Here’s a nice piece by Gregory Spatz from the Glimmer Train newsletter that is about the research process for an historical novel, but beyond that, excellently highlights the important role of patience and faith in the writing life:
“I let the information pile up in my head until it felt like a fictional context…like my own fictional context, and then I kept waiting, reading. I wouldn't say I ever got stuck at that point of "research rapture" I've heard other writers talk about, where you keep postponing the act of getting down to it and writing something, in order to learn a little more about your subject. I was never quite patient or enthralled enough for that. But I certainly read more than I ended up using. That's probably necessary and inevitable. I had to absorb enough material to where it felt like I'd internalized it, owned it somehow—until it felt ripe for development.”
