Research Writing

My current fiction project has me researching. The best advice all writers give is that to be a writer you must read. A lot. I read on an average, more than a book a week. Roughly half of them are fiction and the others non.

I’ve had four nonfiction books published (with a fifth in the editor’s hands). Writing nonfiction takes a lot of research. So does good fiction. Not that it’s ever helped me get my novels published, but should they ever see the light of day, they’re well researched.

My novel on Medusa, for instance, was written after teaching introduction to classical mythology three times at a state university. Indeed, it was that class that led to the novel. I was only an adjunct, of course, and those with full-time affiliations have it much easier. I know. Believe me, I know.

Now my research takes the form of books I buy myself, much to the protest of my study shelves and bank account. All of my books contribute to my research and all of them are used to help me write. We all need help, n’est-ce pas?

In a world where thousands and thousands of books are published each year, even in such a world, it’s difficult to get yourself taken seriously. Agents are too busy to look at fiction by Ph.D.s. Academic publishers tend not to do fiction. So, as Kurt Vonnegut says, it goes.

Whether any of my novels ever get published or not, I will continue the research. Reading is fundamental to the writing soul. Any reading, done right, is research.

My current novel (number eight) is being sandwiched between academic articles I’ve been contracted to write. Along with blog posts and other ephemera. Not to mention the daily grind. I guess life is a form of research as well. I’m hoping it teaches me more about writing.

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K. Marvin Bruce

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