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Dig For The Dirt, Not The Gold
On the surprising truth about research
Writing is all about research. A nugget of advice I was lucky enough to hear before going to college was to study things outside of my major, film, in order to have subjects about which I might make a movie. I made it a point to study a variety of unrelated subjects at university, and now I have two careers that equally take up 100% of my professional life; magic and writing/producing. Both of these professions require a good deal of research in order to master subjects.
Research is both important and a skill unto itself. The end product of the research — facts — aren’t even the most important part. The key to really understanding a subject is the process of learning the text of history, a technology, or a niche of business. Getting to know the voices of experts is more important than the facts one set out to learn. If all the information on a subject comes from a biased source, or a self-interested one, or some other imperfect observer, that can color one’s perceptions about not just the facts but the dynamic at play between the speaker and the subject.
The medium is, more often than not, the message. I usually learn the most important facts about a subject from how I wrest the facts from my research.
