Research, Research, Research...

Yes...research has to be the most important thing you do when you begin writing anything. Whether you are writing a work of fiction, a Non-fiction or even a Fanfiction piece. Research makes everything plausible it captures the imagination and in the end it provides you with the backdrop for all characters.

In reality research essentially defines the characters, settings, plot and even the direction of the novel which the author is working towards. That being said, you don't have to be Tom Clancy and use copius amounts of detailed research to convey your story. It helps but you don't ultimately have to use all your research. Some authors can get away with less is more like Matthew Rielly, his novels are always fast paced and even when he writes his exposition he still only puts in enough detail to keep you interested before he places you back into immediate action. In the end it is really all up to the Author's own discretion to begin with.

Research can take all forms, whether you are searching through old news articles or interviewing people first hand. Depending on the author and their ability to jetset around the world in order to do research certain locations, interview certain people and certain organisations. I've read some FAQ's from author pages like Kyle Mills in reagrds to research and travel http://www.kylemills.com/faqs.html now its all well a good if you can travel particularly if you have time and money, sometimes you may not get the chance. Matthew Reilly for an example http://www.matthewreilly.com/faq.html spends his time pouring over books and using the internet. So never think that you can't research if you can't travel. Ultimately you are the Author, that means you are ultimately in control of how you research and what you use within your writing.

I'm currently researching the US Navy SEALs using a book By Dick Couch called the The Warrior Elite due to a main character's background. It isn't easy either, I've not been very disciplined in sitting down and just pouring over the book there is just so much information within its pages that sometimes you just look at it and groan. I going to use it? Now looking at it I may not use any of it, then again I probably will as the first chapter or Prologue will comprise of a Navy SEAL mission. Until I read through the pile of books that I have sitting on my desk I'm not sure how much use I'm going to need from them. I have also spent my time emailing the FBI, CIA so far the FBI has been kind enough to email me back with general information which I'm very grateful to them.

When looking at characters sometimes research can be hard, particularly if you're trying to create a character who has flaws and is not a cardboard hero. For me at the moment I find that looking at characters through a series of books often helps. I also find that Tv show characters that have been around for a while help and even characters from movies provide decently detailed character types that I try to use and a base for characters.

On the subject of research though for me though I feel that I can't start a novel until I have enough information in my head to feel comfortable in writing something that makes sense and is at least 50% factual. Once again however it does depend on the particular author and the genre that the author is writing for...

In the Beginning...

Welcome to my first ever blog,

This is all new to me but I thought I'd start by saying that I am an aspiring author. It is my desire to be published by a Publishing company and whether I'm ever famous or not I don't care, I do this not for anyone save myself.

A little bit about me, I started writing when I was really young. Over the years I've spent a lot of time writing Action/Thriller type espionage stories. Some that I finished, others that I had the idea for but never reached completion. I think that happened because I couldn't push through the desire not to write at the time or I couldn't capture the creative juices that sometimes are there and other times allude me. I also have written a Star Wars novel that I originally wrote as a trilogy but I never finished it, I originally wrote the first book as a challenge in which I could prove to myself and others that I could write a novel.

In the last 5 years I've been working on my writing skills through Fan fiction. Going by the name Kandon Kuuson on http://www.fanfiction.net/u/879140/Kandon_Kuuson

I will say one thing, I have found people on there that if they wrote a novel themselves they would become bestsellers. They're truly talented people who really should be writing novels...if any of them read this the they will know who I'm talking about. On www.fanfiction.net I have written about 30 stories on there, varying from NCIS, Bones and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. My Longest was a 50,000 word NCIS story that was part of a series and it took me two years of on and off writing to complete it. But I think it was well worth the effort, I have to say that it was my best one. I really enjoyed writing it and I think the people who read it really enjoyed it too.

Since then I've started researching for a my first original fiction. As well as writing a few more smaller Fan fiction stories when I've had time. The goal at the moment is to have enough insight into the FBI, CIA, US Navy SEALs as well as how to be a better author.

I've started to write up character profiles, which has been a task in and of itself, who knew it would be hard! I'm just glad that I'm beginning to grow my skills not just in detail of the story but creating characters with depth who are human, who have emotions and feelings and aren't just Hollywood cardboard characters. I still have new characters to create and I still have yet to create my nemesis who is truly evil but I'm sure that will happen soon, right now I just want to have a solid foundation for when I do actually start writing my first draft. But that's another story...