The Side Benefits of Writing

I'm sure everyone has heard the old expression, 'write what you know.' But unfortunately, that is a rather limiting statement. I find that a lot of what I write involves things I didn't know. I certainly don't have a deep understanding of criminal psychology or ways of murdering someone without being caught, but I've written four murder mysteries with more on the way. Some things have to be learned to make a story believable and allow the reader to immerse themselves fully.

Of course, with a genre like fantasy, there are no rules; a story can go in literally any direction. Science fiction is not quite the same; a lot of sci-fi writers like to base their work in real-world science. Andy Weir's The Martian is an excellent example of this, in which he had to game out a lot of scenarios on Mars and do research to make them real. Other sci-fi like Star Wars is more on the fantasy side of things, where there are no real rules except the ones the writer makes up.

Now, some fantasy writing will have a realistic component. For example, the second Shadowmage Saga book takes place mostly on a sailing ship similar to the galleons of the 17th and 18th century. I, of course, know absolutely nothing about rigging and sailing ships except what I've read in other books, so it's a learning opportunity for me to get enough information to make the book work, while not bogging down in extraneous details about each individual sail and rope on a ship. No one is going to mistake this book for Horatio Hornblower or David Weber's Safehold series, but it will at least make some sense to the reader, if I do things right.

Other examples from my own books include the research I did on early 20th-century society for The Awakening, the Gilded Age book. I wasn't there, and while I have a lot of love of history and a long track record of studying it, that was a time period that I hadn't spent a lot of time on. But it wasn't hard to get some of the information I needed, enough to make the book work. Same with my 1930s stuff, which I know a bit more about, but I needed geographical details to get it to work.

Research is important for a writer, as long as it doesn't become the primary focus. The point is to write the story, not read dozens of other books to increase realism. Get enough to make the story work, then get back to the writing. In the meantime, you've learned something new, and no day is wasted when you learn something knew.

While you're waiting to see the new sailing ship adventure of the Shadowmage Saga, take a look at the first book in the series, Apprentice, which just came out this week.