Research?

Some people hate it. Some people hide behind it. Others think that "write what you know" means that no author should have a necessity for research, otherwise they've violated a basic tenet. So, what is the big deal with research? Do writers need it? Do readers notice? The answer is a big fat yes-no-maybe so.

Up front I should give a disclaimer. I am a researcher. I research what I don't know and verify what I do know. Such is the life of a paranoid writer. One of my greatest fears is the reader who mulls over a descriptive passage and says "that makes no sense. If you turn right on Biscayne Boulevard and right on East Flager, you'd be traveling away from Bayfront Park not TO it!"
I kid you not. Zero sense of direction, an overdose of skepticism, and an innate need to be right make for one hell of a researcher. But is all that research necessary?
Yes. Maybe. Maybe not.

Take my novel, Crimson Footprints, for example. Most people see the Japanese American hero and ask about the amount of research necessary to develop him. My answer is quite a bit. But the same amount of research went into formulating my biracial heroine. Yes, she's raised by an African American family, and yes, I'm African American, however, I don't think myself the definitive expert on the subject. Maybe an example is needed.

I believe that I have a firm grasp of soul food, that bad-for-you comfort food that is part and parcel of the Black and/or Southern tradition. However, my experiences didn't extend to the history of various foods, so I needed research to supplement that. But that was a personal goal, based on what I saw as but one purpose of my novel: to share my culture with others. Were that not a goal of the novel, then I suppose such research wouldn't have been necessary.
So, is research necessary?

Yes, no, maybe so.