We’ve all been there. You start researching “Victorian carriages” and somehow end up three hours deep into 19th-century streetlamp engineering. Suddenly, you’re starving, your tabs are breeding, and your story hasn’t gained a single word.
Welcome to the Research Rabbit Hole — population: every writer ever and new ones will be here tomorrow.
While research is sometimes necessary, you don't need to spend a week researching colored glass in the 18th century in Romania to write that single sentence. Let's explore how not to research your life away while writing your book.
1. Recognize the Signs Early
You might be in a rabbit hole if:
- You’ve Googled something that has zero connection to your story.
- You just told yourself, “One more article won’t hurt.”
- You’ve started researching the research.
If you hit two or more of those, it’s time to have your non-writer friend throw the emergency rope down the hole to retrieve you.
2. Create a “Later” List
When you stumble across cool-but-not-immediately-useful info, write it down in a doc called “Research Later (Seriously, Later. Much Much Much later).”
Just sticking the potential research into a folder or Word document can satisfy your curiosity and stop you from derailing your writing session for the rest of the month. Not to mention, you can use that list of not read research for story ideas later. That's later after your fnish your current writing project.
3. Use a Timer and Respect It
To stop yourself from going down the rabbit hole of productivity-killing doom, set a timer for 30 minutes or 20 or 10... Just enough time to pull your research articles and skim them to see if they have any useful information.
When the timer dings, stop. Close the tabs. Step away from the research. If you need more info, schedule another session later. In the meantime, write that sentence.
4. Write First, Verify Later
Sometimes “I need to research that” is just your brain’s way of procrastinating.
When in doubt, make up a placeholder — [insert plausible historical food here] — and keep writing.
You can fact-check it during edits, when you actually know what the story needs.
5. Give Yourself Partial Credit
Fell into a rabbit hole but learned something interesting?
That’s not wasted time. It’s creative compost. You’ll use that weird fact eventually.
(Probably in a future story where your main character is an expert on antique streetlamps.)
Hey, no judgment. It could totally happen.
💬 Final Thought
Research is part of the fun — just don’t let it steal your writing time. Stay curious, stay focused, and remember: you control the tabs; the tabs do not control you. Make it a mantra.