Research in Creative Writing

1. Research in Creative Writing Sue monk kidd’s Study of bees and beekeeping for the book The secret life of bees

2. Learning Targets I understand how authors’ use short and sustained periods of research for a variety of purposes. I can identify the types of purposes (to add specificity, develop metaphors, and enhance imagery) for which an author might use research. I can utilize purposeful research in a variety of mediums to meet specific purposes in my own writing.

3. Using Research to Add Specificity • Word Choice- Author’s carefully comb through words and make the most concise and suitable choices for each situation, especially when editing • EX: not sad, but despondent OR the use of dialect • Realistic details- Author’s research to “get the details right” and “name things” • EX: not “a truck,” but a dark green Studebaker or not “a car” but a cherry red convertible Camaro

4. Using Research to Develop Metaphors • When authors choose a symbol, they need to be true to actual thing being compared- research into metaphors can also add complexity and depth to ideas • EX: If I were writing about a peacock and comparing it to a woman, it might change the meaning of the symbol when I do research and realize that the only peacocks who have beautiful plumage are the males.

5. Using Research to Develop Imagery • Authors research to determine sensory details- this is different than just naming and describing physical features of objects, it can also be about first-hand research to add realism to the experiences of the characters. Even with direct experience, this is often necessary. Just because I am a mother doesn’t mean I know everything about motherhood- research fills in the gaps • EX: Having a real life experience to prepare, or watching/reading/conducting interviews of other’s first-hand accounts to describe an action/event • Consider activities like surfing, acting, or even lion taming- primary sources would help to describe the feelings and settings for those events to make someone feel as if they are “there”

6. Examples: What type of research? To what end? Explicit: “Honeybees depend not only on physical contact with the colony, but also require its social companionship and support. Isolate a honeybee from her sisters and she will soon die.” Explicit: “A worker [bee] is just over a centimeter long and weighs only about sixty milligrams; nevertheless, she can fly with a load heavier than herself.” Implicit: “Don’t even think of swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates, while whistling melts a bees temper.”

7. Examples: What type of research? To what end? “She kept 48 hives strewn through the woods around the pink house, and another 280 were parceled out of various farms, in river yards and swamplands… I watched her load the red wagon, the one I’d seen in the backyard with brood frames, those little slats that slip in the hives for the bees to deposit honey on.”

8. Examples: What type of research might this be(e) : )? To what end? “If this was a man’s world, a veil took the rough beard right off of it. Everything appeared softer, nicer. When I walked behind August in my bee veil, I felt like a moon floating behind a night cloud.” “When August removed the lids, the bees poured out in thick, black ropes, breaking into strands, a flurry of tiny wings moving around our faces.”