Research is important when you are writing, but is can also become an ever growing time waster. If you are like me, when you want to learn about something, you look it up on the internet. Before you know it, you have spent an hour reading page after page about rock gardens and how to build them. This is an hour that you could have spent writing your novel. This is time that could have been spent creating something that could be researched and edited later.

If you know a little about what you are researching, just write through it. Make a Note in red in the area where you know that you are going to have to come back and add to. This way you will be able to continue writing that first draft and won’t loose the precious time you need to get that first draft finished.

If you absolutely need to know something to move your plot forward, by all means look it up. I would suggest that you look it up at Wikipedia.com, find the quick and dirty information and continue writing your novel. Keep to the one source. This will minimize the amount of time you are doing your research and get you right back on to that first draft. Again, leave yourself a note in another color to come back later and expand on this thought, when you have the time to go back and do more research.

Remember, it does not matter how bad your first draft is. All you want to do is get the story down on paper. Once that is done, you can go back and make the changes you know are needed and add the researched information that will give adequate depth to your novel.

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If you have other ideas on how to find story ideas, write a comment. I would love to hear how you are inspired.

Everyone has seen the fantasy novels that have the world map on the inside front cover or right before the first chapter. Believe it or not, these maps can help you write that novel. It is extremely important to know where everything is in the world you are creating. If you provide a location that contradicts another location, your readers will pick it out every time.

Drawing out a map is extremely simple and indispensable as you create your world. This map can be as vast as an entire world or continent, complete with mountain ranges, valleys, rivers, cities, haunted regions and caverns, etc. It can also be as simple as a building that your characters are trying to navigate to get away from your villain. This map will be just for your visual needs, but can be adapted to print in your final book like so many fantasy books before you.

I think the more information you can provide on a map, the better. Include regional names, city names, ocean, lake and river names as well as the home place of your hero and villain. You will want to mark all the places that your characters visit. Draw in the mountains and maybe simple illustrations of the buildings that can be found in that region of the map.

As you write your story, your map will most likely mutate and evolve. Let those natural changes happen. It will only make your map and your story better.

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If you have other ideas on how to find story ideas, write a comment. I would love to hear how you are inspired.

I find that most of my ideas come to me at the most inopportune time. I may be driving on the highway at 70 miles per hour or sitting in a movie theater or having dinner with someone. Whatever the case may be, I am never sitting at a computer when I have these flashes of genius. These are the times when a writing notebook comes in handy.

I started this practice when I was in college studying art. I needed a way to keep track of everything while having a place to draw and write. I found a blank sketchbook at my local Borders Bookstore. It contained nearly 200 pages of blank space. I just started writing or drawing. Anything that came to my mind I would write down or illustrate. I filled that one notebook in six months. I bought another one and filled that one in another six. Today there are eight of these sketchbooks full of my wandering thoughts, notes, shopping lists, doodles, prose and poetry that I started and all kind of other crazy things.

The last sketchbook that I found was over 400 pages. This one has lasted more than a year. The binding on it has started to wear out and fall off, but that is what happens when I take it everywhere with me. I keep pictures, birthday and Christmas cards taped on various pages throughout the book. It has become almost a journal of sorts. I just don’t always talk about my life.

Tips on keeping a writing/drawing notebook:

1. Write the date on the page when you write on it. You never know when you are going to need to know when you created a certain idea.
2. Keep the taping of cards to a minimum. The extra cards will thicken the book, making it burst its binding.
3. When people ask to look at it, say no. It contains your private thoughts and ideas. You don’t want everyone looking at them. If you do let people read it from time to time, you won’t be as honest in your writing because you will always be afraid that someone is going to read it.
4. Start from page one and fill up page after page as you need it. You will be surprised at how fast those pages fill up.
5. I found that keeping a phone list and maybe a calendar in the back of the book very useful.

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If you have other ideas on how to find story ideas, write a comment. I would love to hear how you are inspired.