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?
Dogged researcher, me! I also like to add bits that have no obvious significence. For example, I named a character's cat Max in a vampire story I wrote because the actor who played Nosferatu in one of the first vampire films was called Max Shrek. I don't mind if anyone spots these little snippets - I just enjoy adding them in. But the Internet is my major source of research, although I do have a large collection of books I refer to as well.
I'm afraid I'm in the 'write about what you know' camp!
The cheapest form of research is to search the internet for information. I also buy used copies of books on the genre I'm writing about.
In addition to that, I searched the internet for books on creative writing. I was delighted with the buys which I've listed below.
'The Elements of Style' (Fourth Edition) by William Strunk jr. and E. B. White (Charlotte's Web)
'Learning to Write Fiction from the Masters' by Barnaby Conrad (In my opinion the best book on novel writing)
'Solutions for Novelists - The Secrets of a Master Editor' by Sol Stein. (Sol was a friend of Barnaby Conrad)
'Sol Stein on Writing' by Sol Stein. (Sol Stein was a best-selling author, publisher and award-winning lecturer on creative writing at American universities)
'The Art and Craft of Novel Writing' by Oakley Hall.
I often refer to each of those brilliant books as I still have much to learn about the art and craft of novel writing.