Okay, this is going to be a short post this week. I know, amazing, huh? But I'm the first to admit that I don't do a lot of research, but that's not because I'm lazy or unwilling. It's mostly because my books (so far, at least) don't require a lot of research.
My stories are set in the current day, real world, with paranormal elements. The paranormal elements in my books are created with my own set of rules, so a lot of times, the research I'm doing is checking my past books to see what I've already set up. Because every now and then I'll forget a certain point here or there.
However, while I don't have to research often, there are always certain things that I have to check out in every book. Normally, these are areas that relate to law in the city/state my story is taking place in, or some other type of absolute fact I can't really make up (for example: in A TASTE OF MAGIC, Elizabeth thinks her sister is missing. I needed to find out how quickly a person can be declared a missing person in the state of IL. And in A STROKE OF MAGIC, I have a question of paternity and how something would be handled in a court of law. Finally, in A BREATH OF MAGIC, I had a genetics question I needed to know the straight dope on).
I'm fairly adept at finding the information I need when I need it, but I'm quite happy that I haven't had to do any type of extensive research as of yet. I am continually in awe of historical authors, because their ability to create a realistic world with the rules of their book's time period always blows me away. In fact, this is one reason why I haven't attempted writing a time travel novel as of yet--the amount of research necessary halts me in my tracks.
Therefore, I'm really looking forward to reading the other TNG's take on this. Because, well, I just don't need to research all that often.
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6 comments:
I hear ya! My first manuscript took more time researching than writing. I can only imagine time how much Dan Brown devotes to researching.
Have you read The Historian? I think the author spent something like ten years on the research. I was totally in awe!
Hi, Leigh! LOL, I give huge kudos to you for all of that research. The one thing I didn't mention, though, is that whenever I've had to research something, I almost always find a bit of interesting information that I hadn't know about before, that adds to the book in some way I hadn't anticipated.
Hey, Maureen! No, I haven't read The Historian, but maybe I'll have to pick it up. But wow, ten years? I'm in total respect.
I'm a lot like you in this regard, but now I'm (gulp) attempting something more research heavy!
See, whereas I'm in awe that you manage to create the way you do without all that book-burrowing!
I love how we all have such different methods. I find it fascinating!
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