Contributed by Nicole

Research is the dread goddess that breathes true life into our writing with the help of her consort, the Internet.

With the advent of the Internet and social media sites, it isn’t quite the onerous duty that it once was. A great deal of information is literally at our fingertips with the Internet. Social Media also lets reach out to your subject matter experts for more in depth knowledge. You know, if you are going to write about a zombie apocalypse, why not talk to a microbiologist? If you are writing about the police department in a specific town, call that department and see if one of the officers is willing to chat a bit. .

And, of course, there is still the library with their digital catalog, electronic books and those glorious hard copy repositories of information called ‘books’.

Realism will resonate with your readers, so research!