Hello,

To write what you don’t know is essential for most writers, a joy and a pleasure it makes us get up at 4:00 in the morning to put pen to paper, but to write what you don’t know takes one essential ingredient and for me (you as well) is research and a lot of it. Research I can’t do without, it’s the bricks and mortar, the foundation that I build the beautiful, mysterious and sometimes bizarre-house-of-a-story upon.

I believe that to tell a great story today, research makes that possible, its sixty percent of the pie, twenty percent is having a wonderful story and the other twenty is being a great storyteller. Not only is research unavoidable, you can make doing it easier by welcoming it into your writing because it only aids in giving your story “believability” and real life, the hall marks of a story the reader cannot stop reading. We love a well meticulously researched story don’t we? Think Michael Crichtonhttp://www.crichton-official.com/ one of the best writers/researchers, whose novels consistently make the New York Time bestseller’s list. When reading his work for instance, Jurassic Park, the information that he presents is so viable at its scientific level it’s without a doubt the bedrock of the story that it makes you believe creating a dinosaur is so easy, we loved him for it and kept reading because he then tossed in his storyteller hat and gave us rampaging dinosaurs, children in peril and death defying rescues. Or think Brad Metzler http://www.bradmeltzer.com/ the author of The Tenth Justice. I listened to an interview Mr. Metzler did on http://www.npr.org/ regarding the research he compiled for his newest novel The Book of Fate. Mr. Metzler’s book features a former president, so not only did he interview a former president, George H. W. Bush, he shadowed him, watched him live his life after being the leader of the free world so that he could make sure his character in his novel was not only believable but real; now that’s doing research.

I enjoy research because I find that people can be very helpful, want to be helpful, especially police departments. When I began researching my novel You Don’t Know Me, I had to learn about the New York City Police Department http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/nypd/home.html. The department has a very good website that lists its information, profiles of each bureau, the commissioners and even crime statistics and when I found I needed more information I contacted their Public Information service out of the office of the Deputy Commissioner and they are wonderful at answering questions or leading you to where you can get the answers you need.

Nothing of course beats a great story in itself but I don’t think any deeply developed story, a winning story, can be complete without a fair amount of research even a personal one about your dentist you’re going to describe the dentist office, the magazines he has scattered in the waiting room, the sounds of the drills, the smell of Novocain, when you add as much “real” as you can to a story the easier it is for the reader to relate to it and the characters. As readers, most times, we love the details it makes us fall into the world you’re creating and hopefully fall in love with your writing for a lifetime. If you want to e-mail me on Writing, please do at shabazzlm@hotmail.com.

See you next weekGod willing,

Lori