One thing that inevitably slows me down in my writing is research.  I work across multiple genres and I am working on a number of projects simultaneously so you would think that trying to finish those projects alone would be enough to keep me busy.  But I have this fascination with the past that I can’t quite shake.  It’s the reason why I read so many novels that were written before my grandparents were even born.  There’s a reason why I love those books that high school teachers and college literature professors assign their students to read.  Jane Eyre. The Marrow of Tradition. Native Son. The Portrait of a Lady. The House of Mirth. Invisible Man. McTeague. Dubliners. Mansfield Park. Jude the Obscure.  Some of these works might be labeled “historical fiction” but many of them were just Henry James, Richard Wright, Edith Wharton, Ralph Ellison, Frank Norris, James Joyce, Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy simply writing about what was going on around them.   When reading works by anyone, be it an author from the past or a contemporary author or playwright, I love the stories that takes place in the past.  And not just America’s past, but anyone’s past.  I just like reading about people and worlds that I will never be able to physically be a part of.

I recently just finished my second reading of one of my favorite books, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  I read the book when it first came out but decided to return to it again after a number of years because I enjoyed it so much and felt like it was time for me to read it again.  This time I paid attention to how the author wrote about fictional characters during the Nigeria-Biafra War.  It is a book like this, one that incorporates history and politics with fiction, that I enjoy reading so much.  Not only do I think about the plot or story going on, but I think about the characters and how they respond to what is going on in their fictitious lives.

I like to consider myself a writer who works across the board—across genres, characters and settings.  I have ideas for stories, plays and novels that take place within the last twenty years as there is so much going on today that I can’t ignore responding to.  I also have ideas for stories that take place during times that I only know about through research.  Being a “Researcher Writer” is not easy.  It takes hours to read through pages of non-fiction books, taking notes along the way as many of the books are just too expensive to buy.  I don’t ever go to a museum without a camera or a notebook because I never know what I may see or learn that I can bring into one of my stories.  Many times that research takes up time that I could be writing and finalizing one of my projects.  But I don’t look at research as a daunting hurdle.  I just look at it as something else that I must do.  Like editing a story after it’s finished.  Besides, I enjoy researching and learning about the past.  The research is just another step in trying to achieve my final goal.