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Do as little research as possible
Research as an excuse
The first reason is that research is much more fun than writing, so writers will do almost anything to avoid sitting down. A scene on Park Avenue seems to call for a trip there to smell the hot dog stands and watch the women walk. But the writer has already been there, has an imagination, and has Google Earth. Write the scene first, then go look at the avenue.
Drowning in facts
The second reason is the novel where the writer has done a lot of research and gets lost in it. The pace keeps slowing down while the writer hands over one factoid after another.
The one detail
What is worth hunting for is the single moment that brings a scene to life. One example is the hourly schedule of the street singers at Strawberry Fields in Central Park, a detail Harlan Coben picked up from a single conversation.
Why do great writers leave facts out?
In Death in the Afternoon, published in 1932, Ernest Hemingway wrote that a writer who knows enough can omit things, and the reader will feel them as strongly as if they were stated. He compared this to an iceberg, with only one-eighth of its mass showing above water. The idea is known as the iceberg theory. Hemingway told the Paris Review that he rewrote the ending of A Farewell to Arms 39 times.
How did Tom Clancy get submarine details right?
Tom Clancy wrote The Hunt for Red October while running an insurance agency in Maryland. He had never served in the military, and he drew on published sources and conversations with naval enthusiasts. Naval Institute Press published the book in 1984, the first novel it had ever printed.
How did Google change location research?
Google released Google Earth in 2005, after acquiring the mapping company Keyhole in 2004. In 2007 it introduced Street View, which first covered a handful of US cities with ground-level photographs.
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