Research, Music and Distractions

Hey.

So, I'm sick. If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that.

I did not have this post pre-planned. And I'm not sure what to say, but I made a plan to post once a day, so that's what I'm going to do.

So, onto my other writerly things I promised.

Research

Do I research before a novel? Not really. 

Can you? Definitely. 

Can you do too much? Yes. 

What are some ways you can research? I am no expert on research, as I've said, I don't really do research. For my current novel, the only research I did was to read a few books on vampires. And I didn't read one from beginning to end. 

What is too much research? When you start looking up specific height and weight for something. Seriously, if you want to know something and you can't find it right off the bat, pull something out of the air and look it up during editing. Really, you don't want to do too much research before you start your rough draft. 

The only research I've done for my NaNoWriMo novel has been to read a book on werewolves and pick and choose how I want my "werewolves" to act. 

It's easy to over do it. If you can't find something with five clicks on google... Save it for editing. 

Music

Or other ambient sound. 

Some people say they have to have silence. Some have to have a certain kind of music playing. In any other situation, they say they can't write. 

I call bullshit. 

Even though I have my preferred music (J-Pop), I can write in silence, or my boyfriend can be playing a movie in the background (though the movie quite often distracts me). 

The thing is, it's okay to have a preferred method, or situation in which to write, but don't refuse to write unless those conditions are met. Don't place restrictions like that on yourself. 

Distractions

Music, for some people, can be under this category. 

If you want to get any good amount of writing done, you want to separate yourself from any and all distractions you can. Kids, cats, significant others, television, phonecalls, texts, internet, etc.

If you're constantly being distracted, what writing you get done will probably be negligible. 

Being distracted by your children? Well, I don't have children, but you may want to wait until they are in school/daycare/asleep to get your writing done. Maybe let them watch more brain-melty tv? 

My cats are a constant companion as I write. They, being kittens, are attention hogs. Now, I don't mind them laying next to me, but when they're all up in my keyboard, I have to move them off. If I have to keep doing this, I will move them to another room. They normally get the hint. 

My boyfriend is harder to take care off. Normally he's at work or asleep during my writing times, but on his days off, he wants attention as badly as the cats. During NaNoWriMo this may be a problem and I will have to hit him over the head with his iPad to get writing done. I'll keep you posted. 

Turn off your phone. It's that simple. If you answer a phone call even once, people will expect you to keep doing it. If you can, unplug/turn off the internet connection. I can't do this, as the music I listen to is from an online source, but if Twitter distracts me I will hit that nice little "x" in the corner. 

That's all folks

Sorry, that's all I can come up with for now. 

The illness, boyfriend, and cat 2 are making it hard to concentrate. 

I'll see you guys tomorrow!

Cheyenne