Research, Part 1

For most writers, research is the very first thing you do. Research helps you decide what you're going to write about. Research is one of the most fun parts of writing a novel. You're learning. You're traveling. You're reading. But there are different kinds of research. There's research that you'll do to start your book to say, I wonder if this is what I really want to write about? And it's the kind of research where maybe you travel somewhere. Or maybe you read a bunch of books about a topic. And those are-- that's sort of exploratory. That's casting your line out and trying to find ideas. But that first step is really just to learn about the world. Let it inspire you, and let some of these questions start to percolate. Research, as a first step, will get you excited. It will give you ideas. And it will help you choose a world, which is really the first thing you need to do. Once you have an idea, you do a much different kind of research. Once you decide, I'm going to write about overpopulation, well, guess what? Then you're reading books on demographics, and population, and environment, and pollution, and bioengineering. Then you've sort of-- you've cast your line. You've pulled an idea. And now it's time to get serious. For the kind of thrillers I write personally, I will read history, and philosophy, and art, and conspiracy theory. When I wrote "Origin," I read four books that said, Darwin is wrong, and evolution isn't happening. To my taste, that's insanity. Of course, evolution is happening. But I read the other argument such that I could have characters make that argument to create that moral gray area. Then I sort of think, well, I'm going to need settings. In the case of "Origin," I said, well, I'm talking about the evolution of life. I'm talking about devout Catholicism, Spain. I just said, what a great setting-- very, very devout Catholic tradition but also modern art, advanced supercomputing. They have a very sort of advanced scientific thinking. And in that particular country, there is this conflict already between the very old and very new, modern thinking, ancient thinking. And I decided, Spain is going to be my world. That came out of research. That wasn't pulled out of nowhere. That is researching and deciding Spain's going to be my world. Once I make that decision. I say, where are these settings? Again, research-- what's amazing in Spain? I could set this in the middle of the desert in Spain-- not that interesting. Literally, I happen to have lived in Spain. So I know Spain well. But I might have pulled up, what are the top 10 things to see in Spain? It might be that simple as a point of departure. And maybe you don't know that the Guggenheim Museum is in Bilbao. Maybe you find that out researching your novel. And you say, are you kidding me? There is this amazing modern art museum. I could set a scene there. Boom, you're already moving. You're already saying, OK, I'm going to set a scene th...