Beleive it or not, research is an important part of planning and writing your novel. It helps you create more in depth scenes, characters and places that help your novel appear to be of professional standard. I love research, mainly as it is the only time my keyboard does not curse at me, beleive me it happens. Apparently freedom of speech is not allowed within my laptop. You will suddenly experience the shriek of a thousand Apple keyboards wailing into your ears. I find that usually the mighty mouse accepts cheese and then behaves itself but apparently the neanderthal keyboard does not succumb to such inhumane trickery. Shame really.
Back on track, research is important for the story world and plot within your novel, if your story deals with computer hacking and you have no idea what this is then you need to research this area to create credible plots, scenes etc. Most authors, people and neanderthal keyboards say stick to what you know. This is good as you aren't going out of your depth and your sticking within a topic that you understand to the bet of your ability thus giving the story more credibility. Although I agree to an extent, I feel you should always go the extra mile, who got anywhere by being safe? (Please don't answer as loads have people got where they wanted to be by being safe but shh!) Please, please research if you need to... risk not doing so with your writing career or a chocolate milkshake! You decide :O
Research can take many forms, going to the supermarket, reading books about a particular topic, looking at maps etc. Picking up little snippets of detail from whatever means possible helps you get a better understanding of the setting in your novel, relationships between characters and so on. If you are researching something you know then research may be minimal but if your researching 19th century britain then you may spend alot of time researching.
When researching you do not have to include everything you research within your book, if you feel its not needed don't add it but its best to research anything and everything you feel may be important during your writing.
Now once you've decided the topics etc that you must research you have to note it down. I tend to use a moleskin notebook mainly because they are simple and well made and apparently white people like them. You can use anything from notepads, loose paper and a word document to napkins and random scraps of little to no importance.
I'm trying not to go in to great depth because research is different for many people, you have to develop a workflow that suits you in order to get the best results.
Well, i'm leaving my keyboard now because my hands hurt. Make sure you heed my advice otherwise I will summon a thousand meerkats to descend upon your Moleskin notebook.
Please leave a comment below and feel free to mock me, after all that's what I volunteered to do. (Shamefully)
