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I've always enjoyed both 40k and writing, so it seems natural to fuse the two. But what should i read in order to be properly knowledgable in the lore? will basic sources, the rulebook and my codex, do, or is their something else i should read?

EDIT: I'm sorry if this is in the wrong section! i realize now Dakka Fiction might have been a better place for this.

Welcome to Dakka! (First time I've had the opportunity to welcome someone, I hope I'm a good ambassador for the community!)

In regards to your question, if you'd like to get familiar with the lore, browse the 40k wiki ( be aware not everything there is not 100% accurate) ANd more importantly, Lexicanum.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page

I read HOURS and HOURS of lore on planets, the imperium and all sorts of xenos before I dove into this hobby.

Look into the time line articles in particular.

Additionally the 6th edition big rule book was a lot of fun for me to read. You may be able to pick one up cheap since we're in 7th now. The fluff (lore) should be relatively similar to 7th edition and makes a great intro to the universe of 40k.

Good luck and welcome again!

FM Argos

The rulebooks and codices is the simplest answer, anything you really need is there. Read enough books from black library and you'll get a better understanding of the 40k universe.

Anything you're particularly curious about?

First rule: Beyond the basics, there is no canon in 40K, unlike in Star Wars. If you want your Rhinos to run on a nuclear engine rather than promethium, go right ahead. Want your lasguns to shoot green lasers and not red lasers? Go ahead. Want your Russ to have blond hair and not red hair? Go ahead. Want your Orks to be "pine green" rather than "olive drab"? Go ahead. Want your Orks to bleed black rather than green? Go ahead.

Second Rule: Just because it works one way on one planet in part of the Imperium does not mean it works that way on every planet in the Imperium

What Psienesis says is good advice, there are only a few certainties (the Horus Heresy happened, the Astartes are genetically modified supersoldiers in a thousand Chapters, the Emperor is worshipped as a God by the IoM ect) but on a more initricate level, nearly anything goes. With the huge sandbox of the setting to play with, you can justify just about anything.

The best advice I can give, though, is to not approach it any differently to anything else you've written. All the research on the setting in the world won't hold together poor plot, weak characters or bad writing, so as with anything else in writing, these things should be at the forefront of anything you do. Let the setting you're adopting do the background work and inform the characters for you, but the whole time, consider if what you're writing would hold up as well without the 40k label.

Goods luck!

Thank you guys for the responses! It's all really helpful.

 Psienesis wrote:
First rule: Beyond the basics, there is no canon in 40K, unlike in Star Wars.

Wait, there's a canon to Star Wars? The very first two things licensed out (Heir to the Empire and Dark Empire) couldn't possibly exist in the same universe. Star Wars is just as much of a mess canonically as 40K. They're just more protective of the license.

The idea of "No canon" is just a cop out from GW/TBL for "We can't be bothered to edit this stuff and you'll buy it anyway" and is used to justify ridiculous arguments on Internet forums, lol.

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
First rule: Beyond the basics, there is no canon in 40K, unlike in Star Wars.

Wait, there's a canon to Star Wars? The very first two things licensed out (Heir to the Empire and Dark Empire) couldn't possibly exist in the same universe. Star Wars is just as much of a mess canonically as 40K. They're just more protective of the license.

The idea of "No canon" is just a cop out from GW/TBL for "We can't be bothered to edit this stuff and you'll buy it anyway" and is used to justify ridiculous arguments on Internet forums, lol.

Star Wars used to have strict canon, with certain tiers retconning each other. Now however there is Legends Canon and Disney Canon, as Disney shoved the EU into an alternate universe and retconned everything from the movies so the only things that remain canon are the Movies, the 3D Clone Wars Series, Rebels, and now specially made licensed books. So now Disney can make up whatever they want for the new timeline and sell it to you, while still selling you the old material that you've grown up with, the cheeky bastards.

I love writing short passages (500-1000 words) but I've never written something much bigger than that, and usually no one else sees what I write. However I recommend that if you are committed, do it . Also, if you have a basic understanding of an imperial and non-imperial force, you are set in terms of fluff, and all that is left is your imagination.

Psienesis wrote:First rule: Beyond the basics, there is no canon in 40K, unlike in Star Wars.

Second Rule: Just because it works one way on one planet in part of the Imperium does not mean it works that way on every planet in the Imperium

Right, 40k has a purposely nebulous way to its background. It's not that hard to come up with a mildly plausible reason that "Well, in THIS case..." makes sense.

Unless you know you want to reference something specific that someone else has written, it's less important to learn names and dates than to get a feel of the soul of the fluff. Watch the movie Brazil to see a contemporary example of the super-dark, absurdist, anti-establishment humor. Or, well, lots of stuff from the 80's. Being able to think like the setting will help you a lot more in writing than knowing specific things.

We used to nerd out to grimdark while playing 40k at my old FLGS. One person claimed that his tanks were so spotless because the infantry spent all their extra time cleaning them with lasgun fire. After all, the one limitless resource they have is manpower. Or arguing about the worst kind of heresy (which is always the recursive iteration of the last kind of heresy mentioned). Or wondering about how many waves of conscripts you're going to have to send in before you send in the next wave of waves of conscripts.

If you can work a strong sense of grimdark satire into whatever you write, then it will probably fly in the world of 40k, regardless of the specific content. Write the humor, and you've only got to figure out how the inquisitor would explain (away) the events, and there you are.

First of all, you should set your mind on what topic you want to touch. Than investigate in this direction as there's tons of stuff to read and it'd take years to read through all the present fluff about everyone in the 30k-40k universe.
Secondly, as much as there's no oficially unbreakable canon, many people might find it unsatisfying if you break their mind canon which is generally formed as a mix of BRB fluff, Codex fluff and some of the literature on the matter - mostly BL. So, even if you create an interesting plot, some guyz might be offput by a lazcannon firing green light instead of red or invisible or something they believe it should fire. So, if you go in for technical details it's a good bet to give at least some logical explanation on how and why it worksexactly this way.

Oh, also, decide how thick you want to lay on the details of the 40k setting. Are you going to have space battles in a dystopian galaxy, or are you having Lemartes Space Marines firing Crusade-pattern Bolters because their Mark Vb Godwins were all broken?

How deeply you insinuate the setting will also determine how much research you'll have to do.

My last book has a 40k setting, but it's vague, thinly veiled and lightly applied, rather than shoved in your face. As such, I didn't do any looking up of fluff at all.