I have a framed print sitting on my couch. I've debated buying it for years, having seen it in this store and that. I researched the best price, measured the dimensions of the wall, compared colors to see if it would go with the couch and the new throw pillows. I agonized over the decision, panning through websites and comparing options and even now, as it is braced against the back of the couch and the wall, the hardware and levels and hammer sitting on the floor beside it, I still am having trouble thinking "Is this the right decision? What if I'm wrong?"
And that's when it's time to put hammer to nail, both metaphorically and literally.
Research is one of the best and worst things about writing. You can learn so many things that you never thought about while in school, opening up entire worlds of knowledge and fascination, speaking to experts and enthusiasts, filling pages with pretty pictures and glossy images that create the depth and breadth we love about swimming in really great world-building and making a character solidly 3-D, but here's the thing: you have to commit to the story. Writing the story is what all this research is about so at the end of the day, this had better be about the writing and not the research. Science for science's sake is all well and good (so says my little Mad Scientist Ninja Fairy Princess), but writing is words for the sake of the story. You have to climb out of the Internet vortex. You have to trust yourself and your story. You have to give in. You have to let go. You have to get writing.
Commit.
Hammer to nail.
(And if that writing advice is too harsh for you, you can try a little tenderness:)
Sorry, the Commitments reference was just too good to pass up & now I've got this song stuck in my head.
