Research

Even if you hate doing research, at one point or another (if you are serious about writing) you will have to get your hands dirty.  When we think of research we welcome images of books, online files, and hours of study.  That is a part of research, but there is more to it.

It all depends on the piece that you are writing.  Is it a SEO article, a poem about life in a distant land, a report, or a novel?  The depth of your research will be tailored to the piece you are writing.  Thanks to the internet and the technology available today, we don’t have to travel to that distant land if we are writing a poem about it.  But if you are writing a novel that requires a deep understanding of the place, the culture, the landscapes, and the people, you might have to take a trip.  It all depends on what you want to accomplish with your project.  Not everybody can take a plane and just go to do research, of course, but the type of project and to a degree, the status of the writer, influence the type of research.

As readers, we tend to demand more of best-selling authors than non-published writers.  Not because the work of one will be better than the other, but more because of expectation and anticipation – they thrilled us with the latest best-seller, and now, we crave more.  At one point, best-selling authors were non-published writers, so it is not fair to say that the works of the later, lack quality.

Some well-known authors travel for their research, others hire research assistants, and others love to do their research.  So, research as best as you are able to do so, according to your means, and you will have a well written piece.