How Much Research Do You Do?

[NOIRTRASH]

In my latest story effort one of the characters is a heroin addict so I'm learning a lot about heroin use. Its plenty more complex than I imagined but I want the depiction to be plausible and accurate.

One of the characters lives in a 1947 Westcraft Coronado 24 house trailer. So I examined plenty of them at a site called VINTAGE TRAILERS. I don't recommend living in a small trailer, but it can be done if your lifestyle is casual and you tend to eat out a lot.

One of the characters is an assassin. My son was a military assassin thru his first enlistments, then became a military gunsmith and shooting instructor before retiring as a first sergeant at an intelligence facility. I get plenty of details from him, he cant talk about who he killed but I learn plenty about how it happens. Its mostly common sense. I also read lotsa sniper memoirs.

Life hands me plenty of hands on learning opportunities. What I mean is, I cant read small print so instructions and directions are beyond my ken (or Barbie). So I gotta apply my PILOT-like mind to the problem at such times. WHAT WOULD PILOT DO!

 

[oggbashan]

The easier ways to do research on a particular subject are:

1. Google and look for Wikipedia article on the subject, or

2. Post a question in the Authors' Hangout or General Board. The posters have a wide range of knowledge of abstruse subjects, or know how to find out. You might get some rude responses from some on the GB, but a few will answer.

 

[R. Richard]

What Ogg said. Also search the 'Net for specific items.

 

[Schaka]

i get a concept start the story, then use Google and Wikipedia

 

[Serafina1210]

I did a lot of research on heroin use for a scene I ultimately cut. The best resource I found was an online forum for heroin users. The "how to get the best rush" and "where do you shoot up when the veins in your arms have collapsed" stuff was 1000 times more useful than "here's the evil stuff heroin does to your body."

For dwellings I look for pictures and a floor plan. For occupations I use those of people I know. For BDSM practices the Lit forum is the best resource anywhere (I don't post queries, but just lurk). For diseases and their symptoms it's hard to beat the Mayo Clinic site. Google Maps with Street View for local color. Online menus and interior photos of restaurants where I can't afford to eat.

Such a lot of information available without ever getting out of your chair!

 

[JKendallDane]

Half the fun and reward of being an author is the knowledge you acquire doing research. What you end up learning can be limitless. It's like finally earning that Masters or Doctorate without suffering through more Econ, Quant, or "Insignificant Hungarian Poets of the 14th Century" classes.

With all the research I've already done (and with much more still to do) for my med school romance trilogy, I should be able to be standing next to my one protagonist when he finally goes through his Hippocratic Oath Ceremony at graduation. Likewise, I haven't been to Disney World in almost forty years, but thanks to needed research for a story series, I know what the most popular rides currently are. If you always wanted to be an astronaut when you grew up, just create a storyline with a main character that is one and then do the research.

Plus there is one other great advantage to all the "research Googling" we have to do...it keeps those guys at NSA busy trying to figure out why we do back-to-back-to-back searches like: Niagara Falls helicopter weddings, compact thermonuclear devices, Biblical references to wine, zoos in Australia, and circus clowns.

.

 

[HeyAll]

Not a lot. Just as long as it's believable.

I recently wrote a story where a sonar device was inadvertently making a woman horny, but I just kind of made it up, in terms of how a sonar device works. No one is going to complain about anything like that.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I did a lot of research on heroin use for a scene I ultimately cut. The best resource I found was an online forum for heroin users. The "how to get the best rush" and "where do you shoot up when the veins in your arms have collapsed" stuff was 1000 times more useful than "here's the evil stuff heroin does to your body."

For dwellings I look for pictures and a floor plan. For occupations I use those of people I know. For BDSM practices the Lit forum is the best resource anywhere (I don't post queries, but just lurk). For diseases and their symptoms it's hard to beat the Mayo Clinic site. Google Maps with Street View for local color. Online menus and interior photos of restaurants where I can't afford to eat.

Such a lot of information available without ever getting out of your chair!

I wanted to know why users get tracks. I found the info.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Not a lot. Just as long as it's believable.

I recently wrote a story where a sonar device was inadvertently making a woman horny, but I just kind of made it up, in terms of how a sonar device works. No one is going to complain about anything like that.

There are anomalies. Few believe aluminum can be soldered but it can. This year I got peaches in December. A couple years ago I had two grape harvests...rare weather conditions make it happen.

Whats stunning, tho, is the function of fucking and the shape of the penis. Fucking is mostly about killing and removing the other man's sperm. That implies much about females.

 

[coldwater1]

Not enough.

The quality of my story telling is limited by my patience, or more precisely, my lack thereof. There are things I should pay more attention to that would make my stories more believable, but I haven't forced myself to do it.

 

[NotWise]

I don't spend my life at it, but I do quite a bit.

I've written stories around characters at the Battle of Hastings and through its aftermath, characters in the frontier battles during the US War of 1812 (this was depressing, but it gave some insight into how the US got on the path to genocide against Native Americans), and characters in south-central Europe at the dawn of the Bronze Age. Those all required a lot of research. Wikipedia articles were good, but they didn't cover it all.

Even my Valentine's Day story needed research. I had to buy and eat a box of cherry cordials to make sure I got it right.

Future subjects for research coming in the near future; revolts against Mayan domination, US suppression of populist movements in Central America, Meso-American mysticism.

 

[barefootgirl69]

I've only written a few things under a different name. Most of what I've done are SRPs, but I love to make them as realistic as possible so I do research before and during.

I know that if something isn't realistic while I'm reading, it detracts from the story. I don't want to do that to someone who is reading my work.

 

[Cmdr_L]

Well, I generally write in settings I'm interested in. Which ends up being military sci-fi 90% of the time. I've got a large amount of general knowledge in the area which I've picked up from years of research for worldbuilding projects. If there's something I don't know off the top of my head, I've got a group of similarly-focused people I can ask, and if they don't know, I'll check Wikipedia and whatever forums I'm aware of that happen to be knowledgeable on the subject.

 

[GoldenCojones]

The easier ways to do research on a particular subject are:

1. Google and look for Wikipedia article on the subject, or

2. Post a question in the Authors' Hangout or General Board. The posters have a wide range of knowledge of abstruse subjects, or know how to find out. You might get some rude responses from some on the GB, but a few will answer.

There is a reason both Google and Wikipedia are called "All Knowing and Often Wrong"

Doing research there is helpful, but you have to take EVERYTHING you read with a grain of salt and apply sanity checks. Even seeing the same information in multiple sources could just mean someone reposted someone else's very wrong information.

 

[NotWise]

There is a reason both Google and Wikipedia are called "All Knowing and Often Wrong"

There are few filters on Google. You need to check facts yourself, which requires at least some basic understanding about your topic--enough to apply a sniff test to what you read.

Wikipedia is better if you're looking into major topics.

"The Napoleonic Wars" is going to be pretty dependable; there will be multiple contributors looking critically at each other's contributions and a lot of citations for the information in the article.

"Bestiality in 17th century Hunan." Umm. Check references.

 

[IvyMarquis]

While I will do research if I'm looking for a specific thing, I tend to follow the rule of 'If you don't know jack about what you're writing, keep it as vague as possible.'

If you don't understand how science makes x work, trying to detail how science does the thing is only going to distract the readers who understand how x works. The rest of us will probably ignore it since we don't get it anyway.

I'm an avid equestrian, and somehow through the tag system I ended up reading a story taking place at a horse stable (I tend to avoid most stories with equestrian settings because they tend to be ridiculous for one reason or another, but I felt like punishing myself so went along for the ride), and it was as cringe worthy and inaccurate as one would expect. Crossing western and english, wrong diction in the wrong place, etc. The author was trying to convince me they knew what they were talking about, but the devil is in the details. Perhaps I'm asking too much from a story about people screwing in the tack room, but whatever.

That being said, I will spend hours at a time researching asinine things so my vague descriptions are as accurate as possible. I spent several hours reading different things about rosaries solely because I had a character who said the prayer every night. If you're going to go into specifics (beyond peppering in select details), then I'd imagine even more research would be called for.

 

[Carnevil9]

I do very little research. A story isn't about facts; it is about emotions. As long as the feelings ring true, the shape of the leaves on the ficus, or the number of toes on the cats, isn't really important.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

There is a reason both Google and Wikipedia are called "All Knowing and Often Wrong"

Doing research there is helpful, but you have to take EVERYTHING you read with a grain of salt and apply sanity checks. Even seeing the same information in multiple sources could just mean someone reposted someone else's very wrong information.

Yesterday I read an article about the reliability of college medical research. On average 90% of its crap. In grad school I discovered lotsa research by brainiac starz is crap. The reason is sloppy math when they do the statistics. No one checks their math. Scientists, like writers, hate editors. All demand applause and a big O.

 

[loquere]

I go to the location all my stories are set in. This gets tricky when I write a scifi-fantasy story. NASA hasn't been as cooperative as they ought to be.

 

[49greg]

I'm not published, I'm not writing an enduring or endearing piece of literature but just doing it for fun. So there isn't much research. Wikipedia is the main source for what I do. Towns cities and other locations are an amalgam of places I have been in and my imagination. People are taken from my experience, and my imagination.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

I do a lot of research for stories set in the current or past, "real" world. Nothing wrecks a story for me like an author who wanders into an area of expertise I possess, and clearly didn't bother to do a morning's worth of research. It ruins entire books. I don't care to do that to anyone else.

I love the number of things that you learn while investigating. For _Chosen_ I was reading up on medieval Spain, weaponry, modern art terminology, image processing techniques, document curation, ancient Spanish, Catholicism, and jewelry. Sometimes I'd do an hour's worth of research to get one passing sentence right. It's a good thing I'm not writing for a living - there's no economic payback for this kind of effort. But when I Submit I know I'm not going to be caught out by anyone.

For sci-fi settings it's all pure invention. I keep a rough eye on physics so I don't invent a technology that's literally impossible, but other than that it's my world and my rules.

 

[coldwater1]

I'm an avid equestrian, and somehow through the tag system I ended up reading a story taking place at a horse stable (I tend to avoid most stories with equestrian settings because they tend to be ridiculous for one reason or another, but I felt like punishing myself so went along for the ride), and it was as cringe worthy and inaccurate as one would expect. Crossing western and english, wrong diction in the wrong place, etc. The author was trying to convince me they knew what they were talking about, but the devil is in the details. Perhaps I'm asking too much from a story about people screwing in the tack room, but whatever.

Ouch . . . was that my story you just skewered? I wrote one that took place in a horse stable called "A Stable Relationship." I didn't think I had mixed western and english anywhere, but it's possible. Oh, well. Can't blame you if I deserved it. I did have someone who claimed to be an avid equestrian review it to ensure I hadn't said anything too stupid . . . but who knows?

 

[IvyMarquis]

Ouch . . . was that my story you just skewered? I wrote one that took place in a horse stable called "A Stable Relationship." I didn't think I had mixed western and english anywhere, but it's possible. Oh, well. Can't blame you if I deserved it. I did have someone who claimed to be an avid equestrian review it to ensure I hadn't said anything too stupid . . . but who knows?

Nah, it wasn't yours (hadn't read it before, as again I tend to avoid those types of stories like the plague) that I was bitching about. Color me surprised though, yours is actually sound- that is a first for me, lmao.

 

[Zodia195]

Even though my stories are mostly taking place in fantasy worlds where I can create my own rules, I still at times look up things, especially if a location is influenced by a culture found on Earth. It's times like this when I am glad I have a minor in art history and love learning about different cultures because I know how to look for the right resource.

The web is extremely helpful in finding out basic information, but I tend to look at sites with concrete evidence about things. It's a habit I developed in college because I needed reliable sources for my projects.

 

[Imstillfun]

Research

My stories are about interactions. I often google images to decide what my characters are wearing. I don't always describe it, but it helps me visualize the,.

I research places so that people get a sense of reality about the location. If someone has a specific Job I research that. I want things to be realistic but I don't need or want to get into so much detail the plot falls behind the descriptions.

Every story has a Google search ot 2.

If I'm doing an incest MMF I might Google tbe term and look at images just to see if there is an ki age there I should describe in a story.