Does research get in the way of the story? It certainly can. Anything can, given that as writers we're all geniuses at procrastination. But mostly research teaches me about the world. Which often shows me the way, in terms of the story.
Jim ShepardChristy has not been given a fair shake. She has not been identified as a competent premier.
Jim ShepardOh, I usually don't know a whole lot about a subject when I begin; the process itself teaches me a lot as I go along. Usually I know enough about one narrow area of the subject to start myself going, and then everything - including a lot more research - follows from that.
Jim ShepardI don't beat at the details, but I do always keep in mind that anything that isn't A) moving the story forward or B) enlarging my understanding of the central characters has to be sacrificed. I have huge folders of details - research - with a story like Netherlands. Only a very small part of it gets used. The old iceberg analogy again.
Jim ShepardThe protagonist of Fourteen Stories, None of Them Are Yours doesnโt make it easy for us, channeling as he does Barry Hannah and Denis Johnson by way of Rick Bass and Dennis Hopper, and self-presenting as yet another damaged romantic who thinks itโs always time to play the cowboy, skating in and out of sense. He canโt see right, and heโs haunted by nearly everything. Heโs trying to open up or shut himself down or at least get a hold of himself. Heโs trying to make do with what heโs done, while he reminds us that weโre all, one way or another, in that position.
Jim Shepard