When you don't know what you don't know

At the day job, when we're training someone, we always encourage them to ask questions. The problem is, you can't ask questions when you don't know what you're missing.

When I start a new book, I take the "pantser" approach. I dive into the story and then figure out what I don't know as I go along. Normally, that isn't a problem, and there are often times when I have to halt the action to do research. Researching can be fun, but it can also be distracting. While I was writing my first book, I went on so many different tangents that it took me two years to write that book. Fortunately, in learning the process, I was reminded that I needed to stick to my theme, to tell the story I started out to tell and let the rest of it go (perhaps as fodder for future writing).

I'd wager eighty percent of research doesn't make it into the novel, but it's critical information. The problem comes in when you let it take you away from the story you're writing. As a pantser, I don't know what I don't know, and when I stop for research, I learn important details that color the story. For instance, when you're recovering from ACL surgery, you do not do "open chain" leg lifts. And then I get distracted by what exercises you would do, and pretty soon I've lost the focus of my story in favor of writing a recovery plan for someone post surgery.

This is where I stop to take off my pantser hat and buckle down as a professional writer to determine the story I want to tell.

Time to refocus. Yes, I need to know the research information, but that's background. Now I know more about the process and can avoid incorrect information, include relevant information, but that isn't the main focus of the story. That information gets put into a file labeled "authenticity," but likely isn't necessary to my plot.

Now that I know what I didn't know, it's time to write the rest of story.