Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Researching my project

I was lying in bed last night thinking about my new character Phoebe. She's been talking to me about what's happening in her life and what exactly she's capable of doing.  And the longer I listened to her the more I realized I needed to know things that I didn't know already. She was talking about Spiritual gifts and I realized that even though I've read about them in the bible I didn't really have a true grasp of what they are.  So, I started my reasearch.  I rolled over and asked Brandon, "What are the spiritual gifts?" "Why do you want to know?" "I've got an idea for a series of books and I need to know if it'll work, but I don't know what the Spiritual gifts are and if they'll fit my idea."  His brilliant answer? "Research it." 

Didn't he understand that I was?  I was asking him!!  Usually he knows everything ;-) Needless to say, I admitted he was right.  I needed to do some research.  I figured what better place to research it than to go right to the source, so I started looking up verses in the Bible and Lord, help me it was pretty broad! Putting the good book aside, I went to the source of all knowledge, true and false - Google.  It's not as easy as all those computer nerds make it look.  You can't just type in what you're looking for and find it at the top of the this. I clicked for hours on pages upon pages before I finally managed to get a link to something that gave me exactly what I was looking for and the motivation to get started on my book, well books since Phoebe just told me about her sister Monica and brother Ross. (They're triplets and yes, their mother was obsessed with Friends - I even had to research that to make sure the ages would line up - assuming they're seventeen and it'll take me a year to finish the first one, the dates match)

I've been lucky so far that my need for research up to this point has been limited.  Fantasy gives you a lot of leeway and contemporary YA can skim the surface of somethings. So, here's to my first foray into serious research and I hope that all works the way I want it too! :)

**How scary is it the Friends came out 16 years ago??? When did I start getting old?

On my iPod:

Bullet with Butterfly Wings by The Smashing Pumpkins

6 comments:

  1. HAh, when characters talk, it always leads to research.

    LOL.

    T

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  2. I always do research because one of my characters takes up a hobby or two. Hope you find success with that, and don't we feel old. Yikes 16 years, huh?

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  3. I think the research process is kind of fun. You never know what you'll learn. :)

    ~ Tina ~

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  4. I really started getting into research for one of my English courses last year. You're right: Google isn't as easy as it looks. You have to follow lead after lead to find anything.

    Best of luck with it!! Researching is tedious but ultimately very rewarding, I think.

    All the best,
    Corra

    from the desk of a writer

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  5. Research--yup this sounds eerily familiar. The only thing I have to be careful of is to make sure my "research" doesn't become a distraction from actually writing the story. One of my books is set during the Civil War. Talk about research, but I have to balance out that with the actual writing.

    And 16 years ago for Friends, really?!? I guess I am getting old :-)

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  6. Thanks Ladies! It's nice to know I'm not the only one struggling with research!

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