Research
I have moved on in place and time: away from Ancient Greece to the second world war, looking at the biographies of German scientists and Soviet spies. I think maybe I am researching too much, but there always seems so much I need to know. But I suspect all this is merely a form of procrastination; putting off the writing because there is always the worry that I can't do it any more.
posted by Clare Dudman at 7:56 pm
9 Comments:
And maybe you can't but you'll never know until you've started and then once you've started you'll be faced with having to quit and quitting is so much harder than not starting so you might as well finish the damn thing and be done with it.
I dunno, Jim! I seem prettu good at quitting, sometimes too!
I have had a heckuva time getting started writing any fiction since finishing Greenville, Clare. Several ideas are noodling around in my head and I have lots of notes, but no writing to show for it. Although I can't really say "no writing" at all. I've been blogging and writing for work that whole time, so that counts for something, but it's most distressing that I haven't attempted any fiction in that time. I wonder if this is typical with most writers. Hang in there!
Ah, that's great you have something to show for it, Mary. I just seem to be accumulating half-finished novels.
Now there's a familiar feeling :-)
Readings about ancient Greece are good background for almost any literary venture, so surely your time has been well worth it. It is funny that what writers think of as procrastination, others would label excellent scholarship. Who knows when any of facet of ones research might come in handy for an apt literary reference?
Speaking of World War II, I am reading an interesting series of novels, by the way, about historians travelling in time back to early 1940s London in the era of the Blitz. They are "Blackout" and "All Clear" by Connie Willis.
You too, huh, Sue?
I hope you're right, Paul. Sometimes my research feels too rich, too many ideas jumbled around, like all sorts of scraps of wool gathered up and balled together, the brilliant colours mixed to yield an unattractive brown.
You can cut up your half-finished novels, stir them up, and call it avant-garde. I give you permission.
Yes, writing is one of those weird pursuits where we are always starting over.
Thank you, Marly :-)
Sounds like I'm not alone - which I find reassuring.
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