If you think you don’t have to rustle up facts to write fiction, think again. Here are my thoughts on the homework you need to do before writing Word One:

Research, research, research. Facts are a writer’s friend.

I learned that the hard way as a young journalist with the bad habit of trying to write my way around things I didn’t know.

The bullshit cliché is a writer should write what they know. That’s just the starting point.

You need to expand your knowledge and hone your writing chops by finding out the answers to things you don’t know and reading other writers who are better than you.

That knowledge gives a tremendous power and authenticity to your writing and, in a counter-intuitive way, frees you up so you can really fly.