on research
It may be the latent librarian in me, but research has always, pretty much with only a couple exceptions, been an important step in my writing process. This may be deep dives into eras and historical info I need for a given project or as simple as looking up just the right plant or flower variety for a poem that sounds good in the line and has the right number of syllables. One off questions like: Do herons screech? Do blackbirds live along the coast? What colors can magnolias be? What is the name of grouping of ducks? (why so many birds, you may ask, but really its a sickness...lol...)
Sometimes the research is visual. I will often look at collections of photos from historical places. The paintings of a particular artist. Certain kinds of architecture. These are as much about background as they are about inspiration and spark. Sometimes the research feels like a kind of mulch or soil in which things grow. Last summer, I was mired in research about wintering carnivals in Florida for EXOTICA (which feels like a sibling project to GIRL SHOW, also a book that involved a lot of research. This year, it has been Iphigenia and the Greeks.
Many time, the kinds of things you read about filter into the language of the poems themselves. I've been especially delving into the landscape and typography of the Greek coast. Is it rocky? Sandy? What kind of wildlife and waves inhabit that world? Also, more logistical holes in my knowledge of myth, the Trojan War, the Agamemnon plays. Where once I would have carted home books on any given topic, I now use Google to its best advantage.
When I was in college, the research was the fun part of any academic endeavor. I would start very early, organizing and mining sources, only to end up hating the task of writing the paper, or whatever way we were digesting information. I had meticulous notebooks I filled with scrawling handwritten bits of information. I would put off drafting papers and essays to the very last minute, even in grad school, where this was a little more challenging and meant a lot of all-nighters and frantic typing.
But turning that mulch into a creative project, I dived into willingly. It wasn't all roses. Sometimes my research unearthed disappointing info, like how HH Holmes was much less likely a diabolical serial killer and more likely an opportunistic fraudster who killed when he got caught. Others were delightful and may not have looked like research at all...my time in the Field Museum as I worked on extinction event. The ghost tours I went on when working on Archer Avenue way back in 2006. The ways that the culture I was absorbing subtly impacted my work, like last summer working on my Alice project, spill, and seeing Alice By Heart on stage.
As I flirt with new projects, there are a couple that will be more research based. One is about Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. Another is about ossuaries and shrines to the idea. Another I am planning to set in the 1950s amid suspicion and McCarthyism.
Comments