Long-Distance Research

Writing About Places You’ve Never Been

(Published in Writers’ Narrative Magazine – February 2026)

As strange as it sounds, some of my most successful series are set in places I’ve never physically visited. Miami. Colorado. Scandinavia. On paper, that sounds crazy. How can you convincingly write about a place you’ve never seen? Or smelled? Or tasted?

The answer is careful and in-depth long-distance research. These days, we have all the tools with which to do this effectively. As writers, we’re now able to build a setting that feels authentic rather than Googled.

Here’s how I do it:

1. Start Wide

Before drilling into specifics, I always take a look at my plot, at my characters and decide what aspects of the setting or location I need to research. For my books set in Southern Florida, I needed to dig into the glitzy Miami scene, the darker underbelly of the city, and the Everglades, where several bodies are found. There are a ton of websites, videos and even TV series on this. I watched hours of footage until I had a feel for the landscape. I took notes, listened to how the characters spoke, the lilt in their accents, the words they used. I made note of the flora and fauna in the region, the dangers and obstacles they had to overcome.

My Colorado series is set in a small town in the Rockies and features a local sheriff, his deputies, and the kind of crime that is common in those more isolated places. This required a different type of approach. I looked at travel sites on the area, took down descriptions of buildings, western-style saloons, architecture and even town layouts. I read local news websites and discovered things I never knew were there. Native American reservations, heritage societies, a mountain railway leading into the mountains…

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