Ken Follett, I found out recently, has 30 people to do the research for him: historical facts, architectural facts etc. I am also aware that when he wrote his first book, he didn’t have that. He had to do the whole research himself.
Like me, and every other indie author.
Now, it’s great to learn something new. To walk away from your comfort zone and step into an area that is as indecipherable to you as a foreign language.
So, how do you that? How do you know where to even start the research if it’s not something you know a lot about?
You socialize 🙂
In one’s group of friends, family and colleagues there are people who are knowledgeable in a variety of different fields. So, to research my first topic, I need to meet with people who are all into IT. My story takes place in the future, so the worst thing that could happen, is for me to describe a computer system of the future, only to find out that THIS exists already now. Woah – very bad!
You might now think: Why didn’t she do the research first before starting to write? Well, both of the stories I am writing are in fact love stories. So, when inspiration comes, it doesn’t present itself with state-of-the-art technology. Nor does it present itself as a peek inside future hardware systems. It presents itself as an interaction between people: they are talking about something, doing something, going somewhere. This is what I then write about. The time comes, however, to do the research: which is now.
