Nancy's Knit Knacks Heavy Duty Ball Winder
I went on a spree yesterday—I bought the ball winder I’ve had my eye on.
Hornshaw WoodWorks Swift
And I found a great swift, too. The ball winder winds skeins of yarn into a center-pull ball, and the swift is the twirly-thing with long arms (don’t you love technical language?) that holds the wool around the pegs. After you put your skein around the pegs, you attach one end of the wool to the ball winder. As the wool gets pulled, it spins and feeds the wool to the winder. Neat.
So what does this have to do with anything?
Writers, like knitters, need to have the right tools. In knitting, your tools are obvious—good needles, which includes the right needles for right yarns; stitch markers; winders and swifts; and so on.
But what are writers’ tools? A dictionary is one. My preference is Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Your favorite pens, paper, keyboard, input device (desktop or laptop), and the like are others. But I think there’s something else, another tool, that is also important. Research.
I see a lot of nonfiction manuscripts that are well-thought out with kid-friendly topics—but no research. Or just wiki. (Same thing.) Why? The most common reason I get from students is they’re scared of research. (The other is they don’t have the time and wiki is so easy. Don’t get me started on that…)
Yes, research requires effort. And no, it’s not like my swift and ball winder where you pull from one source (research), into another (your manuscript). I think if you look at research as learning—learning about your topic—then it might not seem so scary. And when you’ve learned all the nooks and crannies of your topic, you can sit down and write about it, as if you were telling a friend all about what you learned.
Tools are important. They can make or break your craft. But you shouldn’t be scared of them. Yes, they require effort—like cranking the ball winder requires your elbow-grease to wind a ball—but then there’s always been a direct correlation between effort and achievement, now, hasn’t there? 
Your tools are a way to get there. Use them. And have fun with your writing.
{ 2 comments }
Research is hard. Agreed. But when you feel like you could talk to the experts over tea. Or watch a history channel show and not learn anything new, then it’s time to write. And the research is well worth it. But still hard.
Laura, you’re right—there does come a place in your research when it’s time to stop, and write. Well said.
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