How Much Research Does Your Story Need?

Rudolfo Anaya: I don't like research. I think research is harmful for the writer. It's not harmful to a presentation like Michener makes. He can go out and research material and then put it in his own words and incorporate it in a story, but for my search for who I am and the story that I want to tell about those findings, I don't think research is needed. In research you wind up telling somebody else's story or somebody else's idea.

[This is an extract from an interviw Anaya did with David Apodaka and David Johnson in 1979. Anaya is the renowed Chicano writer based in New Mexico. I compared his novel The House of Aztlan with Sembene Ousemane's God's Bits of Wood in a paper once for a class called "Aesthetics of Minority Literature"; I had never once considered Sembene a minority author.]

Comments

Different courses of different horses I think.

For me research is essential, and I research everyday. What I like to do is thoroughly research the story I've had a concept for, before I even write a word. That way when I sit down to write, all the info is in my head ready for retrieval. This means for the most part, I don't have to disrupt the creative flow to check facts etc.

Sometimes if the subject is very deep and involved I also write myself an article whilst researching. This really lays down the info puts it on quick memory tap so to speak.
You make a good point; there are topics and genres that will demand research.

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