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“Hopefully I’ll be back next month.” That’s what I wrote on March 18, 2018. What I meant to write was, “Hopefully I’ll be back next year.” Because, let’s face it, my blog posts are essentially on par with Avengers movies. I need time to craft them (stop playing video games), to add all the computer generated images (text on the screen), and really really take the time to edit them down to perfection (read once and hit publish).

In all seriousness, it’s a mix of laziness and a lack of empty time. As much as I love to sit down and write anything, it always feels like homework and I get distracted entirely too easily. Once I lock in, it’s great… but it’s the locking in part that’s hard. But it doesn’t mean I’ve spent the last 14 months doing nothing. I have, in fact, spent it on the planned next step of my process. The research. 

Here’s a great interview I just conducted with myself about it.

Tell me about the research?

Well, it was simultaneously the most rewarding and painful thing that I have ever pursued when tackling a creative endeavor. Over the last year I have read, notated, and transcribed 14 books dealing with my topic. I am well aware that in a perfect situation I would have way more done but, like I’ve mentioned before – I work 40+ hours a week. I get to the side hustle when I can. While it took over a year to do I tried to whittle down to a handful of books that would make me the most efficient expert on a niche topic.

How did you decide what to research?

I took my four definite characters and I found the most interesting, well-reviewed biographies of each of them. I tried to get two books for each person. Nicholas II got more because, well, he’s the protagonist; he will have the most stage time.

After getting those books covered I grabbed a couple of highly-rated general histories of the time period. I also tried to read a couple of fictional novels written during that period in an attempt to understand things like speech, dialogue, and morality from the time period.

Cool. You read a lot. Congratulations.

Yeah, I know. I sound kind of smug, but I accept that. I did read a lot. I’m proud of that. It was usually at 7am on a full train standing up with someone’s armpit in my face (I’m not a tall guy… once people reach for the straps I’m in for a sampling of popular Chicago deodorants… and that’s best case scenario.)

Because of the friendly confines of the El, I took all my notes, wrote dialogue, and character traits in the margins. This really ended up creating an efficiency problem for me later on.

Problems? Tell me more?

I’m writing these notes in the margins of the books, then transcribing them to a notebook during my lunch break, and then typing my notes into a Word document at home so I can have a searchable database when I start writing. You can imagine the tedium. This was mostly by necessity, as I didn’t want to cart my computer around town with me. A book, a notebook, and a pen is much more creatively pliable when commuting to work. But it adds two extra steps to the process – ideally I would have read at my desk and punched my notes straight into my computer. 

Sounds like you spent 14 months coming up with a lot of excuses huh?

Well sure… but I think those are legitimate excuses? I also applied, interviewed, and started a new day job… so I mean… what do you want me to say here?

If you say so. Anything else you want to be honest about regarding your efficiency problems?

Fine. I procrastinated. I procrastinated a lot. I beat God of War on Playstation… I’ve almost played 100 percent of Red Dead Redemption 2… I watched all of the Marvel movies… in a row… some of them twice. I rewatched all of Game of Thrones, I rewatched all of Breaking Bad…

And?

… I read 70 comic books on my iPad this weekend before starting this blog post.

Why waste so much time?

Tough interview. It’s easy to procrastinate on every part of the process. The cause is usually a 50/50 split between fear and laziness. Laziness because I am too tired for critical thinking. Fear because what if I actually get past the research part and make it to the writing… and it’s terrible?

Always tough to admit that you spent a lot of time on something and it could still be bad.

Secondary to those things, there aren’t as many “eureka!” moments that come with the research. I read a lot of the same things over and over again across books. Occasionally I would stumble upon a new and compelling character trait, or think of some dialogue that may fit somewhere and scribble it into the margins. But way more time is spent underlining information i’ll probably never use… then handwriting it… then typing it. After a while it’s really tough to get excited to get to work. It’s a real grind.

Well, did you learn anything?

Yeah, I think I did:

If you’re writing a play about three days in someone’s life… you maybe don’t need to write down every single detail about a random day when they were four years old… you can maybe just bookmark that page and come back.

But more importantly, do you remember my last post when I talked about my statement of intent? (It’s ok to say no. I don’t remember if I ate breakfast today or not.)

I talked about why it’s important to tell people about your project, so they can encourage you when you forget to encourage yourself. All of those people have continued to ask me about my progress. I have one friend who holds me accountable almost daily, he even sends me great motivational memes and videos like this one:

I’m grateful for him. I’m grateful for Shia LaBeouf and everyone else who continues to keep me working. I try to pay it forward on their projects.

Well I guess those are all the questions for you… when can we expect to hear from you again?

I want to say soon… because I’ve already completed the next step of the process.

Oh can you tell us about that?

Without giving away too much – I can tell you that it involves a cat, a bulletin board, and multicolored pens.

Sure, that sounds relevant. Thanks for the interview Brian. We’ll let you get back to your… comic books I guess.

No, thank you Brian. You’ve been a joy to chat with, as always.

And if you’ve read this whole post thinking to yourself, “What the hell is he talking about?” Here’s how to catch up: https://extendedhiatus.org/2018/03/09/statement-of-intent/

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Books I read:

Crime and Punishment              Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I wanted to start with a fictional account that would lend itself to immersion into Russia just before Nicholas was born. I had lofty ideas that this would ease my transition into the research.

The End of Tsarist Russia          Dominic Lieven

A dry historical account of the progression towards Revolution. Lots of relevant backstory… but rushed through the particular era that I was interested in.

The Shadow of the Winter Palace Edward Crankshaw

An interesting recap of the years leading into Nicholas II’s reign and how national policy was shaped before the era that I am writing about.

Nicholas II                                   Marc Ferro

Fantastic biography of Nicholas II, full of relevant historical information and the best attempt to peak into the psyche of the tragic Tsar.

Lenin                                          Victor Sebestyen

Similar to Nicholas II, this was a good mix of historical information and motivating factors surrounding my antagonist.

The Rasputin File                         Edvard Radzinsky

Not particularly useful. Some good facts about the man, but mostly focused on analyzing Rasputin’s attachment to a sexual cult – not the scope I had hoped for.

The Last Empress                         Greg King

Not enough material written exclusively for Alexandra. I found this account somewhat useful, but it required a lot of sifting through needless blame and vaguely misogynistic accusations towards Alexandra Romanov.

War & Peace                                Leo Tolstoy

Nicholas II is credited with reading this multiple times in his life, notably during his last days alive. I wrote a lot of questions in the margins, wondering what themes he might have found relevant to him. His diaries show a reverent quality to the historical, philosophical, and entertainment values of this novel.

The Last of the Tsars                   Robert Service

An analytical approach to the historical period immediately following my play. Mainly helped with character insight.

Lenin on the Train                       Catherine Merridale

Same as above. Historically driven, but follows the events of my play.

Rasputin                                       Douglas Smith

Debunks a lot of the mythology of Rasputin… I want to write about the mythology of Rasputin though. So I took only what I needed from this one.

Nicholas and Alexandra                Robert K. Massie

Plays up romantic connection between Nicholas and Alexandra. Helped to give both of them depth of feeling.

A People’s Tragedy                       Orlando Figes

A straightforward historical retelling of the causes of revolution and beyond.

The Last Tsar                              Edvard Radzinsky

History book written by a playwright, helped me find the events in my particular retelling of the abdication.

The Brothers Karamazov             Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Just a symbolic book end to my reading. Nothing to do with the Romanovs but I read it for the flavor.

*Anastasia’s AlbumHugh Brewster

Not an actual book, just an album compilation. Pictures that were taken from Anastasia’s camera.