Thankfully all the books I have written so far I have had the knowledge to write about with minimal additional research. The business books I wrote are based on what I have begged, borrowed and stolen from others and the fantasy novel ‘The Squire’ was formed from almost 30 years role-playing experience.

However, The Plague Doctor’ was the tricky one to write as it wasn’t a subject I was overly familiar with and the book didn’t end up being the one I actually set out to write (although I love what I have now).  The main character, Laurie Hood is a normal a person like all of us at the start of the book and for him to suddenly become the hard hitting vigilante I intended to write about wasn’t believable.  As the series of books progresses maybe he’ll go this way, who knows.  He is however a million miles away from a Jack Reacher or Jack Bauer (something about Jacks I guess?) and now I actually love him for not being the finished article, not even close to it.

To make the book work I researched a lot of things such as how the police respond, a little about historical Plague Doctors (although this isn’t really part of the book) but also about serial killers in general.  I find (an odd admission here) that through my years of running role-playing games, acting and the research I do in my commercial life, I can mix this with an overactive imagination and often put myself directly in the situation. I can see the scene unfold and it is a big help.

This said I expect many writers can do this but it’s something I feel helps me create the tone of the story.  For me, this makes writing a lot easier.  Yes, the scenes always get a good going over to get them right but this is just part of a normal editing process.  With ‘The Plague Doctor’ I had to check dates, timelines and to keep the realism in the book as believability is a big part of it.  Readers are able to empathise with Laurie and how his life changes as it’s all about the small, realistic steps.

I didn’t want to go too far with the whole artistic license thing as I like realism in the books and I wanted to use that for this book to create a set of characters that have enough staying power to make it through to later books in the series.

I also had to get a good idea on the city where the book is set which I named Green Valley Falls.  I then needed to create some background story for the place such as why it is there and a ‘feel’ for the city as they all have them.  I needed to consider points such as when a serial killer hits have they had one before, how would the media react and what would/could they do about it as well as how the police would work with the media.  All this came out through some common sense and research.  I also looked extensively for why a killer may do what he does and also how he/she gets away with the crimes they have already committed.

Where do I research?

There are plenty of places to research, often the offline ones are forgotten these days and believe it or not a book is often a good place to start.  As are friends and contacts, even just emailing an expert can help along with publishers and agents etc.

I mainly used the internet although there is good and bad research online.  One thing to keep in mind is that opinion isn’t research and many forums or websites just give opinions.  If you invest the time, official sites usually are the place to go.  They can help a lot with ideas, statistics and even enhance your already great plans.  I had to check the police ranking systems out, get an idea in my head for how long it takes to get from A to B in the city, decide whether there were hills and what the bar/nightlife scene is like.

The problem is often in the blend, the storytelling.  How you take the facts from the world around you and mix it into the fabric of your story.  This is part of the art I guess but research can’t be understated.

Character quirks are big parts of what makes them memorable.  In ‘The Plague Doctor’ Laurie (the main character) has a lodger.  The lodger, Alex (Al) is a bit of a ladies’ man, enjoying the single student lifestyle but even little things like calling him Al instead of Alex give a more real feel to the person.  Al isn’t very tidy but is deep down a decent guy and I hope this comes across in the book.

There are a lot of things about him that make him more than just ‘the lodger’ and it is important to give readers enough info about supporting characters to make them care.  If they don’t then they’ll just gloss over them.

Put research into facts, characters and also events and locations.  If you’re writing a book about a place that exists then good.  If not do the homework and consider peoples’ views on the place around them.  It makes painting the picture in your readers’ minds easier.

I hope this helps and welcome your thoughts.  I have always found the people who I look up to in life always seem to make the time to research things.  Even if we don’t see it they have had a sneaky look before they leap.