I’ve increasingly learned that learning seems to never end-I can keep going deeper into topics, reading one paper or article with one perspective, then multiple papers/articles with different perspectives, then an entire book, then multiple books, and so on, and keep increasing my understanding in ways that make my previous understandings seem vague or inaccurate or wrong. I also enjoyed research because it feels satisfying and meaningful to me to publish nonfictional information that is accurate, or that is more accurate than what is already out there, and because I like learning. I liked it because it gave my writing process another aspect that I could switch to working on each day. I read ~150 papers from scientific journals and ~130 nonfiction books and I researched a file in which I’ve typed 400,000+ words of notes on my life and other things since 2013. With my next book, my first nonfiction book, I researched both my own life and other things more than I’ve ever researched anything. I researched my Gmail account, behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and history. With my poetry and fiction, I did little to no research on facts about the world, but I researched my own life. How does research fit into your writing process? Is this a new approach for you or has research always been a part of how you’ve worked? With the latest book it’s been clear (partially from your Twitter reading list) that a lot of research was required. Your fiction has always been personal, and driven by autobiographical experiences. I keep becoming interested in one of the other things and my motivation keeps changing or disappearing and it usually takes something major from outside, like a book contract, for me to finally focus on one thing. I haven’t had that problem, but I’ve had something where I have too many things I want to write about and I feel unable to focus on one for sustained periods, and it feels like writer’s block in that I feel stuck. I imagine people with writer’s block feeling unable to think of something to write about. Is writer’s block something you’ve experienced? Or, if not that, is there a comparable thing that you’ve run into that makes it harder to write and produce?
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