By Zoë Sharp

When you’re first starting out, they tell you to write what you know. I’ve always taken issue with this advice.

Instead, I’ve always followed the precept of ‘write what you WANT to know’. We inhabit the lives of our characters, their landscapes, thoughts and emotions, for so long while we’re immersed in writing a novel that if you’re not fascinated by them at the outset, you’re really going to hate them by the time the book is done.

Doing the research for my Charlie Fox crime thrillers is one aspect of my life as a writer that I thoroughly enjoy. I love discovering those oddities and facts that really bring it all home to you and make it real.

That’s why memoirs of war reporters and special forces soldiers line my shelves, along with books by scientists, crime scene cleaners, police and forensics experts. The internet has been a real boon, of course. And talking to someone who’s been there and done that can be a godsend.

When I wanted to have Charlie experience a gunshot injury (SECOND SHOT) I was lucky enough to speak to someone who’d survived such an injury. And when I needed to put her in the midst of a helicopter crash (DIE EASY) an old pilot friend who’d crashed a few in his time provided so much useful information, I put him at the fictional controls.

But sometimes there’s no substitute for first-hand knowledge.

Even if, at the time, you rather wish you hadn’t put yourself in the position of acquiring it. Like the time I sliced my hand open and discovered just how hot your own blood feels when you wear it on the outside of your body… Or how emergency surgery can leave you feeling as though the cardigan of your insides has been buttoned up in the wrong holes.

Many years ago, after receiving death-threats as a photo-journalist, I took up self-defence, making sure that all the techniques I learned would work against a larger, heavier opponent. They have informed every fight scene I’ve written since – not to mention forming the basis for my regular self-defence talks and demonstrations.

At US crime writing conventions – including the first ever ThrillerFest in Scottsdale, AZ – we would often take a group of authors and fans to a local gun range to try the kind of weapons they were writing or reading about. One such outing, I seem to recall, involved a cheap off-tune transistor radio as an audible target, a H&K MP5 9mm submachine gun, and a lady who had been blind since birth.

(But that, as they say, is quite another story…)

Now, I’ve decided to add another layer of realism to my writing. This October, I’ve volunteered to drive 2000 miles across Europe and into Ukraine, to within a stone’s throw of the Russian front lines. As part of UK-based charity, Convoy4Ukraine, I’ll be delivering a pick-up filled with humanitarian and medical aid to a Ukrainian NGO, where vehicle and supplies will be used to rescue, treat, and rehabilitate those directly affected by the ongoing conflict.

And yes, my next Charlie Fox thriller may well see her travelling into a war zone with an aid convoy, although from there I intend to step firmly into the bounds of fiction. In the past, I’ve dropped her down into the midst of Afghanistan (TRIAL UNDER FIRE), earthquake disaster areas (ABSENCE OF LIGHT), the chaos of the Middle East (FOX HUNTER).

This is my opportunity to give something back. In a conflict that has no end in sight, and has now gone on longer than the First World War, how can I not feel the urge to do something?

And yes, it’s an amazing opportunity to gain first-hand experience of what it’s like to travel through a country at war, to speak to the people living with the consequences on a daily basis. To learn of their fears and their hopes.

Getting a glimpse beneath the surface of any situation is the secret of the writer’s craft. We have to be able to put ourselves in the shoes of others, to see what they see, to feel what they feel. If this allows me to add verisimilitude to Charlie Fox’s next outing, while highlighting the plight of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in terrible circumstances, and bringing some relief to the victims, I will have served my purpose.

If you’d like to learn more, read my recent blog post or visit my JustGiving page.

Oh, and wish me luck!