The Art of Creative Research
A Field Guide for Writers
240 pages
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5 1/2 x 8 1/2
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© 2017
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents
Contents
Prologue: On Fire for Research (an Homage to Larry Brown)
1 What Creative Research Is and How to Use It
2 Preparing a Research Plan
3 The Tools of the Trade
4 Archives: What They Are, Where They Are, and How Best to Use Them
5 It Must Be True— I Saw It on the Internet
6 The Archives of Memory, Imagination, and Personal Expertise
7 The Warm Art of the Interview
8 Walking the Ground and Handling the Thing Itself
9 Troubleshooting, Fact- Checking, and Emotional Cost
10 Breathing Life into Facts and Data on the Page
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Selected Sources for Quotations and Concepts Addressed in This Book
Index
1 What Creative Research Is and How to Use It
2 Preparing a Research Plan
3 The Tools of the Trade
4 Archives: What They Are, Where They Are, and How Best to Use Them
5 It Must Be True— I Saw It on the Internet
6 The Archives of Memory, Imagination, and Personal Expertise
7 The Warm Art of the Interview
8 Walking the Ground and Handling the Thing Itself
9 Troubleshooting, Fact- Checking, and Emotional Cost
10 Breathing Life into Facts and Data on the Page
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Selected Sources for Quotations and Concepts Addressed in This Book
Index
Review Quotes
Hippocampus Magazine
“Many authors writing a book about research would end it once all of the tips and tricks have been covered. Gerard is to be commended for an approach that, from the very first pages, is sensitive to the fact that the point of all of this research is to produce a piece of writing. He closes the book with craft-focused advice on how to breathe life into the research one has done and translating it onto the page. Writers will find time-honored advice about including sensory details, developing narrative voice, and how to write a scene that one has not witnessed firsthand.”
Ted Conover, author of Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing and Immersion: A Writer’s Guide to Going Deep
“Gerard fills in a missing part of our thinking about ‘creative writing’: how we inform ourselves. In nonfiction in particular, the writer can only write what she knows, and Gerard offers a map for how to get to a place of knowing. The research for artful writing must itself be artful, he says, and extend beyond Google into other kinds of archive. I love and recommend this book.”
David Gessner, author of All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West
“Is it wrong to use the word ‘thrilling’ for a book about research? Maybe, but as a longtime writing teacher, I am thrilled by the ideas in this book, ideas that push writers away from their small and self-conscious matter and outward into the greater world. Gerard shows us that research and creativity, far from being two opposite poles, are forever intertwined. This book is an inspiring map that leads us into the world of research, a world large enough to hold both romance and hard fact.”
Diana Hume George, author of The Lonely Other: A Woman Watching America and Oedipus Anne: The Poetry of Anne Sexton
“What book on research starts with a love song to its subject? This one. Gerard’s voice here is warm and closely engaged—for him, the creative part of research is captivating. He loves it absolutely. The Art of Creative Research includes poetry and fiction as well as narrative nonfiction. It’s a handbook and field guide for all genres and all tech levels, from Moleskine notebooks to smartpens and Evernote.”
Joe Mackall, author of Plain Secrets: An Outsider among the Amish and cofounder of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative
“Gerard just flat-out gets it. The Art of Creative Research reveals the true heart of a writer’s quest for knowledge. Gerard understands that research is art and craft. He knows that a great book on research has to cover the philosophical and the practical. He covers technology and humanity, the latest software and the old-school tools. He understands that research is at its core about the human need to know. Every writer, teacher, and student out there ought to read this book. Gerard has done the rarest of things: He’s written an indispensable book.”
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