As I plummeted down the rabbit hole this week…
tumbling through oddities at Atlas Obscura (Oh. Oh. Did you know there is a bubble-gum pink lake in Australia?);
and free-falling through random facts that might one day be useful to a story (Wait. Wait. Did you know that 14 new species of dancing frogs were discovered in 2014?);
and flipping through newspapers, magazines, and archived articles looking for inspiration (uhhhh… did you know that doctors in Australia found a 3 inch long parasitic worm in a woman’s brain!);
I stumbled on an article from Writer’s Digest titled: Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Researching Too Much. So, ya… the irony.
But research is my version of doom scrolling… I just can’t stop!
I get it… I am using “research” as a writing excuse. (By the way, there is a great writing podcast called Writing Excuses.) But at the same time, I am also stockpiling fuel for a creative fire. Breadcrumb-style research CAN and DOES spark all kinds of story ideas (as well as provide a ton of superfluous information for those Trivia Nights at the local pub.)
So, I find my weekly trips down the rabbit hole useful for more than just avoiding my writing. How about you? What tidbit of information did you pick up this week that would make for a great detail in a story? Where did your rabbit hole take you?
The trick is… now we have to write something! If you aren’t sure where to start… try this exercise (given out in a recent workshop I attended (of course, workshops are a whole different rabbit hole):
Exercise:
Select one or more facts from 36 Random Animal Facts That May Surprise You (treehugger.com). Write a piece in which you engage with/use/explore that fact.
Have fun and Happy Writing!
P.S. Check out these books I just bought that are chock-full of really interesting themes and ideas that could inspire so many stories! The Amazons by Adrienne Mayor, The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim, and Trickster Makes This World by Lewis Hyde.