Monday, May 7, 2012

Research

I am beginning research on my Lorenzo Snow book. I just love reading and doing research. I love the library, the smell of old books and digging through them to find what I need. I'm always on the lookout for human interest stories in old manuscripts. When you find somebody that had a spiritual experience or found a connection with the past of some kind, etc. One that comes to mind in the Wilford Woodruff book is this: When Wilford was young he read the Bible often. He always prayed that he could see a prophet like the ones in the ancient script. Then when he was 90 there was a meeting in the Tabernacle of all the Sunday School children. They were about the age he was when he prayed to meet a prophet. As he spoke to them, his voice caught and he had tears in his eyes. He told them of his childhood wish. And now he was the prophet speaking to all of them. It was a great moment in his life. Finding incidents like this makes all the reading, time and research worth it. Why? Because you get a little glimpse inside the soul of the person you're writing about--in this case, the prophet. Happy writing and happy research. Christy

2 comments:

Stephsco said...

I also enjoy the research aspect but find I can get a little obsessed with it. I just attended an SCBWI meeting with a historical author who noted this very thing; sometimes we can put aside our writing for the sake of research, which I have absolutely done! She suggests doing as much research before writing as you can, then as you go, make notes to yourself to go back and review source material in the second draft. Helpful!

Christy Monson said...

Great Advice. I sometimes get so caught up in reading 10 books before I start writing that it slows me down.