How much do you research your 'facts'?

[Wifetheif]

One of the funniest things in this area came from the podcast "372 Pages We'll Never Get Back" which is dedicated to reading and dissecting bad books. Anyway, they were doing a breakdown of E.L. James's "The Mister" about an Albanian cleaner falling in love with an English lord. One of the listeners discovered that virtually every "fact" that E.L. James had in the book about Albania was transferred verbatim from a website called "Facts King" much of the information at "Facts Kings" was suspicious at best such as, "Albanian cars don't have seatbelts." James took that as gospel so when they get to Albania the cars are seatbeltless. Now think about how stupid that is. All the big automakers have to alter their production lines just to produce cars for the Albanian market. Said cars can't cross the border! Dumb! Now, if she had said they don't USE seatbelts that would be fine but no, the cars have no seatbelts!
E.L. James as terrible a researcher as she is a writer!

 

[Voboy]

A couple of times when I had to describe prostitutes in the 1970s, I didn't bother to find out what they charged. I just wrote something like, "He paid the price she had asked for" or something else vague along those lines.

Yeah, I'd do that, but this is dialogue. "I make $400 per session. You think this is my only job?" That sort of thing.

It doesn't have to be precise, especially since I don't disclose the location. Obviously a stud will cost more in NYC than he will in Poughkeepsie, for example. I don't need to be all that accurate.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yeah, I'd do that, but this is dialogue. "I make $400 per session. You think this is my only job?" That sort of thing.

It doesn't have to be precise, especially since I don't disclose the location. Obviously a stud will cost more in NYC than he will in Poughkeepsie, for example. I don't need to be all that accurate.

It's not just the variation in location, it's also the rate of inflation over the past forty years. And, yeah, there are online inflation calculators. In this case, I didn't have either the past or present charges that prostitutes asked for, although I probably could have found out.

Another variation is streetwalkers versus brothels versus call girls, with each step increasing in price. I also think there are "freelancers" versus women who have some kind of pimp or madame who is running the business end. Then there are gay male prostitutes, dominatrixes, crossovers between pornography and prostitution - there is a lot about the business I don't know about. So far I've mostly winged it, but maybe I could do better.

There are a lot of online interviews, many by Mark Laita, but I haven't seen most of them yet.

Interview - Catt

 

[gunhilltrain]

One of the funniest things in this area came from the podcast "372 Pages We'll Never Get Back" which is dedicated to reading and dissecting bad books. Anyway, they were doing a breakdown of E.L. James's "The Mister" about an Albanian cleaner falling in love with an English lord. One of the listeners discovered that virtually every "fact" that E.L. James had in the book about Albania was transferred verbatim from a website called "Facts King" much of the information at "Facts Kings" was suspicious at best such as, "Albanian cars don't have seatbelts." James took that as gospel so when they get to Albania the cars are seatbeltless. Now think about how stupid that is. All the big automakers have to alter their production lines just to produce cars for the Albanian market. Said cars can't cross the border! Dumb! Now, if she had said they don't USE seatbelts that would be fine but no, the cars have no seatbelts!
E.L. James as terrible a researcher as she is a writer!

I don't think there were any auto assembly plants in Albania - even in Soviet times - so any cars would have to be imported. There are certainly has been a huge increase in auto ownership in the former Soviet bloc, although I don't know who makes them all or where the plants are located. Another thing I'd have to research.

 

[gunhilltrain]

In my Winchester Geese, I had fifteenth-century prostitutes charge a silver sixpence. The Bishop of Winchester's Geese were the highest of their profession at the time and sixpence would have been beyond most men. A penny a day would have been a good wage for a craftsman.

In the 21st century, a sixpence's purchasing power would be minute compared with 1410. But solid silver articles would still have value and be acceptable as tender for services rendered. Depending on how you calculated the then purchasing power of a 1410 sixpence it could vary greatly.

From my note at the end of the story:

If you want to compare the value of a £0 0s 1d Commodity in 1410 there are four choices. In 2020 the relative:
real price of that commodity is £2.68
labour value of that commodity is £28.28
income value of that commodity is £60.81
economic share of that commodity is £1,564.00

I have to admire your - courage? dedication? - in writing a story about anything set in the fifteenth-century.

 

[Voboy]

It's not just the variation in location, it's also the rate of inflation over the past forty years. And, yeah, there are online inflation calculators. In this case, I didn't have either the past or present charges that prostitutes asked for, although I probably could have found out.

Another variation is streetwalkers versus brothels versus call girls, with each step increasing in price. I also think there are "freelancers" versus women who have some kind of pimp or madame who is running the business end. Then there are gay male prostitutes, dominatrixes, crossovers between pornography and prostitution - there is a lot about the business I don't know about. So far I've mostly winged it, but maybe I could do better.

There are a lot of online interviews, many by Mark Laita, but I haven't seen most of them yet.

Interview - Catt

I did a commercial series set in a modern brothel, but those were a spinoff of a story I'd posted here. I do recall researching the probable prices of various "activities" for use on a sort of menu. I don't remember it well: this was a long time ago and it was one of my least probable stories, but it was awfully fun to write.

I do know that I made my narrator an amazing whore, renowned for doing near-legendary sex acts that nobody else would or could do. So her charges were acknowledged to be very inflated thanks to supply and demand, in that she was effectively the sole supplier. I don't recall how specific I got.

Like I said, this one is just a line of throwaway dialogue. But even that gets researched.

 

[Wifetheif]

I don't think there were any auto assembly plants in Albania - even in Soviet times - so any cars would have to be imported. There are certainly has been a huge increase in auto ownership in the former Soviet bloc, although I don't know who makes them all or where the plants are located. Another thing I'd have to research.

A quick check of the E.U. regulations says that seatbelts are required for car drivers in Albania. So, James did NO research and believed the first thing she found on the internet! Your average middle schooler would put in a better effort and check their source. So E.L. James is officially DUMBER than a twelve-year-old. (The kid probably has a bigger vocabulary and is a better writer as well.)

 

[Kumquatqueen]

A quick check of the E.U. regulations says that seatbelts are required for car drivers in Albania. So, James did NO research and believed the first thing she found on the internet! Your average middle schooler would put in a better effort and check their source. So E.L. James is officially DUMBER than a twelve-year-old. (The kid probably has a bigger vocabulary and is a better writer as well.)

Albania is not in the EU, nor likely to be in the next decade...

I bet James is crying all the way to the bank, along with Dan Brown.

 

[NewOldGuy77]

I read "The Golden Couple" by Greer Hendricks and I was barely into the book when I ran into a passage that said the main character, in her 30s, dated a super hot guy for a while. He was a tight end who played at the University of Maryland and he helped lead them to an undefeated season one year.

That made me stop. I'm a college football guy and I'm like, "Wait, what?" I disengaged immediately because Maryland football doesn't do that. Not at all. It was a throwaway line and simply added some color to a character that wasn't in much of the story but it had a major impact for me trying to get lost in the story.

This made me rethink my research and informational process when I'm writing my stories. I got criticism from several readers once when I incorrectly described the interior of a church. Now I'm on the straight-and-narrow to be as accurate as possible.

How much effort do the rest of you put into accuracy and correct facts and data when you're writing? I'm really curious.

When the story calls for it, I do quite a bit. In The Black Rose Legacy Ch. 05, I did a lot of research into the Coast Guard: The ships they use, the length of enlistments the ranks, etc.

Likewise, in the Convertible series, I spent a lot of time researching the history and mechanics of the TR2, as well as ways to modify it.

When my story is in an area that's new to me, I sometimes ask for coaching: For Inspirati Scientia, for instance, to make the circumstances semi-realistic I dived into the world of a lab scientist with the help of a real one, the brilliant @JuanaSalsa. (#WomenInSTEM)

For stories that involved a Filipina character like The Convertible - Time Of My Life and I Used To Have Money One Time, @RiverMaya was my cultural authenticity coach. (#Zamboanga4Ever)

Oddly enough, I was taken to task by a commenter in the first Convertible series for my character's choice of a 2017 Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon at lunch "because maturity wise, it's still in diapers." I offended an oenophile! The horror! To this day it still makes me laugh.

 

[NewOldGuy77]

Loads but I enjoy it at least as much as writing. It leads to rabbit holes where I spend hours reading about the evolution of the rifle, and then use it in one flipping sentence.

That's part of what makes writing fun, isn't it? Despite never having been there, I now know tons about the Stratosphere Tower (aka The Strat) in Las Vegas!

 

[KeithD]

Albania is not in the EU, nor likely to be in the next decade...

I bet James is crying all the way to the bank, along with Dan Brown.

I think that any reader who gets hung up on whether it was illegal to drive without seatbelts in Albania in a story set in Albania where a car not having seatbelts is a plot factor is missing the point of Erotica and I don't really need them as a reader. Erotica, in my play with it, is about sexual arousal, sexual fantasy, and at least a bit of exaggeration, not about clinical or factual minutia.

 

[Brutal_One]

I used a significant amount in my main story due to the historical references. In particular I was after some more less known aspects of Ancient Egypt. Also as the main character is supposed to be a professor with one study group playback session I had to research some pertinent facts.

You do the work because you want it to be authentic. Of course few if any in an erotic site will think to Google a fact. But for the erotic geek Egyptian lore fiend if they check it out they will find the research pans out.

I also tend to use it for location I.e. if I want a scene in a coffee shop or restaurant close to where the main town / city is I prefer it to be as realistic as possible.

Brutal One

 

[BelleCanzuto]

Sometimes, it's like xkcd reads my mind:

 

[Duleigh]

I had to write some non-consensual/reluctant sex and hated every minute of it, but in terms of grading that chapter is rated as H.

I’m not a fan of BDSM but it worked in well with the story I was writing and I needed to research that as well.

I recently wrote a non-consensual/ story based on one I read years ago and I thought I could do better. I think I did better but I didn't enjoy it, not a bit. As for BDSM, all of the B that I've engaged in, as top or bottom, had nothing to do with D, S, or M. It was all sexy and fun. In fact I met a fellow Litter IRL who taught me a lot about poly relationships (which I don't think worked out for her, I hope she's ok) but in her poly and my committed relationships, bondage was always about play and having fun.

As for researching - researching is the bane of my existence. I LOVE researching. When I retired from the USAF and went to college on the GI Bill I had access to some of the finest university libraries I was tempted to show up to the University at Buffalo with a sleeping bag and a cooler. I had a communist professor who called everything that he didn't like "McCarthyism" I did my term paper on the Venona Papers and told this professor that he wasn't qualified to grade it and turned it over to the department chair (who agreed with me).

Here in the forum someone mentioned what kind of bird had the best quills for pens and I dove headfirst down that rabbit hole. Researching is a lot of fun for me.

 

[TruthwithaTwist]

I write (mostly) true stories but change locations and sometimes timeframe. When I do, I research areas for accuracy (weather, location, distance). I also find myself having to go back and check on where technology was at the time - I don’t want to refer to “using a phone camera” when they weren’t around yet.

 

[Voboy]

I'm working on a summer contest piece right now, inspired by a throwaway sentence in the current National Geographic, for which I'm intentionally doing almost no research at all. Certainly a lot less than I normally do. It's actually sort of liberating, and so far I think it's helping with my flow. This is one of those stories where there is much groundwork to be laid before the fuckin' starts going in earnest, so I feel like I have to get things rolling.

 

[Duleigh]

I write (mostly) true stories but change locations and sometimes timeframe. When I do, I research areas for accuracy (weather, location, distance). I also find myself having to go back and check on where technology was at the time - I don’t want to refer to “using a phone camera” when they weren’t around yet.

Weather or climate? Rain is rain if you're in North Dakota or Saudi Arabia, but winters are just a bit different. (I know, I've survived both.) Technology is the toughest, what did we have for portable tape players in 1972? Were casettes widely available or was it still all 8 track tapes? There were portable 8 track players, how does a mature couple in 1972 play the music of their youth, Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman, at the beach?

 

[oggbashan]

Weather or climate? Rain is rain if you're in North Dakota or Saudi Arabia, but winters are just a bit different. (I know, I've survived both.) Technology is the toughest, what did we have for portable tape players in 1972? Were casettes widely available or was it still all 8 track tapes? There were portable 8 track players, how does a mature couple in 1972 play the music of their youth, Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman, at the beach?

In my case, with a wind-up gramophone with 78 rpm records.

To be more modern - a battery-operated reel to reel recorder with pre-recorded tapes. But the batteries wouldn't last long.

 

[Voboy]

I was thinking they probably wouldn't expect to hear the music of their youth on the beach. Nobody really thought of music as portable until the Walkman, and even Gen X doesn't really walk around with a constant soundtrack from what I've seen. The idea that music should always be universally available is a mindset shift, and I think it's largely millennials and those affected by them. Because they've always had the entire world's musical library at their fingertips.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

A beachside bar with a jukebox? A transistor radio? Someone else's car radio? Did some cars have radios and cassette players in 1972?

 

[TruthwithaTwist]

Weather or climate? Rain is rain if you're in North Dakota or Saudi Arabia, but winters are just a bit different. (I know, I've survived both.) Technology is the toughest, what did we have for portable tape players in 1972? Were casettes widely available or was it still all 8 track tapes? There were portable 8 track players, how does a mature couple in 1972 play the music of their youth, Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman, at the beach?

Yeah, I guess I meant "climate".

In terms of technology, I do take some liberties in my stories there. If you look at tech from 2000-now (when most of my stories take place) tech changed rapidly. I know in one of my stories, I replaced "pictures with a disposable camera" with "picture on her phone" because the former didn't really add much and left too much explanation out there. Another story in mid-write, however, I keep the old-school polaroid camera because it was more integral to the story. I also tend to leave some vagueness, now, too. "Put on music"/"Turned on a porno" - I know they were CDs and/or VHS tapes (GASP!!!!) but if people want to picture an iPad and Spotify - that's cool, too.

 

[oggbashan]

A beachside bar with a jukebox? A transistor radio? Someone else's car radio? Did some cars have radios and cassette players in 1972?

Cars? Yes. 8 track was never popular in the UK

 

[tenyari]

This can be hard.

I check basic facts but it's easy to be hit by 'the fact you never suspected could possibly be an issue'.

Not everything will show up on google or in a guide book or such. Pick some small local community on the map and then populate it with characters that fit what your research tells you about the place, only to discover that one reader who lived there and knew the place was some weird spot totally different from the surroundings. Which is a short-hand of a dialogue I as a reader had with a writer who's work I like a lot, when he happened to set a story in a small California town I spent some of my youth in. None of the facts I know about the place will show up if you research it online. But they'll slap you in the face if you go and live there.

- This is the trap you can never avoid. Google will never tell you all the facts. Eventually you just have to throw your hat in there and hope your readers let you dance. The writer was good, his story was great, so it just became a discussion between us about this very point: It's impossible to do perfect research, but a good story can give you a pass.


Research what you can, but accept your limits.


Just be glad you're not filming a 1970s car chase scene and have to cut from 'downtown' to your cast suddenly driving up a street in Chinatown because 'permits' while every single viewer from San Francisco groans at you in the theater...
- Which is pretty much my entire experience of watching TV and movies as a kid.

 

[staciliv]

I read "The Golden Couple" by Greer Hendricks and I was barely into the book when I ran into a passage that said the main character, in her 30s, dated a super hot guy for a while. He was a tight end who played at the University of Maryland and he helped lead them to an undefeated season one year.

That made me stop. I'm a college football guy and I'm like, "Wait, what?" I disengaged immediately because Maryland football doesn't do that. Not at all. It was a throwaway line and simply added some color to a character that wasn't in much of the story but it had a major impact for me trying to get lost in the story.

This made me rethink my research and informational process when I'm writing my stories. I got criticism from several readers once when I incorrectly described the interior of a church. Now I'm on the straight-and-narrow to be as accurate as possible.

How much effort do the rest of you put into accuracy and correct facts and data when you're writing? I'm really curious.

I met a girl who had done the slave auction for real. I wrote the story based on her recollections.

It became an obsession of mine and after two years of searching I was accepted for training at The Pig Farm (as we trainees called it). Two weeks later I was 'sold' and spent three weeks as a sex slave.

Looking back on the story some details were different but overall it is accurate.

 

[SemiStraight]

Whenever I need to. It makes for some very strange search histories like German women's names and some definitely are NSFW. Otherwise I'm fairly well read and write what I know.