Writing Resources: How to Research

James A Owen is the author of Here, There Be Dragons. If you haven’t read the book or its sequels yet, I recommend them. They’re a fun, intriguing read.

He keeps up with his blog pretty consistently. The other day, when I pulled up his blog, I found a short post he wrote about his research method. It was interesting to me for several reasons:

First, there’s a definite method to his system. I feel like I’ve been pretty disorganized as far as the research thing goes. I think it’s a place that I need to develop my abilities.

Second, he’s ever so right when he talks about research as a necessity. One place that I feel like my current effort fails somewhat is in how well fleshed-out the world I’m writing is. Clearly, that’s my fault, probably tracing back to not researching enough.

Finally, I loved one particular sentiment in his post:

yes. Much research will be necessary. Because You have to know the world you write, even if you only show a grain of sand on its beach.

Wow. The man is dedicated. I hope I can show that type of passion for detail. I think I have a tendency to be more interested in characters than detail. Not necessarily the worst trait, but some of that detail (the guys at Writing Excuses would probably call what I mean by detail “world-building”) is essential to selling the reader on the experience.

So, research… just another area that a good writer has probably already mastered. So, another area that I’ll need to work on.