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Yesterday I started a new short story with the working title, “The Substance of Things Hoped For.” I had a hard time getting it under way. I knew the broad outline of what I wanted to write, but the opening words wouldn’t come. After spending too much time doing unnecessary research, I decided to describe the opening scene’s setting. That primed the pump and I’m deep into the plot.

Like the other two stories I’ve recently written (this one is in the same project), it takes place in the past instead of the generic “now.” This one is set in 1969. The others were in 1976 and 1985. Writing fiction set in a specific time in the past has a unique challenge: I’m fascinated by history and it’s easy to get distracted by research. For the 1985 story, I needed a fact about the Sunshine Skyway bridge—and went on to read articles about the 1980 disaster, the Blackthorn tragedy that occurred near the bridge five months earlier, how the new bridge was designed, and how the remains of the old bridge were finally destroyed in 1992. Was any of this information necessary to the story? No. It was simply interesting—and I ultimately shifted the story inland and have the characters driving down Highway 301 instead.

“Substance” is about how the protagonist reacts to the birth of his daughter, which I had arbitrarily set on July 24, 1969. I didn’t realize the significance of that date when I chose it. When I skimmed a 1969 timeline I discovered that it the Apollo 11 crew returned to Earth on that date. I had to work that into the story. So I went on a search to discover what time splashdown had occurred and spent an entire morning reading interviews with the astronauts and the Navy diver who was first onto the raft, the specifications for the command module, and other completely irrelevant facts.

Most of the stories in this project will take place from 1969 through 1999, so I’ll face this problem again. Research can be fun, but I have to make sure that it doesn’t keep me from writing.