Why should you use them when you write your 1st draft?
Research that dreaded word for some writers. This blog isn’t about how much research to do or not do for your writing project. I can do a blog post on that in the future if you like, just comment below if you're interested.
Instead, we’re going to assume that you’ve already done a lite amount of research for your novel or you’re just ready to get to it and write your novel.
So you're writing your novel’s first draft and you come to a moment where you find out you need to know how a generator works so your bad guy can sabotage it to electrocute the singer on stage.
Now you could step away from the writing and interrupt your flow and research the topic.
Or you could put in a research tag and continue writing.
One of my writing rules is to research later, write now. This is really one of the reasons I'm able to write 50k + words on a novel in under a month.
What is a research tag?
A research tag is a note attached with a symbol in your document for you to deal with in the revision stage of your project.
If you are unfamiliar with the stages here is an example.
Idea
*research
*outline
*pre writing
1st draft
Revision
*alpha read
*beta read
Edit(s)
Proofread
Format
ARC readers
* items are stages some authors use and others don’t.
I don’t use an alpha read, I go straight to beta readers.
Here is an example of what a research tag can look like:
"We have the last meeting with the adoption board today." She jumps around her kitchen. I watch as her (a wood type of nymph) girlfriend/life partner Destiny Smart with her very short, fine, light brown hair that contains late summer colored oak leaves comes into the kitchen and hugs Hazel, as they jump around in glee together.
This is from the first draft of my novel Obsidian Vendetta.
I’m going to be revising this novel next month for Camp NaNoWriMo.
(a wood type of nymph) this is my research tag. I use ( ) to mark a place where I’m either not sure of something or need to research something later. In this case, I know I wanted her to be a wood nymph but I didn’t want to stop writing to research because I was writing 50k words in 30 days. I also use this if I can’t remember something about a character or if I don’t know a character’s name yet.
Some authors use different symbols like xx because how often are you going to write a word with a double x in it and so it makes it easy to find when you go back in the revision stage.
Why should you use them in your first draft?
The first draft of your novel should be a mess, if it isn’t you aren’t doing your job right. All a first draft is, are you telling yourself the story. Revising is where you fix the first draft. So research tags help you tell the story to yourself without taking time away from writing the story.
If you truly want to write you have to get in the chair and do it. Things like research tags can help you along the way in your writing journey.
Do you use research tags in your first draft or something similar?
What am I currently working on?
That's minutes of work, not words.
I'm prepping for Camp NaNoWriMo next month you can add me as a buddy on the site I'm SACrow look for me there.
What am I reading this week?
What am I watching?
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Merch of the week:
Stay hydrated this summer and show some love for Into the Fire book one of The Fire Series
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