Reblogged from TRSA, where Richard Dee is the guest of Chris, The Story Reading Ape:

I’m Richard Dee and I’m from Brixham in South Devon. I wasn’t always a writer, it sort of sneaked up on me.

Write what you know, they always say. It’s good advice, you can speak with authority and use your knowledge and experience to make everything authentic.

What do you do when you love Scifi and Steampunk? How can you write what you know then?

Rather stupidly, I assumed that it would be easy to write about the future, or even an alternative now. There would be no need for research. After all, I told myself, you can’t research what hasn’t happened yet.

I got halfway down my first page before I realised just how wrong I was! Research is key, my worlds have to sound true, I start from what you know and take it somewhere else, blurring the line between what is and what might be. Then I add a story, it could be a chase or a mystery, love or hate. It all depends on what I see in my head. The setting, time and place, will have been chosen to maximise the impact of the tale

Continue reading at The Story Reading Ape