Reading time: 1.34

372 words

Hey Reader,

When you join my email list, I ask you a question.

The question is:

If I were to dedicate the next issue of this newsletter to you and the challenge you’re currently facing, what would that challenge be?

Sometimes I get answers to that and when I do, I store them up and write about it. The next issue if I can, but certainly sometime soon.

Yesterday, one of my college students replied to ask me this:

Being a terrible sleeper myself, I can’t help much with the sleep deprivation itself… but I do have a couple of suggestions about how not to disappear into a research wormhole.

1. Before you start researching, be very clear about what you’re searching for. Rather than the vague “images of farming” narrow it down. “Images of farming in Kent” is better. Better still is “images of pig farming in Kent between 1780 and 1880.”
2. Make a list of things you know you need to research and the types of things they are. Will you find what you’re looking for in newspaper archives? On blog posts? Academic papers? Books? Podcasts? That way you know where you’re looking and can narrow it down straight away.
3. Try restricting yourself to one topic for each session and once you have what you need, use it to write. If you need to do more research, make another note and add it to your list and be specific.
4. Set a time limit, e.g. 30 minutes max for research. Set an alarm. When it goes off, stop and move on. This will do two things — it’ll make you more focused and (hopefully) less likely to go off on interesting yet irrelevant tangents. And it’ll make you question if you REALLY need to do more research or are you procrastinating the writing part? If you still need to research after the timer goes off, make a note about what’s missing and come back to it later.

How do you research?

Do you have any tips that might help others not disappear down an internet wormhole?

I’d love to hear them!

TTFN,

Vicky 🫡

p.s. If you know you want help writing a book this year, I have space for one new client in February. Might it be you? Drop me a reply.

p.p.s. Know someone who might enjoy this email? Please forward it to them and get them to sign up here.