I’ve been having some difficulty keeping my motivation up for this NaNoWriMo this month. Part of it is this cold that has been kicking my butt and part of it is the story I’m trying to write. I like it but I don’t know where it’s going. So, I’ve been looking for some inspiration and started reading through the blog posts of The Green Dragon Artist, Christy Jackson Nicholas, on how she organizes and writes her novels. Though they are full of good information, and inspirational photographs from Ireland, one thing in particular struck me. She talks about doing research before she begins to write, 15 hours of it for one book, and it hit me – I have let the research side of the equation slide!
I used to research, in books and online, until I reached a threshold where the information spontaneously began to recombine into something new, a piece of writing that combined my fictional story and my knowledge. Lately, however, with my intensive schedule of work, commute, home, child, etc., I have let the research side of the equation slide and that is part of why I am having trouble with this particular book I want to write about a pandemic. I need to know more about how many people we might lose and how that would affect life at every level and what would happen when the power grid went down. Without them, I am stymied.
Thanks, Christy!
Melora Johnson's Muse 