As I dive more fully into my next book, I get to do more research. Y’all have no idea how much fun it can be to write a book. Ride-alongs with police, going out to the country to shoot an AK-47, figuring out just what it feels like to come back from a coma.
While most authors tend to base our work in life experience, IMAGINATION is the engine of the story. To follow my imagination where it leads me, I have to investigate the details to make it all feel true. His fast can a Bugatti go? What does Moroccan bread taste like? Realness and truth in the background help validate the story, which is, after all, a fiction. Good fiction has to be TRUER THAN TRUTH.
Amazing how pieces of research will inspire new twists to my books. An episode of FBI Files (which I watched incessantly when I was getting into the head of one character) inspired a scene from my first book. A ride-along, inspired a gesture.
What are you researching today. What are you trying to bring from the world of imagination to the reality of story?
Researching religious history at the moment. Going between the Jesus Wars (about early Christanity), Occult Japan (about Shinto/Shamanism), and the Tao Te Ching.
Well, I totally disagree. I mean, for New Year I am having to take an arduous trip to Paris, where i’m forced to stay in a former palace and spend hours lazing around in cafes people-watching. All because of this pesky “research” people insist I do. Outrageous, really it is.
T Allen, yours sound so interesting. Religion contains so much passion, violence, and humility.
And Mark–you are so naughty! I shall slap you one day when I come to your book signing. Seriously. And you may punch me when you come to mine.
Research is the base that brings the imagination to the forefront!