Writing a Pilgrimage Book - Do You Need Research in Every Kind of Book?

You need research in absolutely every kind of book you write, whether fiction or nonfiction. I found when I wrote my travel memoir, Not Quite Lost, I was having to look things up and check that I hadn't made any dumb assumptions. Research stops are a totally legitimate part of the work of writing a book. You can either just stop there and do that research and gather lots of stuff and then bring it back to the book and decide where you're going to use it. Or if not very much depends on those particular details. But research goes on all the time really.