Do I need to research my novel, and what kind of research should I do?
Researching a novel is a complicated question because it depends on what you are writing about. Everything is research, in a sense. Going to the supermarket is research, because you're picking up incidental detail all of the time that goes into the writing of a novel. But, if your novel is about, perhaps, a group of friends, living now, and these people are based on people you know, the research will be fairly minimal. But, if you're writing a book about the 16th century you might very much spend a long time in the library.