More analogies: discovery writer vs researcher

Following the previous post, there are even more analogies between writers and researchers in mathematics.

Typically writers are categorized into two types: the discoverers (they write without a plot in mind) or the plotters (the ones that organize all the scenes, the points of view, and the structure). Discoverers do not know what is going to happen next, plotters know everything.

Typically writers are in between these two extremes. I think researchers are more the 'discovery' type. We have some kind of end goal that can be more or less vague, and some initial path to get there, but that is where our understanding of the plot ends. When walking the initial path new things are learned, new questions are asked, new curiosity is spiked and new motivation is born. So we keep changing paths, goals, and the story.

As a consequence, we create a lot of work that will go to the bin: piles of written papers that will not appear in the end product, but that was necessary to reach the destination. We ask questions, we try to answer them, we discover things. Sometimes it is not clear what we discover. Sometimes it is not clear if, in the end, we have a story that we can publish.

The biggest difficulty for discoverer writers is to close up the stories; the finalization; how to close the thread in a satisfactory (and credible) way. For me it is sometimes also the same: I discover something and, of course, it is not what I expected and, as a result, I do not have a story that "delivers".

For example, recently we were working with a group of biologists. They thought that their data proved that a major piece of knowledge in their field is false. That is definitely publishable! That is a story that would move the scientific community. However, we wrote a mathematical model and showed to the group of biologists that, actually, their data was not enough to disprove the standard knowledge in the field. This was useful for them, but it is not publishable.

In conclusion, as a discoverer, I may need to throw quite a few of my work away, but that is just part of the journey. As writers do, sometimes we just have to "kill our darlings."