Lecture Comment: Research

One of the worst things a writer could do is to jump to conclusions. Which is why, as the lecture says, it’s so important to do as much research as possible.  

Early in my journalism career I recall being told by my more experienced colleagues that you could never collect too much information. I found that to be true, though sometimes I questioned that logic, as I was forced to sift through countless hours of interviews (couldn’t always read my scribble, or fast typing) and piles of data amassed while working on a big feature.

“I can write a book with all this material!” I would complain.

I probably could have written a book in some instances – like the time I was researching a story about 10 years ago on how companies like IBM were phasing out traditional pension plans. (I’m proud to say I won an award for that one.) In my research, I spoke to numerous plan managers, benefits consultants, union and company officials and affected employees, and I read through the esoteric industry reports. 

Having all the material for that story and for others helps me to become more knowledgeable about the subject matter and, therefore, write with more authority.

What happens, too, is that as I continue my research, each person I speak with educates me on the subject, helping me formulate questions for the next source I plan to interview, and so on.

Sometimes, too, I get pointed in another direction. The story I thought I would be writing early on turns into something entirely different – usually something better.

Or I ended up with another good story. A few years ago when I was doing research for a real estate story about how certain floor plans made some properties more valuable than others, I stumbled on the start of what would be a lucrative trend: neighbors in Manhattan were selling contiguous apartments together, instead of individually, and making a killing on the price.

Tonight’s lecture talks metaphorically (or maybe not entirely) about how a “stiff breeze in a room full of index cards can remix the perfect restructuring of your ideas.”

That’s true, too. Want to know what else has worked for me? Losing what you’ve just written on a computer screen, perhaps because of a glitch. After angrily stomping off, you calm down, recollect your thoughts (maybe rethink certain points), and start writing again.

Oftentimes the second go-round is better than the first.