I think that one of the hardest things I have to do as a writer is sticking to my own story.

I had a very enlightening conversation with my brother-in-law Nic last night. He's very much into fantasy novels and isn't too keen on the whole vampire thing because it's mainstream right now. So we started talking about fantasy novels and he asked me if I had ever thought about writing a fantasy novel myself. To be completely honest, I have pondered the possibility. There's just so much work involved in it that I haven't put a lot of work into it yet.

Then I started laying out the Prophecy universe for Nic and hooked him. That made me feel good. But what really gave me the high of major accomplishment was when he told me two things: one, that I'm a master storyteller to have all this backstory and history for my own characters, and two, that I need to write a fantasy novel because it would be huge.

So what makes a good story? This was the question I asked myself this morning when I got up. Sure, you may have the best idea in the world, but what would actually make that a good story to tell? I have the answer: history.

You can have the coolest group of characters in the world, you can have the greatest setting in the world, and the best plotline ever created. But if you don't have a history, a backstory, for those characters, then you don't have anything at all. History gives your characters a purpose. It also enables you to show the reader the story instead of tell them.

Why is drinking from humans forbidden for vampires? Because that's the law. Well, why is that the law? Aha, that's the reason behind the book. Why do you have to kill all of your competition to become the vampire king? Again, that's why you need to read the book. See what I mean?

The richer and more varied the history, you'll either have a great novel or a confused one. So don't go so deep in the history that things are contradicting other things or it's impossible to keep up. Start with something simple and expand on that. Make it rich and varied, but keep in mind that you want the reader to get it.

I had a great time last night talking to my bro in law about the plot for Prophecy. He was surprised at the complexity and depth of it. That's a compliment to any writer. Strive for it.

Today, I was going over the plot for Legacy, the prequel in my series, and I had some thoughts that I wanted to share with other writers in the world. I personally hate doing research.

This probably comes from the days on end I spent in the library researching for speeches in high school (I did competitive speech, or forensics as it's called out here) and I have found that I can't stand to do research anymore.

For Legacy, I had to research Scotland's history from the 1600's through the 1800's. That's a lot of history. I know more about the Battle of Culloden and the history of tartans than I really ever wanted to know. While some of the research was really interesting (like learning which clan had what tartan), some of it was dry and I had a hard time finding anything reliable about warfare and weaponry from that time.

In the future, if I can afford it, I think I might push that kind of research off onto someone else who likes to do it and has time to do it.

But there is research that I find quite intriguing. About eight months ago, I did research on vampire myths and folklore. That was very interesting. I also did some on werewolf myths, but that wasn't as fruitful as the vampire search was. I've also buried myself in books on Norse mythology recently. It's very interesting stuff and I would recommend anyone who wants to dig into that topic to do so and share those results with me. My library is sorely limited.

What kinds of things do you like to research? What kinds of things do you wish someone else would look up for you?