Research!

​The most enjoyable part of the writing process for me is the research. I love interacting with others and hearing their stories, gathering details and information then combining the details to write the story.

In one of my many conversations that I had with Bob, while I was going through this process, he asked me what the individuals I spoke with said and he wanted to know what I was writing. I shared an interesting detail with him that I found while I was researching the events that happened in Comanche County that had to do with his first stint involving law enforcement. It was a piece of the story that he had left out, or overlooked, maybe even forgotten, when he first told me about it. When I reminded him about this, he told me what I shared with him was not how he remembered it, and for him it may not have been.

​Bob’s a compulsive liar, this is a fact I bring out in the book, the second chapter to be exact, so his version of events are constantly changing when he shares the story each time. Nonetheless, what I shared with him was the correct version of events and I double checked everything, and spoke with credible witnesses.

After voicing his opinion and thoughts to me, I told him, 'Of course it doesn’t sound right to you, because you’ve been telling everyone your own version of how you think the events should have gone; and you tend to make them up as you go along. Let me remind you that you’re a compulsive liar, it's no secret, so your version is always different from the actual truth. Keep in mind though that I always triple check everything and I make sure the story is accurate, and that, my friend is how I roll.’

Research is so important and I can’t stress how much fact checking is too.