by A.C. Williams @ACW_Author

One of my college fiction professors once said that good authors need to know a little about a lot of things. As a nineteen-year-old aspiring author, I resonated with the statement. It made perfect sense. Of course you had to know about lots of different things. But I had no idea at the time what it would take to get to that point.

Now that I am fiction teacher myself, I am constantly astounded at how often I have to encourage my students to do their research. If you don’t know the answer, look it up. If you don’t know the genre, read a book. If you don’t understand a culture, find someone who lives in it and ask them.

Research. Learn. Study. Grow. The best strategy you can follow as an author is to expand your mind as you put words on a page. Writing a novel is a process, and you should expect to be a different person by the time you’re finished with it than you were when you started.

But who has time to do that kind of research? Do you want to live in a library? I mean, maybe you do, but I expect most of us simply don’t have capacity to do the kind of studying most of our genres require.

So what do you do? Switch genres? Give up the dream entirely?

I have a strategy that I use. I’m not sure if it will appeal to everyone out there, because it does require some effort. But I have discovered that the benefits of this particular strategy far outweigh the cost of investing in it.

It’s a little thing called Being Friends With Non-Writers.

[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none” inject=”#Writing #Writinglife #BRMCWC”]A Winning Research Strategy for Authors by @ACW_Author on @BRMCWC[/tweet_box]

Nope. I’m not kidding. One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself as an author is to make friends with people who aren’t authors.

Believe me, I know it’s difficult. Community is always a challenge, and developing friendships takes time. But I have learned more about more things from the people in my social circles than I ever could have in a library or online.

I learned about medical procedures and all sorts of emergency treatments from a friend who was a paramedic.

I learned about how public schools work from a teacher (I was homeschooled).

I learned about playing bagpipes from a literal bagpipe player.

I know engineers from nearly every discipline. I know chefs and bakers. I know bankers and accountants and dancers and hunters and farmers and pastors and missionaries and plumbers. And I know that my personal life experience is different than someone else’s, but I would almost guarantee that if you think about the people you encounter in your everyday life, you might find someone who can teach you something.

The important question is: Are you willing to learn?

In our culture today, we seem to be valuing short cuts more and more. If someone else can do the work for us, it’s better. And I get it. Time is money. Authors have to carry a lot of weight and wear a lot of hats, whether you are self-published or not. So is it really reasonable to expect an author to make advantageous friendships?

That’s not to say I don’t have friendships with authors. I do. I have a lot of them. My closest friends work in the writing industry, but I have friends who are equally close who are experienced in other industries. And they have blessed me abundantly in their willingness to share their lives with me.

And, of course, I’m not saying to go be friends with someone just so you can leverage their knowledge. That’s not the point. But don’t overlook what you could learn from someone outside your realm of expertise. Don’t underestimate how much another person could help you even if they don’t understand your industry.

Don’t be afraid to engage in community. You never know what you might learn. On one hand, you could discover a whole new audience for your books that you never expected might be interested. On the other hand, you could find a vast resource of information and life experience that might support the next character you need to design.

It doesn’t matter if your new friend won’t read your story. It doesn’t matter if they’ve never written a book before. Get to know them as a person. Value them as a person. See what you can learn from them as you intentionally show them that they matter to you.

Most people I know have been delighted when they find out that I’m looking to learn more about what they do. Be willing to share your life with others and be willing to listen and learn from their lives as well. You never know what you might discover.

If the only thing you “get” out of the deal is a new friend, you still win.

A.C. Williams is a coffee-drinking, sushi-eating, story-telling nerd who loves cats, country living, and all things Japanese. Author of more than 20 books, she keeps her fiction readers laughing with wildly imaginative adventures about samurai superheroes, clumsy church secretaries, and goofy malfunctioning androids; her non-fiction readers just laugh at her and the hysterical life experiences she’s survived. If that’s your cup of tea (or coffee), join the fun at www.amycwilliams.com.