t need to remind you—but man, that’s a lot of free resources.

However, I also read at least half a dozen books for research as well (some bought, some received as gifts and some from the library), and consulted several others. Crazy as it may sound, I also talked to actual people—a friend who’d lived in Ireland, a friend who had a brother. I had my work critiqued by people with intimate knowledge of the subjects.

Of course, we have to be careful—too much research and we might tend to try to cram it all in there, whether it furthers the plot & characters or not. (“You’ve really done your research, and it shows,” may or may not be a compliment 😉 .)

I think I’ve also been exceedingly lucky in doing my research—often, I discover something that inspires a scene or is a perfect fit for something I needed in my manuscript. Experiences like that could convert any writer to the research!

Do you like research? What’s your favorite source for research? What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned in researching one of your books? (Mine is how to build a certain kind of explosive device, which I do not have any intention of actually doing.)

Photo by Kate Andrews

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