![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Nov. 16th, 2010 12:59 amI just spent a half day and a whole evening doing fairly drudging work and wondering why I couldn't stop. Five hours ago I had what I went in for, but I still I kept analysing the bibliographies I did earlier in the year and considering what I needed to work with next. Line by line by line, for hours. Those bibliographies are the background research for the novel (I have a whole other set for the dissertation - I do like my bibliographies), so the bit of my brain that was bored to tears was applying it to the novel and saying "You're not even ready for this until next year. Go do something useful."
A few minutes ago I put my booklists aside and scribbled away. I hadn't finished the drudgework, but my brain had told me "You got what you came for." Today wasn't about the novel at all, not once I had my list of call numbers for Fisher Library on Friday. It seems I was working out the relationship between the research I would normally do for a novel and the research I need to do for this novel. Which is what the whole PhD is about, in a way. In other words, I was working on my dissertation and part of my brain knew it, but it was really impolite and didn't let most of me know. It just let me overwork. Which was very cruel of it.
What I was thinking about tonight was the manner in which the plot arcs and characters' needs feed into the historical research and work with it. This creates research that's rather different to the process of normal historical inquiry. It's also not quite the same as researching a novel. For every other novel I have (and most writers would) switch off the inquiry before that feedback happens because, honestly, there's enough material for a standard novel without it and it adds a significant amount to the workload without adding to the novel. Or does it? Well, it certainly adds to the workload. I do have a suspicion, however, that I'm writing a much more interesting novel now than I would have been able to do if I followed the usual route with the usual expectations.
What I did tonight was state the obvious, just as I've stated the obvious in this blogpost. What my next two years or so will do is tease this idea out and make sense of it and explain it and show the whys and the hows. Sometimes I get to the point I reached tonight (in other research projects) and the obvious statement I make is that my approach isn't going to work or that I need to rethink from scratch. It's rather a relief to find that something interesting is going on and that I can explain it and that my research trajectory is going along with my novel trajectory and that I'm not wasting everyone's time and money. In other words, that the obvious statement I'm making is that I'm on the right path.
This all may change when I see my supervisor on Friday, of course...
A few minutes ago I put my booklists aside and scribbled away. I hadn't finished the drudgework, but my brain had told me "You got what you came for." Today wasn't about the novel at all, not once I had my list of call numbers for Fisher Library on Friday. It seems I was working out the relationship between the research I would normally do for a novel and the research I need to do for this novel. Which is what the whole PhD is about, in a way. In other words, I was working on my dissertation and part of my brain knew it, but it was really impolite and didn't let most of me know. It just let me overwork. Which was very cruel of it.
What I was thinking about tonight was the manner in which the plot arcs and characters' needs feed into the historical research and work with it. This creates research that's rather different to the process of normal historical inquiry. It's also not quite the same as researching a novel. For every other novel I have (and most writers would) switch off the inquiry before that feedback happens because, honestly, there's enough material for a standard novel without it and it adds a significant amount to the workload without adding to the novel. Or does it? Well, it certainly adds to the workload. I do have a suspicion, however, that I'm writing a much more interesting novel now than I would have been able to do if I followed the usual route with the usual expectations.
What I did tonight was state the obvious, just as I've stated the obvious in this blogpost. What my next two years or so will do is tease this idea out and make sense of it and explain it and show the whys and the hows. Sometimes I get to the point I reached tonight (in other research projects) and the obvious statement I make is that my approach isn't going to work or that I need to rethink from scratch. It's rather a relief to find that something interesting is going on and that I can explain it and that my research trajectory is going along with my novel trajectory and that I'm not wasting everyone's time and money. In other words, that the obvious statement I'm making is that I'm on the right path.
This all may change when I see my supervisor on Friday, of course...