Researching - Blog Posts

How to stop researching (or worldbuilding) and start writing

This is actually advice my mentoring professor gave me when I was writing my first thesis.

He said: Accept that you are never done. There is always more to know, more to research, more questions raised than answered. At some point, you just got to start writing.

Now, “easier said than done, this accepting”, I thought.

I started writing because my thesis deadline was looming. But what if you’re writing a novel and you have no deadline? How do you know when it’s okay to stop researching? When is it okay to stop worldbuilding? (Which is just like doing research, but in your own head instead of in reality.)

My advice to you is: start writing, and you’ll run into the gaps you still need to fill. Then you know what to research before starting your second draft. Let your story tell you what it needs.

For example:

Just fill your margins with a to-research-list for your future self.

That way, it’s also managable: “I finished my first draft, and I have a list of 317 things I need to decide on.” Instead of: “I saw on tumblr that you can’t build a world without knowing everything about the sewage system! And gosh, I haven’t invented three languages yet!”

Advantages:

You get things done.

It’s not overwhelming.

You don’t spend your time inventing things you’ll like so much that you want to infodump them into your story.

You mainly research things that are relevant to your story.

Well, knowing you, you already researched enough irrelevant stuff too.

You get things done.

I hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing!

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