Research

On Twitter last night one of the trending hashtags was Things not to say to a writer. One tweet was along the lines of - 'At least you don't need to do research for a novel.'

Definitely not something to say to a writer.

The research for novels is interesting, and of course some genre's need much more research than others. I doubt whether I'll ever write a historical novel.  I think there is a real gift involved in getting the voice correct for the time period, while not making it impossible to understand now.  But even ruling out historical novels there is still a lot of research required for different topics.

I had a few funny looks when I asked what I would need to do to car brakes to cause an accident. Cue a hasty explanation that it was for a scene in Driftwood.

Lives Interrupted is about a group of people coping with the aftermath of the London bombings. I did a lot of research about the bombings themselves, but also on various types of injuries and rehabilitation.

My current work in progress starts with a suicide, and so I've been researching the police procedures around that.

Don't need to research to write a novel - huh.

What topics have you had to research while writing your novel, and did you find it easy?