Research is a time machine of translation by Betsy Woods

Research is a sensual experience. I absorb the world I am learning, let it linger and melt into the subconscious pathways that build story. In light of a sensual translation, primary research seems the most efficient, but then, isn’t all life experience research for the writer. In the process of research I find that I become the translator. Initially I don’t concentrate on factoids as much as I try exploring them. I build the world that research suggests in my imagination. The story begins to brew, research seasoning the plot and contributing to the flavor. I liken this to following a rather cryptic map. I try to not get in the way of the exploration.

Granted, as I am writing this blog, I am aware that this sounds rather ethereal. Maybe this is because it is experiential. I find that connecting research with a sensual understanding imbibes life and authenticity into my story. It allows me to crawl further into my character’s skin and think how they might. Coming to understand their world, with its tethers and redemptions, introduces me to their specifics set in time and space: time travel of a sort. My characters, my story, begin to own the research and carve themselves and tell their story. It’s a form of synthesis where I become the translator of research, character, and narration that allows a story to breathe on its own.

I went back and read every potato blog on research thus far (They were stellar!) and put together a compilation of our thoughts:

Potatoes Ponder Research

1. Life is research.
2. Show research in action.
3. Connect the dots
4. Double check/Triple Check
5. Verisimilitude; latin-veri similis “truth-like”
6. Hunting and Gathering
7. Research is a time machine of translation.
8. . . . ?