'Just because you’re writing fiction, it doesn’t give you license to make everything up' source

You may not realise it, but authors often spend years on research before they write a book.

There are plenty of ways to research your next great story/book, including the following:

1. Using the internet (obviously the quickest and most painless way)
2. Visiting the library (ah, check you out…the old school approach)
3. Travelling to locations where your story will take place (a bold move there Hemingway, you sure you’ve got the moxy?)
4. Interviewing people who know about the things you are writing about (now you’re just getting crazy)
5. Find out what made these peopleThe world's Greatest Story Tellers

If you are serious about becoming an author, then visit this page to find out what research you should do and and how to do it

Writing a book is only part of the story. As a good author, you want to share your emotions and your joy of writing with every reader: To share an experience that you and they will cherish and never forget.

But, there is much more to writing books than the words alone. A good author can create beautiful works even when the words themselves seem trivial or make little sense:

'The time has come,' the Walrus said,
'To talk of many things:
 Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax
 Of cabbages and kings
 And why the sea is boiling hot,
 And whether pigs have wings.'

Even great author need to do more that just write. If nobody knows about your works, then nobody will read or enjoy them. Great authors learn to research, package, communicate and promote their works - they don't wait for the world to come to them!

For those reasons, your book should be more than simply a package for your writing - Use it to promote interest, emotion and to paint a picture richer still for every reader.

No matter what kind of book you want to create, you will have a head start if you find out how to properly research your story, select the right technology to create and package your book to make it attractive and long lasting.

Robert Sabuda is an Artist, a Writer and an Engineer who has spent his life using all of those skill to create beautiful, complex and meaningful books.

Video 2. Robert Sabuda: How Paper Engineering can help create amazing books (6 minute video)

As well as writing and illustrating his own books, he often works with other engineers and artists who share his passion about writing.

The basic skill required for paper engineering are simple, but like the words they help explain, these simple elements can be put together in infinitely complex and beautiful ways.

Video 3. Paper Engineers - Building a paper bird

• IF UNABLE TO ACCESS YOUTUBE VIDEO TRY VIEWPURE:Paper Engineers - Building a paper bird

A Paper Engineer builds almost everything using only two engineering elements (as demonstrated in Video 2 above (the Robert Sabuda video):

1. The 'Layer' fold
2. The 'V' fold

Both of the folds are very simple to learn. Once learned, then can be used to create very complicated works of art, which are especially well suited for use in books.

Think about how you would build this bird into a book so that the bird 'pops up' when you open the pages of the book!

The next step is to to create a short story or poem (probably two paragraphs is enough) and a pop-up. Your words and pop-up should fit on two facing A4 pages, or one A4 page folded in half if you prefer.