Research?

I’m a collector of all kinds of research. I save articles from magazines and newspapers, as well as books I think might be of use. I even print stories from the Internet.

What I’m not is organized. I tend to toss my research materials in folders of similar kinds of stuff, but when I look for a specific article it takes me forever to find it.

When I’m looking for ideas, though... they’re there! I have quite a collection of information on all kinds of areas that might be useful for stories. Lots of stuff about animals, for example, particularly dogs. Things on lawyers and the law. Things about crimes, criminals and real crime scene investigations. And now that I’m also working on a thriller idea, I’m amassing stuff on the aspects of that story that I intend to focus on.

How about you--do you save things you think will be of interest later, whether to any writing you’re doing or something else you intend to do in the future?


--Linda