Research Ups & Downs

     Research can be enlightening, inspiring, complicating, and oh-so frustrating.

     While researching some topics recently through a watching a movie, (how incredibly boring, huh?), I found out a piece of information that applied so well to two of my characters, I couldn't help but be completely ecstatic about it.  I wrote for more than an hour straight, then, about those characters.  Yet, a couple days later, I was looking up some information relating to the inspiring bit, but the more I read, the more crestfallen I became.  I started out searching for more inspiration, but instead slowly I realized that what I was learning couple mean a lot of reworking.  How could something as simple as the kinds of jobs available to certain people be so disruptive?  (Well, it's a bit more complicated than that.  Ex-convict stuff I don't know too much about.  I've never been in prison and don't plan to be.  Ever.)
     The point is I let this possibility of reworking get to me.  It made me scared to write, because what if I do have to end up rewriting after getting it all down?!  Well, the point of a first draft isn't to get it perfect the first time.  No, perfection can wait till after I achieve a rough gist of the story.  Well, actually, no again.  Perfection is impossible.  In the words of Dave Cullen, "It's not about getting it perfect... It's about realizing it isn't your absolute best work-because then you'd never let go of it-but it's something you'd be very proud of."
     I can make it something I'm proud of after I actually write it.  But as far as research goes at the moment, I'll follow these guidelines:
     If it makes the story better and fits in at the moment, I'll write it in.  If it would make the story more realistic but doesn't fit without a load of reworking, I'll disregard it, write like I know what I'm writing about, and come back to it after writing the rough draft.
     I really hope this helps, because, quite honestly, I enjoying finding out new things that I could use in my writing.  For example, I'm currently taking a psychology course at a community college, and this week I was reading about biology of the mind.  One of the chapters talked about brain damage and its effects, and this was absolutely fascinating because my protagonist receives a blow to the head in a car accident.  Say her frontal lobe is damaged; her personality could change.  That would create a very interesting dynamic.  Or say it's her auditory or visual cortex that damaged.  Or if her ability to recognize faces was affected; that would be really interesting.  (That one actually is really appealing to me, though whether or not I would actually write that in is debatable.)
     I'll be checking back in soon.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  The concept of 'soon' is uncertain...  Don't worry.   I have no idea what that sentence meant either.  I'm ted.  Tired.  I meant tiered.  Ugh.  I quit.

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