It's the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats. I read newspapers, textbooks on crime. I talk to private investigators, police officers, jail administrators, doctors, lawyers, career criminals. Ideas are everywhere. In fiction, what counts is not expertise at all, but the illusion of expertise.
All art is illusion, accomplished with stage effects that seem more real than reality.
I have no theory of stories, just a theory for each story I write. A particular form is right for a given story and that's all. I think it really is a lot of work to get things right, so I trained myself. I sort of take notes the way photographers take photos.