When a writer tells me they're doing research, I confess that most of the time I assume that they're procrastinating. I suppose I make that assumption because that's what I do. Why do I procrastinate, or rather, do research when I should be writing? Lack of confidence. I don't feel qualified, don't feel grounded in the universe I've created, I don't know the character as well as I want to, and worst of all, when describing an action, I can't perform it myself and that makes me very reluctant to write about it.
The last is the worst for me. I may not actually describe the action in a blow-by-blow, motion-by-motion way, but I like to feel as if I could. I especially want to be able to understand an activity well enough that I can include some of the details should something not operate perfectly or go as planned. Hang fires are so much more interesting than exchanging fire with flawless precision with everyone's firearms working exactly as they should.
After all, plots are structured around things like try-fail cycles, and it would be a really short, dull book if the character tried and didn't fail. Likewise, it's not as much fun if the cannon/ship/car/dog/door works exactly the way you'd expect and does exactly what you'd want it to do.
So some procrastination, or rather, research, ends up being really valuable to writing in the end. A little preparation can make a world, even a universe of difference when I finally sit down to really write.
I'm lucky to have the ability to travel and to train with some world-class martial artists and firearms experts. I've also had a chance to interrogate professionals in some unusual fields of work: sailors that work on old square-rigs or clippers, blacksmiths, bakers that work with huge wood-fired ovens with ingredients available in the 18th century , etc. In the midst of my vacation, I managed to work with Maija on my understanding of blade work, especially on deception and various ways to engage. And I'm hoping this week to go play with Academie Duello in Vancouver, B.C. for about an hour. I'm very much looking forward to it.
Am I procrastinating? Probably. It's probably not strictly necessary to know this stuff. But even talking about it with the very kind and patient person managing their store front has woken up something in my brain. I dreamt about sword play last night. There's enough accumulated understanding beneath the surface now that my imagination can fill in details and make me feel like I'm really there.
I love that. As a reader I love that too, when a writer makes me feel like I'm there beside the character, battling the enemy, stretching my mind and my endurance to the limit, bringing justice to the world or fighting to survive against terrible odds. It's possible to do that without research. But it's so much richer with those telling details on the page.
And my life is richer when I'm learning these things I love to write about. Maybe that's a clue. When we read, we're learning. When we write, we're learning. When we try out new physical skills, and travel, and listen, we're learning.
When we're watching tv, and going to work, and doing the same things every day, we're learning too. But are we learning the things we want to learn, things we care about, things we need to know to improve ourselves and enjoy life to the fullest?
To make a conscious choice to learn skills and gain information we care about is a powerful thing. So maybe doing research isn't procrastination after all. Maybe research is necessary before we can write about what matters, really matters, in life.
Writers and artists don't research so that they can teach things like fencing and horseback riding. We share our dreams with the world. There is so much real beauty, real grace, real power in the world, that for dreams to compete they have to at least be as wonderful (or as painful, or as remarkable) as what humanity is actually capable of. Until we know what we can do, learn what we might achieve after a lifetime of study, and experience life, how can our dreams do anything but fall short of reality?
Dreams should inspire, and teach, and excite us. Hopefully dreams will help us live and make the world more beautiful by their presence. Dreams may even give us hope that things will be better someday, and guide us to create and drive us to grow and change for the better and make our hopes and desires into reality. They can't do that if they're built of vague discontent and imagined slights. They must be built of truth, and heart, and passion.
And that is the point, and why I study and research and write but most of all why I live. I live to dream, and I dream to live.