As writers, it’s imperative that we know what we’re talking about before we proceed to inform or entertain our readers with stories and articles. In this day and age, being misinformed or not providing truthful material can result in the utter decimation of your reputation and reliability as an author. Even something as minor as typos can sometimes break a writer, especially if those typos are excessive.
This is why it’s imperative for writers to research, edit, and polish their manuscripts. If we’re not an expert on diamond mining for example, and the story or article calls for such knowledge, we need to find out everything we can about it. This doesn’t mean we’re going to include everything we discover. However, having this knowledge empowers us with authenticity, making readers return to us as a trustworthy source.
With that said, it’s also good to know when to call it quits on research and revision. You can spend the rest of your life fixing up a manuscript, all the while letting life pass you by as you tweak your work to perfection. Of course, we are anything but perfect. There’s only so much one can do with a piece before it needs to either be shelved or sent out into the scary worlds of submission or self-publishing.
Make your work shine. But also learn to gauge when it’s ready to be go. Getting a few beta readers involved will certainly help with this. With time and practice, you’ll build up your research and revision skills to where you need them to be, without losing too much of your precious writing time.
No kidding. I can’t count the number of professional Sci-Fi authors wo write about “high-density metal” containers for anti-matter. One Google search, come on!
I have deliberately avoided the engine thing in my universe as much as possible. lol. I’ve had several very smart people explain to me the whole ion/plasma/anti-matter concepts, and it’s very hard to come up with plausible explanations for things. However, I have taken the Casmir theory as explained to me and created a concept of space travel using a ‘Casmir stream’ which I explain briefly at a point in certain works of writing. Just because I ‘know’ what I’ve been told doesn’t mean I should include it, as Jeff mentioned, because I don’t want to overwhelm the reader. On odd, cool things though that are easy (at least for me) to wrap my head around, I like to explain them a little. For me though sometimes it’s just easier to create a name or find a name and have it never explained, just a part of the universe that the character has taken for granted.
I also think research can be fun, as it can give you new ideas for your novel and enrich your plot.