Recently, several people have asked where I get my ideas. As any author will tell you, ideas come from anywhere and everywhere. My fiction stories begin with the writer’s standard question “What if…” when I see or hear something that catches my attention.
For my DYKs, my curiosity to know more about something drives what I write. The general process goes something like this…
Step 1: The Idea
The first step is choosing what to write. As I said, ideas can come from anywhere. For example, Did You Know These 22 Letters Helped Change the World? (9/17/22) started with an episode of the Discovery Channel’s television show, Expedition Unknown. In his search for Moses, Josh Gates was shown a stone in Egypt with writing on it by a Semitic people. During the discussion of this stone, Josh was told where the word alphabet comes from. That sparked my curiosity. It was an interesting fact I’d not known. Combine it with September’s being Read a New Book Month and the idea for a DYK was born.
Step 2: The Research
Once a piece of information piques my curiosity, I research it. Research is fun. It’s one of my favorite things to do. But it’s very time-consuming, and I have to be careful to stay on topic and not get sucked down too many different rabbit holes. Even if I don’t find myself jumping from topic to topic, I can get caught in the “just one more search” trap.
Sometimes, though, that one piece is all there is, so it doesn’t work for a DYK topic. (Thankfully, that’s only happened a handful of times.)
For example, one would-be DYK was the unwritten rule about not wearing white after Labor Day. I grew up with that rule, but who “wrote” it and why? Turns out no one can specifically be credited with it. It began back in the 1800s when, without air-conditioning or the freedom to dress in T-shirts, shorts, or halter tops, people wore white clothing during the heat of summer to stay cool. Since to escape the industrialized city—where your white didn’t stay white long—you needed money, this “rule” soon became a custom for polite society and those aspiring upward mobility. Today, the rule no longer applies. You can wear white at any time. So, my research on this topic netted a nice piece of trivia, but a DYK “dud.”
Step 3: The Culling
At some point, the research stops and the real work, and the toughest part of the process—culling through the research material—begins. There’s always too much information to share in one DYK. Even when a topic has enough material to be separated into two or three DKS, there is still a lot of fascinating info that must be left out.
Step 4: The Writing
Often, before I begin the actual writing process, I let the research simmer in my brain as I consider every angle, deciding on how to best frame the DYK. Then I write and rewrite it, polishing it so every word counts. When I finish, it’s uploaded to my website, gets more polishing, and is scheduled for posting . . . and the process to write the next DYK begins again.
What’s Next
As hard as it is to believe, I published my first Did You Know? three years ago, on September 12, 2020. I appreciate everyone who’s helped and encouraged me along this journey and look forward to what I’ll discover and write about in the coming year. (If you know of something you think others will find interesting, please share it with me.)
Did You Know…
- During my research and/or writing process, the original DYK idea sometimes gives way to a better, more interesting idea.
- It isn’t unusual for me to end up with 50-100 pages of research.
- I learned early on, do all the research before creating the DYK title teasers I post to Facebook on Thursdays. It never fails, as soon as I don’t follow that rule, I will find a more interesting piece of information that would have made a better DYK title.