The Creative Iceberg: What Your Readers See Isn’t Everything

Have you ever been annoyed, while writing, by how much time you spent researching a fact that made it into maybe a sentence or two on the page? Or not even—the information served as background for a character?

I call this material the iceberg.

The iceberg is the amount of work that goes into any book and which isn’t explicit on the page.

Fun facts: icebergs range from small, “bergy bits” five meters (16.5 feet) above water to masses the size of Sicily or as large as a ten-story building. As little as one-eighth of an iceberg is visible above the water—that’s a vast submerged fortress we cannot see.

You might resent the creative iceberg, and fantasize about whether and how you might avoid it in the future. I’m sorry to tell you, you can’t. But you can use this beautiful colossus to your advantage.

Let’s dig in.

The dangers of creative icebergs

Creative icebergs are dangerous in three main ways:

• We lose time.
• We lose momentum.
• Our writing goes in a different direction entirely.

Some writers proactively go looking for information, whether they find search and discovery innately fascinating, or they’re worried about being prepared “enough” before they write even one word of their book.

I have some things to say about that, but it’ll wait.

Other writers bump into icebergs after they’ve started writing, when they realize, Hmm, is this actually how I remember it? Or, I should double-check this or there may be new research out there.

Regardless of how you meet the iceberg, it can smash a hole in the bottom of your metaphorical writing ship and send you into the depths. Time you could have spent writing your book goes the way of internet doomscrolling. This is the first danger.

The second is losing the thread of what you’re writing. Now you have a new writing block to contend with. What were you actually talking about?

And third, once you emerge from the fact-checking rabbit hole, you might find yourself in a completely different place than when you started.

Sometimes changing direction can be helpful. If your writing process consists of 85 percent detour, however, I have a problem with your (lack of) strategy.

Why creative icebergs are valuable

We don’t want to avoid them. Creative icebergs:

• Answer questions that need answering
• Give you information you can use in other ways (for other books?)
• Allow you to dig deeper

You need accurate information to write a good book, no matter the genre.

The good news is, the value of Iceberg research isn’t limited to what you’re first looking for. Yes, you may need the information for your current project, but its usefulness doesn’t end there.

You can reuse that knowledge. You can use it for more than one book, article, or interview. This obtains to the information you looked for directly and the nuggets you turned up by accident, while looking for something else.

Research can pay unexpected dividends quite a long time later.

Also, by doing the groundwork, you are able to ask much more interesting and provoking questions, allowing you to unpack a subject or a story in ways you hadn’t imagined when you began. Your book can be much richer than what you’d hoped for.

Talk about depth. Talk about setting yourself apart from the crowd.

Using creative icebergs to your best advantage

Given how much time you can spend on the iceberg, it’s worth thinking about what truly interests you.

What story do you really want to tell? What information do you feel absolutely compelled to share?

This sounds obvious, but if you’re not all that jazzed about digging into a subject or a story, why are you writing it? Steer away from that ship-killer!

On the other hand, if the subject lights you up, then consider the following strategies to navigate the high seas:

• Decide how you want to react the instant you feel a tickle of “need to know”: keep moving forward and come back later? proactively go into the pack ice?
• For forward movement: leave easy-to-find placeholders in the text. Write notes to yourself in bold, red font, or make a comment in your word processing program’s comment feature.
• Proactive explorers should make a list of questions at the beginning and/or end of each writing session. Make sure this list is easy to find…and up to date.
• Keep yourself on track by referring to your list of questions or your embedded placeholders when you’re doing research.
• Set a timer so you don’t get lost forever.
• Track your answers (and sources!).
• Keep your exploring separate from writing. They can derail each other. Be intentional about which you are doing.

Bottom Line

Creative icebergs aren’t limited to writing. The Iceberg applies to every endeavor which involves growth and expertise—this is the true meaning of the word “mastery.”

Most of us don’t see the hours and years of rehearsal musicians go through.

We don’t see the hours of practice and training that go into any professional athlete. The failed recipes of the master chef.

We don’t think of Edison’s thousands of failures before he got to the light bulb that worked.

The iceberg is important; don’t avoid it. Your writing will never be more than skin-deep—and just as interesting—if you don’t invest the time. 

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Want help navigating icy seas? A book structure intensive could be just the help you need.

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