Writing, Rewriting, & Research
When I babbled on yesterday about organizing research, I neglected to reveal my problem with using the Internet -- distractibility. Ooh, look: a shiny new Forum at Maria's blog, a new resource to explore, etc. Before you know it, I've spent 30 minutes exploring a website on, say, psychiatric journals.The upsides to harvesting more material than you can use in a book, story or article are several:
- When you know more than you need about your subject, you write more confidently and that carries through into your writing style.
- You can briefly reference the added information at your disposal, and even it it isn't mentioned, the bulk of research at hand adds weight to your production.
- The extra material comes in handy when the questions flow because people will always ask about something that is not in your work, of course. Often they want to know, but some will ask just test your expertise.
- And finally, all the "stuff" you don't use is available to spark or perhaps fully fill a new piece. At the least, it is a resource for slanting an article or story for another publication; providing different information for a rewrite; being the basis for a related but alternative work.
posted by Georganna Hancock M.S. | 9:49 AM
10 Comments:
Distractions aplenty. I really must get organized. But not this weekend, again.
Over research / extra education --also makes for conversation starters when there is a loll at the party, especially if it is something kooky and off the wall.
Ha! I was actually discussing this with an old friend of my from the newspaper. Granted, we were talking about distractions during the actual writing process, but the timing is uncanny.
By the by, did you switch up your commenting method? I'm not receiving a popup box today.
Ah! Thanks for alerting me that it is finally working, Bradley. I almost posted about the latest changes in Blogger, but wasn't sure they were stable yet. Cool, huh?
And thank you, Georganna, for keeping up with all things Blogger.
The leftovers from research do provide good fodder for other projects.
The only thing I have against research is just what you mentioned - the side trips I take all too often. :)
Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Researchers say the sign of a "gifted and talented" person is their intellectual curiousity about new information and ideas. Enjoy and feel proud about the wanderlust.
Yes, the new comment system is working, but there appears to be a bit of a lag involved between the comment being created and it showing up in the comment count. It's better than the popup, however.
Welcome to A Writer's Edge, Jayda and Marye. Thank you both for your comments -- keep comin' back!
Brad: there's a lot of built-in lag in Blogger all around. But there's nothing I can do about the time it takes for a comment to show. Heaven knows how many times it zips around the earth getting back here!
I'm missing the HTML instruction. Is this bold?
O.K. HTML works! And it took only 16 seconds for my comment to show up on a refresh, but maybe it took the direct route down the freeway to my server here.
Maybe those trucks stopped blocking the tubes. Ah Ted Stevens, will your description of how the internet works every stop being funny?
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