There’s a little secret that most professional writers won’t tell you about writing – you have to do research. Unless you plan on writing about an imaginary place with imaginary people you’re going to have to do some research if you want your story to be believable. I hate research.
I have quite a few story ideas. The most recent one involves characters entering a Mayan temple or tomb. I hate to tell how many hours I spent online trying to find photos and articles about the subject and only scratched the surface. I was so frustrated with all that research that I actually walked away and started building on another completely different story.
The more I get into the creative process of writing the more I appreciate all my friends who are writers that consistently put out great stuff and make it look so easy.
It's never easy.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I personally relish research, I do understand that many people may find it tedious.
The best advice I can offer, especially for new writers, is to simply begin by writing about what you know.
The heavily researched epics can come later.
MP
Doing research when writing is hardly a secret. Most amateurs "research" consists mostly of getting ideas from other movies or stories. Writing is not as easy as people might think. Learning proper vocabulary and spelling is important also. As well as writing technique, grammar etc.
ReplyDeleteDrawing is even harder because a writer can write a line like.. "Our hero stands on a cliff as 300 Huns are running towards him!" Now hand that simple sentence over to a artist… What angle do you use.. the heroes point of view or the Huns? How do you best illustrate the scene? It's pretty easy to write "300 Huns" but to have to draw something that represents 300 Huns is not easy. All of that involves research too. Even a simple scene where someone is standing next to a car. Well we all know what a car looks like but to just draw a car straight out of your head it's going to look like something out of a cartoon. It's fun to watch all kinds of movies and it seems like it would be a fun profession to get into but it involves a lot of hard work. They say everyone has a least one good story in them. So the trick is to have more than one. Don't let the idea of worrying about someone copying your idea because you'll never get anywhere like that. If I post something and someone copies.. it's no big deal because there is plenty more ideas where that came from and I least I know I'm good enough to be plagiarized! If you love writing just write for the fun of it and don't worry about anything else. Plus writing like drawing gets better the nore you do it.. just like anything in life!