For the heck of it, I started listening to early episodes of one of my favourite podcasts, Longform. In episode 9, Jeanne Marie Laskas describes how getting material for a story is like gathering clay:

(I talk to my students like this…) I always feel like I’m like a potter, like a sculptor or something like that. And when you’re reporting you’re going out and you’re just like, gathering clay in a riverbed, like, you just got to get all different colours and all different textures and you don’t even know what you’re going to do with it. But you need the clay! You can’t make anything unless you get the clay. And then that’s a whole stage you’re going through, and then you’re bringing that back and you got these lumps. And it’s just like, you just went to a store and bought stuff, and you’re just like, “now I have all this now!” And then you get to play with the clay!

The metaphor is pertinent now, as I tunnel through research in order to write a Master’s thesis. The small town’s registry I’m studying has an interesting connection to the larger French community, because over the years, when the Catholic Church was the dominant influence, the community newspaper would also record baptisms, mariages and deaths. Right now, I’m noting how many of the registry entries were also reported in the newspaper in order to see if patterns emerge. I’m gathering clay.