The thing about reading the Sunday paper is that you can stumble upon really useful stuff. Not that the news itself isn't useful--it IS. But this evening, while thumbing through the NY Times Sunday Magazine, I came upon an article about changes in the world of high-tech start-ups. Wouldn't you know, the hero of the novel I'm currently writing is a tech millionaire, and this magazine article is chock full of information that will help make my hero more credible.

This is why writers have to read, read, read. You never know where you're going to find an essential nugget of information you didn't even know you were looking for.