The Power of Story II: Using Research to Add Reality to Your Story

THE POWER OF STORY II is intended to give writers and storytellers an introduction to the importance of research in creating the details that build a story's world. FOR WRITERS OF stories, research is NOT an option-even when writing fiction. Why not? Because research is the thing that puts reality into a story, allowing your readers to participate in the "suspension of disbelief" we, as storytellers, need for our stories to work. The old adage from an early writing instructor who said, "Write what you know," is simply incomplete. What you must remember is how you know what you know can vary with what you're writing. Stories are certainly quicker and easier to write if our characters work at a job we've had or live in a city in which we've lived, but that doesn't mean we can't ever write about what we don't know right this minute, as long as we do the research first, so we do know it, before we write the story.