I remember a student I had in a research class I was teaching some years ago. He had this great project he was writing on, but he ran into a huge problem. He would get distracted. He would find a piece of research and instead of just getting what he needed, he suddenly felt the need to go and research that small tidbit of information a bit more. I am sure you can see where this is heading to. When he dove into that next layer, he found something else that needed more investigating and he was immediately following that white rabbit down the rabbit hole.
While this might be fun as a hobby, this is a ten week long class and there is a grade attached to this project. You simply cannot do that.
As a writer, the same thing applies here. You have deadlines. You cannot waste time just researching random things. More importantly, you cannot get in the habit of putting things in your books that are not important to your story.
When you are writing, there is a lot of information you will gather about the time period you are writing, the characters, the setting and the events surround the story. YOU need that information. BUT that does not mean your readers need that information. You have to put filters on your writing and give the readers information on a NEED TO KNOW basis. Before you give them that information, ask yourself it it advances the story. Is all of that information truly necessary? Can it be summed up in a single sentence? Do we need to really know the modiste and her entire history with the Ton and the peerage over the years, or simply, "she was the person you went to and the dress was a gorgeous blue that matched her eyes."
Think of it this way. All of those words you are wasting on information that slows the story down and distracts the reader could be better spent developing your characters and building their storylines.
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