Extra Writing Dividends from Research

Research obviously serves the writer of non-fiction. More research leads to higher quality articles, and that’s reason enough do the research. However, research pays other dividends that are not limited to just non-fiction writers.
Research fills a writer up with information, ideas and possibilities. If you are brimming with information, it is easier to put words on the page. More information creates more options for you as a writer. If you are writing a story – fiction or non-fiction -- about an undertaker in Dallas, Texas, you may need to learn some things to make the story work.
What is the weather like in Dallas in February? How big is Dallas? How does Dallas differ from Fort Worth, Houston or El Paso? Are morticians, undertakers and funeral directors all the same? What is the nature of the funeral industry? Does your undertaker work for a mom and pop funeral parlor or one of the big industry chains? How much money does an undertaker make? What is the social status of an undertaker? Is the status of a funeral director different? What training does it take to become an undertaker?
After doing the research to answer the questions posed above, the blank page will hold less trepidation for you. Instead of worrying about having nothing to say, you will bubble over with ideas and possibilities. Your words will pour out on the page.

Ambition Comes in All Sizes

Admit your ambitions. You want to be not only a writer but an author. Authors exude prestige while writers simply perspire. I suspect your ambition drives your efforts to write and to gain fame as an author. Ambition motivates, which means it is not necessarily a bad thing.

However, note the difference between Ambition and ambition. If you have ambition with a capital “A,” you probably aspire to write “The Great American Novel” or at least a bestseller that knocks Dan Brown off his perch.

You and I are more likely to admit to more modest ambitions. Currently, I am writing stories about my childhood that may be of interest to other family members. These “gifts of memory” can be valued family legacies and most people can write them successfully. A little higher up the modest ambitions scale is the desire to see your byline in a national magazine. National publication requires a lot of work and a little luck, but for those who study the writing craft, it's possible.

Perhaps your ambition is to make some money as a writer. You are unlikely to rack up royalties that match J. K. Rowlings’s millions. However, you may, as one published author put it, earn at least as much the guys who hang drywall.

Whether modest or out-sized, your ambitions will spur you to work harder and produce more. As for the results, only a fool predicts other people's failure. Don’t be deterred from your ambitious goals. Dream then; achieve them.