I write historical fiction and seem to be forever reading up on the period. Perhaps that's because I came to it rather late - I hated history at school and dropped the subject as soon as I could - so I have little background knowledge.
But how about other genres? Do horror and crime writers read medical textbooks and romance authors trawl dating sites? How easy is it to find the information you need to make your stories realistic? Are you a dogged researcher or fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants writer? Or do you just write what you know about?
For the story I've just finished, different areas needed different levels of research. One way I have done this is by finding people who I know, who holds the information I need.
Katie, that does make sense. I knew about horses, but deciding to write about cavalry in the Napoleonic Wars came from some research I needed to do on their saddlery for a project totally unrelated to writing, or even history.
So in a way I was writing what I knew. But because novels are about people rather than horses or equipment readers had to feel they were in the early 19th century, rather than surrounded by modern characters in fancy dress. That was where my lack of background knowledge was a hindrance.
Of course that doesn't mean zero research, I still need to double and triple check things out, even if I'm writing about my own lifetime (my memory is not a reliable witness!). In terms of writing about something I haven't experienced I'll often have researched it beforehand. For example my short story for the competition was histoical fiction but it is in an area I've studied extensively. I tend to find that the knowledge becomes a book rather than that I collect the knowledge to write a book if that makes sense.