The Liberal Arts Method of Research?

The Liberal Arts Method of Research?

September is Research Month at The Writers Chatroom.

On Wednesday we touched on many of the items in the list below.

  • When to research..
  • When to stop.
  • Where to begin.
  • Avoiding confirmation bias.
  • Who are you going to call?
  • How do you dial your research back when you know you’d rather research than write?
  • What genres need the most research?
  • How do we credit the research we have done?
  • Using a library for research.
  • Using bibliographic information to expand or narrow your research.
  • Researching before writing or on the fly.
  • Is research taking over your story or article?
  • Writing what you know.
  • Staying on point and avoiding the rabbit hole.
  • When you’ve researched so deeply you think you can do brain surgery.
  • You’re no more than 6 people away from a living person with the best answers to your question.
Bunny

Because my I approach research with a “liberal arts method” I sometimes get so interested in what I see or hear I fall into “self-indulgence.”

In fact, during college I took a job at the Holman Library so I could afford some “recreational-indulgence” I built and archived curious newspaper clippings, always 30 days behind. On slow afternoons, I would cancel Government Documents before releasing them for destruction.

 I don’t think a single shift passed when the Head Librarian didn’t sneak up behind me and complain to me about my compulsion to read everything put into my workstation.  

To minimize your exposure to an old Psych/English Literature Majors haphazard examples of research, I found a Blog Post to use during chat.

Top 7 Tips For Researching Your Novel

If you’re writing a novel and wondering whether you need to research it, the answer is generally yes. The same rules that apply to non-fiction writers don’t necessarily apply to novelists, but research is nevertheless an important step in planning to write a novel.

So how exactly should you approach the research process?

Top 7 Tips For Researching Your Novel

  • Establish a system to organise and store research. …
  • Read, read, and read some more. …
  • Delve into other forms of media. …
  • Talk to people. …
  • Immerse yourself in some real-world research. …
  • Extend your research to craft as well as content. …
  • Don’t get stuck on research and forget to start writing.

Drop by the chatroom at 7PM EDT on Sunday 13 September.

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