Young Writers Society

I learned this the hard way, but if you're planning to write something, DO THE RESEARCH (before!).

I figured that with POD, because it was so...real life, that I didn't have do this crucial step in writing a book, but 60 pages in, I hit a road block.

When my character, Jamie, went to court, I realized that I needed to do some intesive studing. Which has put me back on my writing over a week.

In addition, I have to go back and rewrite the latest chapters. So like I said. RESEARCH. It does wonders, saves you the trouble of having to rewrite, and the embarassment of getting things wrong.

Some good places to look are of course...

www.google.com

&

www.wikipedia.org (also very very good)

Happy writings, and Good luck!
-JC

You should take caution when using Wikipedia as your only source, though, because the information isn't always correct. Since it is sort of an "open source" encyclopedia, anyone can add info to it.


Google the general topic helps, you can find many, many sites with good info.

But another warning, involving researching before writing: this is a good thing to do. Very good. But don't use research as a reason not to start, only spend so long researching. Some people will put off writing their novel/story saying they, "need more information" and end up spending a lot of their time researching, rather than writing.

Don't fall into that hole! But still, good advice.

Yes, do be careful when using the information on wikipedia. The links at the bottoms of the articles, however, are usually very good, and are often to official organization sites where the information will certainly be reliable.

Edit: Wikipedia is a good starting place for when you have no idea about a particular subject or when you're casually looking for information, but actual research shouldn't be done from it as it is unreliable.

I've not found there are too many mistakes in Wikipedia, but the main problem I've always found is the technical language. If you're doing research that need to only slightly skim the top of the subject, do not use Wikipedia. It's detailed enough for someone who's written a thesis on the subject to learn new things, but probably too detailed for the average author. If you want something better, it's probably best to simply 'Google' it and trudge through 'til you find something.

DarkLight

I always found that wikipedia was good for a general overview as well as some details; any books or essays or authors quoted/made reference to in the articles are always good to google, because that'll bring you back to the source material which is usually more reliable [and more specific, if that's what you're interested in]

Researching similar forms of writing as what you're doing can be helpful as well, if you're really stuck turning your research into writing. Go find that kind of scene or style, read it, figure out what you like or don't like about it, and try and incorporate [but not copy] what you've read.