The Joys of Researching Your Next Novel

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Few things in life excite me more than doing research for a new novel. For me, it is the phase of the book-writing-process where new ideas manifest themselves, where rabbit holes are explored, and new discoveries are made. It is a phase full of wonder and limitless aspirations for what your book could be, but also a Herculean double edge sword when you realize that the research rabbit hole you’ve climbed down is none other than your brain’s careful attempt to camouflage what you are really doing: Procrastinating.

That being said, let’s dive into my research process.

Since my books can be categorized in the spy/geo-political thriller genre, I can safely say that I get most of my book ideas from what I read and see on the news.

The idea for my first novel, Sleeping Bear, came about from a news article that I stumbled upon during my lunch break when I was working as a script reader at Warner Bros. The article, which I can’t for the life of me find again, was about the phenomenon of how many people went missing annually in the state of Alaska. The number of the missing was staggering, and thus came the idea for Sleeping Bear. 

In the days, months, and years that followed after I read that article I probably clocked in hundreds of hours of research, and I mean hundreds.

I wanted to write a book about a woman who goes missing in Alaska and turn it into a geo-political spy novel that deals with post-Cold War Russia in a way I’ve never seen before.

To do that, I embarked on a research journey that pretty much consumed my life.

First off, I needed to understand Alaska. I needed to understand its geography, its people, its animals, and the Alaskan way of life. I needed to see how law enforcement works in that part of the world. So I did what any twenty-five year old aspiring writer with no money to travel would do.

I watched every episode of the reality TV show: Alaska State Troopers.

That’s right. For weeks on end I spent nearly all of my free time watching that show. I saw how Alaskan cops, and village public safety officers worked in our most wild, and desolate state. And from there, I read everything I could on the area of Alaska I wanted my book to take place, and even went as far as cold calling people who lived and worked in that area to gain a better perspective of what life was like in such a remote part of the world.

Once I was satisfied with my Alaskan research, I then shifted gears and dived head first into two subjects I knew nothing about: Intelligence and Russia.

Since I was attempting to write a spy novel that took place in the former Soviet Union, I decided to read some of the great works of fiction that deal with that subject matter.

For me, the two authors and their works that stood out were Nelson DeMille’s Charm School and Jason Matthew’s Red Sparrow Trilogy.

Though both DeMille and Matthews have brilliant, yet different takes on the Russian Bear, I learned what I could from each of them, but understood that I needed to dive into some nonfiction in order to better understand Russian intelligence and Russia as a whole. That’s when I discovered Bill Browder’s incredible book, Red Notice.

That book alone helped me better understand Russia and its government than any other work, fiction or non-fiction, that I came across.

While books, media, and television are great sources for research, nothing beats real-life interviews from experts who’ve had first-hand experience in the subject matter you’re writing about.

When I was about halfway done writing Sleeping Bear, certain individuals came into my life that changed the trajectory of my career and eventually became the catalyst of the inspiration of my second novel, Wolf Trap.

These individuals belonged to a highly-secretive unit in the CIA called Ground Branch.

According to the United States government, Ground Branch does not exist, and neither do its members. Therefore, very little has been mentioned about Ground Branch in mainstream media. A few non-fiction books have been written about them, but according to my sources those books never really got it right. Due to the highly sensitive nature of their work, members of this unit tend to shy away from journalists and nonfiction writers, and what they do say publicly is usually carefully choreographed language written out for them by the Agency.

Over the course of a few years, I became close with some of these members, and because I write fiction, they let me in on their culture and shared experiences.

Building those relationships offered the best research opportunities a thriller novelist could ask for. That’s why I always tell aspiring authors to get out of their comfort zones, reach out to people you’re uncomfortable reaching out to. If I’ve learned one thing over the years, it’s that people love talking about their passions and areas of expertise. Be kind, courteous, and respectful of their time, and you will be blown away by what you can learn.

As I said earlier, research is one of my favorite parts of the writing process, but doing too much of it takes away from what a writer should really be doing, and that is writing.

So go out and research fearlessly, get out of your comfort zone, but don’t let it bog you down. After all, you’re a writer.

Now, go write.

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