I have often thought if I had not chosen to be a writer then I would have been everything else.
The research I used to do in libraries every week, having a list of things to find out, the constant need for encyclopedias and reference books makes a writer a jack-of-all-trades and master of one. The creation of the Internet means I can write, need some information find it in the browser, take notes and work on that section without waiting a day or two. But when you think there is nowhere and no subject a writer cannot go in order to edit and form their story, you quickly see how information is the life blood of authorship.
Personal information gives you that edge, that use of words, that passion that people call ‘authenticity’ but authenticity can be and regularly is, faked; from the famous Western writer who has never visited the USA, to the whole drama of the sandstorm in The English Patient being ripped from National Geographic.
But facts and how one uses them are the book. Every piece of writing, even fairy tales, have their roots in real life and that is not to say writing is derivative, but to explain that writers are explorers.