Writing in Limbo

My first two (published) novels were contemporaries, meaning they are set in the present time. Mostly, I wrote about stuff I knew, and that didn’t require research.

Right now I’m in a crazy in-between place in the writing process. A place I’ve never found myself before. A crazy, limbo-like writing situation—and limbo is something the dictionary calls a region on the border of heaven or hell. Yup, that sounds right.

Lately I’ve been wondering about the delirium that gripped me when I decided to write a historical novel. Actually it’s worse than that—I’m writing a time travel historical novel, so I have the pleasure of researching more than one time period for this book.

And thus I find myself wanting to plug away on my word count instead of doing research. I just want to push ahead with the story, but those pesky little historical and geographical details are screaming to be accurate.

If I don’t write, I feel unproductive. But I need to research to be able to write. I’m stuck in a region on the border of heaven or hell: limbo. Good news—I trust I’ll survive.

The photograph above illustrates where I'm going in my research. Can you guess where/when that is?