Is Writing a Good Book Easy? by John Raab


Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this post, free of charge, from Partners in Crime Book Tours, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it

suspense april may cover

Earlier I reviewed an issue of Suspense magazine, 
and now I have a great post for you from it's editor!
Enjoy!


Writing is essential for everyday living and growing. Writing a good book is something that is not easy to accomplish. However, if you do one very simple thing, fans and readers will keep coming back to your books, because they know they will get the straight story told to them. I’ll sum it up in one word: research!
Just as writing and reading have been around since man has walked the earth, research has also been around. One of the oldest questions an author can get in an interview—and having interviewed hundreds of them, it’s one I’ve never asked—is, “Where do you get your inspiration from?”

That is a personal question, and one that really has no value to the author at all and shouldn’t to the reader. A more appropriate question to ask would be: “How much research did you have to do in order to get it right in your book?” This one question will let the reader know just how important not only the subject is to the author, but how much time they spent on getting it right.

D.P. Lyle, MD and Jan Burke, both outstanding authors, came to us and said they wanted to start a radio show on Suspense Radio, because they wanted to make sure that authors got it right and let readers know what is real and what is fake. Crime and Science radio was born. On the first episode, you will hear exactly how CSI shows get it wrong— and it happens A LOT—and how they get it right. Readers need to understand that when you read a certain paragraph in a book or see something on TV, even though it is fiction, it should come from a place that is real.

Let’s take an example like Halloween. How many people actually know the true origin of Halloween, how it started, why is it important, and when did children start begging for candy? By knowing the basic facts, you can then write a book that includes Halloween, and bring out the facts of the holiday to your story that will make it real. If you listen to Crime and Science Radio for information about police procedures, crime scene techniques, evidence gathering and data, you will know exactly how the police, lawyers, forensics techs, and forensic doctors get their answers.

Now you don’t have to write a complex book to do research—any subject matter has to have some sort of research included, even romance or dark urban fantasy. So, authors, learn the word research and do some. Make it as important as writing that first sentence on the page, since if you do your research homework, you might just notice that the writing comes a lot easier and your stories come out a lot better.




About the Author:
John Raab founded Suspense Magazine in 2007. Also the host of three radio shows on Suspense Radio Network (Inside Edition, One on One and Beyond The Cover) also the producer for two more shows, Crime and Science Radio and The Story Blender. The CEO / Publisher of Suspense Publishing a book publisher that publishes #1 NY Times Bestselling Author Paul Kemprecos, along with several other authors.


Don't forget to enter the giveaways 
on the Suspense Magazine Review post!

Comments

  1. Terrific post with lots of good information for all of us, writers and otherwise. Thanks so much for sharing your ideas.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment