So you want to write a good story? What kind of stories resonate with readers; the kind of sustained shelves longer than your grocery store milk; that make people in the evening as narcotic? Well, then here’s a little advice my fifth grade teacher, Ms. Pendergast, gave me: do your homework. But you don’t like research, you say. That’s why you write new fiction book and not non-fiction, you say. With fiction you can just make everything up. You don’t need to do any research. Trip, how is your work? Before you answer, let me ask you a question: have you heard of Michael Clayton? How About The Da Vinci Code?

I could go on listing the author and title, most people have heard, apart from the possibility of Osama, but I’ll bet, even if he has read The Da Vinci Code. Although there are many reasons for success of these authors, at least one thing in common that they have in common. They do their homework. Their work has a wealth of research. Think about it. If Dan Brown just made everything up in The Da Vinci Code would it have become a #1 world bestseller? Absolutely not. The Da Vinci Code’s success is directly related to Dan’s ability to convince the reader, in fact, it may just be that Jesus married, birth of children, the existence of his descent to the present. Despite all the churchyard signs, documentaries, and nay-saying experts to the contrary, Dan’s book is credible, at least to the reader. And that is the kind of new fiction books that sells—credible fiction.

Now, please keep in mind that credibility does not mean absolute truth or fact. The Da Vinci Code is by no means a historical textbook, nor should anyone read it as such. Even Crichton’s work, as authentic as many of his may be, should never be mistaken for absolute truth, facts, or any form of non-fiction. They are all works of new fiction book. But they do speak a truth of a different kind. They talk about the emotional, moral, and even the general truth. And it these truths that readers hunger for, not necessarily the facts. Works such as Crichton’s State of Fear and Brown’s The Da Vinci Code ring true, feel true, and in a metaphoric sense are true.

You have not found an ancient secret, rewriting history to understand the complexity of the work, nanotechnology, and even travel beyond the city of your library. Your story can be a simple detective story, or genre of the romantic. But there is research that can be, and should be, done to tell that romance or who-dunit with authority and credibility.