Research

I started reseach this week on my new book. I have been reading all about the medieval time period and it is so fasinating. I know that I should start writing, but I can't stop reading about it. I think I checked out every book in the library on that time period. I didn't do a lot of research for my first book since it was set now days. I made up some of the science stuff and my mom and I took a trip down to Kanab after I figured that might be a good town to set my book in. That was fun research because we drove around and the book fell into play. I found the house my main girl lived in, the one the cute alien boy lived in and the restaurants they would eat at.
My reseach now is so different, there is no going back to the Medieval times. I could go to Germany, but I don't think I could justify that with my hubby. SO it is books and videos for me, but it is still so fun to learn about histroy. And to read how other people use history in their writing. I just read The Other Boleyn Girl and her use of history was so sublte. I loved the way she did it. Right now I am reading Timeline by Michael Chriton. He uses histroy more out in the open since his characters are going back to live it, but it is still so fun.
After all this reading, I called Aly and we started a brainstorming session. It is always hard to do because I get in my head how I think the story should be and then she starts asking me WHy? WHy? Why? ANd I get mad and frustrated because I know she is right, I have not thought it out enough.
Shannon Hale just posted the best comment on that. She said...
One of the major hangups in writing a book is when you have an idea about what is going to happen at a certain point, and you write it, and it doesn't work. So you spend a lot of time trying to make it work. At some point during that process, I go through an existential crisis, where I have to stand back and question EVERYTHING. (See her website on my links to the right for more info, it is a fun one to check out)
I hate when that happens. You want something so much and you try to make it work, but it just doesn't. That is how AND THE SKY...was for me. I had a dream and I thought that because that was the dream that started my story going I had to put it in, but I just could not make it work. So guess what? It is not in my book.
So now I am doing a ton of research that may be for naught on this next book, but it is still so much fun to do. Well off to read more about the Age of Chivalry!