Recently, I was researching horses of the 1800’s on the computer. Simple, I had one topic, so how did I end up with horses, weapons, breakfast, dinner, supper, famous outlaws, trails, distances traveled by horses, types of wagons, ropes and the dimensions of a shotgun styled home on my browser? Not to mention, cookware, songs, horses (second attempt) and surprisingly at 12:30 a.m. I was reading about Terra Cotta warriors from China.
How did I even get there?
I had one objective: to find information on horses in the 1800’s. I fell into a rabbit hole.
A choice needs to be made — losing time researching “rabbit holes” or losing time writing. When researching I am more aware of straying off topic, so I now use a note pad with column A on one-half of the page and column B on the other.
Column A is for the research topic with room for notes on each topic.
Column B is for new ideas, and it is in list format with no extra room for notes.
I only research my column A. Column B is saved for another day.
If a topic made the list today, it does not mean it is a valuable topic to research at this time, it could be a rabbit hole/distraction so it will be left there to reference later. If it is valuable to the story, it will be moved to column A where it can be researched further.
Here is what I have learned: Stay focused on your ideas, being careful not to let “research” steer you away from your goal of writing the next best seller of all times.
Oh, and in my defense, the craftsmen made terra cotta horses for the warriors and chariots.
- Falling Into the Rabbit Hole - October 14, 2024
- Getting Ready to Write - April 1, 2024
- From Notes to Publisher: 5 Steps - October 13, 2022