Guess It's All In The Motivation

I'm still doing much needed research for my upcoming practice novel, as first explained here, when it dawned on me today that I'm having way too much fun with this. Being knee-deep in old Eastern European politics and historical documents and maps is made all the more exciting, it seems, when doing it for one's own edification.

I know: no DUH, right?

I find myself asking: why couldn't you be this studious and dedicated back in college? I mean, don't get me wrong, I paid my fair dues putting in the countless hours of necessary research, photocopying, hilighting, and indexing and all that jazz. But always with a begrudging sense of injustice at the unfairness of the universe. Real "whoa is me!" despair, I'm talking. For me, research was always a painful chore I endured to turn in a grade-A paper. Or, at least, a solid B or B+ (never got anything below a B-).

But this, this is something different. This is research on a writing project I choose to inflict on myself, covering a subject I'm genuinely interested in. It's all about me wanting to tell the best story I possibly can, in a setting as well-informed as can be managed without sacrificing all the hallmarks of engaging fiction that one must keep in mind.

So, I'm reading various different sources about the real historical Vlad the Impaler and the political climate around Europe during his time . . . and it's become a natural thing for me to catalogue and index all the fun, helpful facts I'm coming across.

Imagine that? I'll make me a serious researcher yet!

It's all about the proper motivation. What is droll and life-draining during formal education becomes engaging and thought-provoking when undertaken under one's own impetus, time, and direction. There's a lesson here somewhere, and I'm just too lazy to think it all the way through.

I guess I'm saying that school is all well and good for obtaining a piece of paper that legitimizes your place as a working cog in the society machine, but that actual self-enlightenment is the true reward.

Knowledge sought freely, rather than forced upon the receiver, evolves into wisdom everlasting.

Sorry, I know I just went all Hallmark-y on you readers. It won't happen [much] again. Promise.