The Doctorow Method of Research

Do you ever find yourself questioning just how much research you need before starting out on the adventure of beginning a new novel or story? E.L. Doctorow doesn't. He already knows how much to do.

"Just enough research," he explained when I met him at the National Book Festival. He expressed that many writers research and research and research until they know too much and can't write a decent fiction. Many writers, in an effort to get things right, get caught up and research and never get to the writing.

Case and point: his research for perhaps his best novel. "My knee fell into a shelf at the library, a book fell out." That book led him to write Ragtime. "That’s my idea of research."

The New York Times makes it easy to do all the research you'd like on Doctorow.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/03/05/specials/doctorow.html