Best way to research

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

So I am kind of stuck on a story I was playing around with. I've just started to write down some ideas to see if it would work.
Anyway there was some sort of sickness that has killed off about 80-90% of the population of the world. The protagonist is a teen that lived with her family, but they all died and she is left there alone.
Being on a farm they have a lot of food canned, she has animals like chickens for fresh eggs, and there is a well so she can get fresh water.

But eventually the electric will go out, right? Someone has to work at the electric company to make sure things are working right, right?
And I'll want some sort of disease that would have killed off people, but left animals unaffected.

So where can I research this? Is google my best bet?

 

[sr71plt]

I've found Internet searching to be a gold mine. (Having started my writing/researching life before the advent of the Internet, I probably appreciate the existence of Internet research a lot more than those who came later and have no idea how limiting writing/researching life was before that--not to mention what you had to do to get something written down before the advent of the computer.)

What I do find, though, is that I need to have some idea of the area of study before I bring Internet research to bear in a story. I stay pretty much away from the scientific/medical in my stories because I know too little of these fields to know what I'm looking for in Internet research, let alone what is useful in what I find as opposed to the large percentage of trash that's floating around in cyberspace.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

I've found Internet searching to be a gold mine. (Having started my writing/researching life before the advent of the Internet, I probably appreciate the existence of Internet research a lot more than those who came later and have no idea how limiting writing/researching life was before that--not to mention what you had to do to get something written down before the advent of the computer.)

What I do find, though, is that I need to have some idea of the area of study before I bring Internet research to bear in a story. I stay pretty much away from the scientific/medical in my stories because I know too little of these fields to know what I'm looking for in Internet research, let alone what is useful in what I find as opposed to the large percentage of trash that's floating around in cyberspace.

I usually stay far away from stuff I know nothing about, but just felt like trying something different.
My friend once asked me to write about a surfer, but I know nothing about surfing so I said, I don't think so please give me a new challenge!

So far all I come up with in googling is scenarios dealing with a zombie apocalypse, no zombies in my story! But I guess a lot of the circumstances would be the same with regards to electricity, water, etc....

What would we do without the internet!

 

[NicoleZ]

If I remember rightly, Frank Herbert once wrote a book called "The White Plague" where a mad bio-engineer created a virus that only killed women. I think you might need something like that as I believe that almost every naturally occurring virus or germ has the capability to jump species. Also, by the time your heroine is all alone, the grid would have been down for weeks if not months, so unless there is a diesel generator on the farm (or solar panels or windmills or suchlike), she won't have any electricity. On the other hand, most farms have a large tank of diesel that holds at least 500 gallons so her diesel generator wouldn't run out for a very long time. I hope this helps you?

 

[TamLin01]

Note that a farm would probably have a generator. She'd have to spend a significant amount of time raiding gas from abandoned vehicles and installations nearby, but you could probably power the place for years like that.

A lot of diseases that affect humans spare other species, and vice versa. There are illnesses that can jump from one species to another (I'm told), and a new strain may always emerge to attack other types of organisms. But an epidemic that bumps off people but leaves the cattle behind is really not far fetched. So you should be fine there.

 

[sr71plt]

If I remember rightly, Frank Herbert once wrote a book called "The White Plague" where a mad bio-engineer created a virus that only killed women. I think you might need something like that as I believe that almost every naturally occurring virus or germ has the capability to jump species. Also, by the time your heroine is all alone, the grid would have been down for weeks if not months, so unless there is a diesel generator on the farm (or solar panels or windmills or suchlike), she won't have any electricity. On the other hand, most farms have a large tank of diesel that holds at least 500 gallons so her diesel generator wouldn't run out for a very long time. I hope this helps you?

I have a story that will post here sometimes on the development of a plague that targets specific populations. I didn't get into how that was done, because that would be trying to marshal science I know little about, but I think just stating that it was being developed was good enough for my story needs, I think. I'm reading a Kathy Reich novel now (the inspiration for the "Bones" TV series). I wonder if she realizes how many readers just skim through her scientific explanations because they aren't really needed to justify her plot lines. I don't stop reading her, though, because I can tolerate other readers really enjoying that stuff.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

Two words: Google

 

[Paul_Chance]

I think it depends on the type of story you're writing. The internet is a great source of information and misinformation that is in the common psyche - however, if you're trying to write a story with hard science, it's a very sketchy place and you'll want to stay clear of the common information sources and focus down on the .edu sites for actual white papers, or focus on specific academic journals.

The challenge with super-virus or weaponized virus stories is the classic hot-zone scenario. Mortality, precision and speed of transmittal make them easier to identify and counteract. A truly lethal to humanity level virus would be simple, slow, and inflict generational damage.

 

[DreamCloud]

There's no real need to explain it unless your survivor has a medical degree. Your average person would only know the basics.

Example:

They say it was the flu. Not like the flu we used to get shots for, but something much worse. Something no shot could innoculate. There were rumors it was created. If someone did the unthinkable, it probably got them as well. It no longer mattered where it came from. My family, my town, and the bulk of humanity were gone.

 

[Hypoxia]

There's no real need to explain it unless your survivor has a medical degree. Your average person would only know the basics.

Quite right. Wave your hands and throw out some plausible gibberish. Proclaim actual details if you're anal and/or you want to whelm your readers. A little of that goes a long way. There's always unabtainium...

 

[Paul_Chance]

The only time I'd go into the nitty gritty detail would be if the details were central to the story or story resolution. Otherwise a MacGuffin of "weaponized bird flu" will work fine. Plausible, but vague enough you'll stave off the attack of the pedants.

 

[Hussar73]

...ome sort of disease that would have killed off people, but left animals unaffected.

So where can I research this? Is google my best bet?

how important is accuracy here? a teen caught up in that cataclysmic disaster probably wouldn't know more than "everyone's dying", and for story purposes, that might be enough.

in general, though:

most diseases have a stable parasite-host relationship with their usual victims. killing slowly and not universally.

a disease is most deadly when it breaks onto a population that has no previous practical or immunological experience. this happens when a disease jumps species, like measles did from cattle and caused terrible epidemics in the ancient world, or more recently with Ebola. or, when old world diseases like influenza, measles (which evolved into a human disease of less lethality), yellow fever, etc., appeared into the new world and caused about an 80%+ population crash when Europeans began colonizing the Americas.

a disease that kills 90% of the exposed population will burn itself out before it gets transmitted widely. but this probably doesn't matter if you're writing fiction. the medieval bubonic plague killed up to 50% of its victims (parts of England) but, on the other hand, kept returning every few years for the next century or two.

 

[MLClifton]

Cormac McCarthy's The Road is a post-apocalyptic novel where the cause of the apocalypse is never specified. I agree with DreamCloud--unless you want to spend oodles of time researching, it's better to stick to the basics. And it's easy to imagine that in the kind of catastrophic scenario you're describing, misinformation would be rife. Like Hussar73 pointed out, your character could be pretty much in the dark as to the actual cause.

 

[Hypoxia]

Easy way out: design your disease. Pick something that kills the way you want. Is it painful, bloody, fast, clean, horrendous? Call it a weaponized mutant version of anthrax or polio or cholera or bubonic plague or syphilis or whatever toots your horn. If you're anal, give it a scientific name like Yersinia pestis xx Guerro. Then go on with the story.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I suggest a wonder vaccine that destroys the immune system as a lethal side effect of the wonder drug. Not all die from such events, and a few survive. I've read of a few people surviving cyanide with almost no trouble.

 

[Misshotndeep]

Oh! I love doing research. Let me know what you want. It will actually be fun for me.

 

[Handley_Page]

Note that a farm would probably have a generator. She'd have to spend a significant amount of time raiding gas from abandoned vehicles and installations nearby, but you could probably power the place for years like that.

A lot of diseases that affect humans spare other species, and vice versa. There are illnesses that can jump from one species to another (I'm told), and a new strain may always emerge to attack other types of organisms. But an epidemic that bumps off people but leaves the cattle behind is really not far fetched. So you should be fine there.

Any cattle are going to be in a very bad way very quickly. They need milking, else they get nasty problems of veterinary medicine.
But the idea of solar power, or wind turbines, plus residual fuel stocks is a goer. ~A windmill for lifting deep-well clean water might also be good (like this sort of thing.
Loads of country farms had them when I was a kid.

 

[Hussar73]

unless the OP really needs a plausible explanation, then the "we don't know why everyone's dying" adds to the horror of the situation, and if the disease where that lethal, the pandemic would have to be over in a matter of weeks or less, civilization would collapse before the medical community would get a grip and the protagonist would be in the dark.

if the OP needs a disease, then an unknown hemorrhagic fever (Marburg, Ebola or something filovirus) from Africa that jumps species to humans and has evolved an airborne form, with an incubation of a few days during which the victim is asymptotic but contagious.

 

[Jay321]

Cormac McCarthy's The Road is a post-apocalyptic novel where the cause of the apocalypse is never specified. I agree with DreamCloud--unless you want to spend oodles of time researching, it's better to stick to the basics. And it's easy to imagine that in the kind of catastrophic scenario you're describing, misinformation would be rife. Like Hussar73 pointed out, your character could be pretty much in the dark as to the actual cause.

was the protagonist a small child when the outbreak happened? if that is the case this is completely true. If she was of a practical understanding age when it happened then she will have some idea of what happened but probably not many details if she was on the farm at the time. Call it "plague" say "so many people got sick and died"

Two words: Google

I must be having a hard time counting, isn't that four words?

unless the OP really needs a plausible explanation, then the "we don't know why everyone's dying" adds to the horror of the situation

if the OP needs a disease, then an unknown hemorrhagic fever (Marburg, Ebola or something filovirus) from Africa that jumps species to humans and has evolved an airborne form, with an incubation of a few days during which the victim is asymptotic but contagious.

this could be drawn out with "a sick man stumbled down our road, daddy went out to help him. Mommy and daddy got sick four school days later" (assuming protagonist was in the 5-7 age range when outbreak happened) or something to the effect.

Facts don't have to be perfect in fiction. The just need to be believable, and barely that. Proof: 50 Shades.

 

[Bramblethorn]

If you Google "world without humans" you should find a documentary that looks at what would happen if people suddenly vanished from the Earth. If I recall, some nuclear plants will happily run for weeks without human intervention, but fossil-fuel plants tend to require feeding so they'll go off quickly once the humans go.

 

[Tw0Cr0ws]

A lot of diseases have a narrow temperature range that they can live in, this is why a fever kills them.

Other animals have different normal body temperatures.
For example a dog is normal at 102.5° F, which would be a fairly high fever in a human.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

Thanks for all of the ideas, I really do appreciate it!
A lot to work with here, now if I get a few spare minutes maybe I can start getting a story together.

My kids have been throwing questions at me, not sure if they're helping me or making this more difficult, lol!
My oldest son is in his third year of Latin so he said he could make up a good disease name for me.

I've seen that documentary about if there were no people left, but it's been years, so I think I'll try to find it and watch again.

And I realize I think all of this came to my mind because I watch The Twilight Zone every night while falling asleep. Puts ideas in my head.

 

[oggbashan]

There was a UK children's book about a teenage girl who was left alone after a nuclear catastrophe. I can't remember the title but she rigged up a hand cart that would provide her with filtered air as she explored beyond the remote area where she had survived. I think she survived because she had asthma and was breathing oxygen in a sealed room when everyone else was killed by radiation.

Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger short stories included an event that wiped everyone out except Challenger and friends who were in a sealed room. But after the event people recovered except those killed by incidents like train crashes.

But disease? Return of the Black Death or a major influenza epidemic like the 'Spanish Flu' of 1918/9. Neither affected animals but had a devastating effect on humans. There was also a flu epidemic in Ancient Rome.

None of those killed everyone but the Black Death wiped out whole villages. One third of the population of England died.

 

[Hussar73]

There was a UK children's book about a teenage girl who was left alone after a nuclear catastrophe. I can't remember the title but she rigged up a hand cart that would provide her with filtered air as she explored beyond the remote area where she had survived. I think she survived because she had asthma and was breathing oxygen in a sealed room when everyone else was killed by radiation.

Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger short stories included an event that wiped everyone out except Challenger and friends who were in a sealed room. But after the event people recovered except those killed by incidents like train crashes.

But disease? Return of the Black Death or a major influenza epidemic like the 'Spanish Flu' of 1918/9. Neither affected animals but had a devastating effect on humans. There was also a flu epidemic in Ancient Rome.

None of those killed everyone but the Black Death wiped out whole villages. One third of the population of England died.

smallpox is a purely human disease that disappeared in the wild in the 1970s. had it not been preserved (and weaponized) by US and Soviet scientists, it would have disappeared from the planet.

but plague (y. pestis) is a disease of animals, there's a complex and stable cycle among the bacillus, fleas and the host mammal (marmots, ground squirrels, etc.). humans can exist alongside a plague reservoir (central Asian steppes) because of cultural practices and taboos, like, don't trap or touch sick marmots. when this stable ecological system is disturbed by war, or weather/climate, then the disease can break out into human populations. because the disease is essentially new to humans, the slow burning cycle of infection characteristic of flea/rodent/plague, humans don't have the same immunological response and plague gets out of hand. its like how a NASCAR crash between two race cars can collect a dozen others in the same wreck.

death rates in England were as high as 50% during the medieval plague. the septicemic strain, which was rare during the plague years, is almost 100% lethal.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

The disease can be whatever you want with whatever mortality rate you like. That's not what's hard to write about.

The social effect of a population cuddenly plunging 80%... whatever you think will happen, you're underestimating it. Many people don't know how to get food except by shopping, especially city dwellers. Cities will burn as people fight over dwindling food supplies, and then the power will go off almost everywhere and remaining food supplies will rot. People will use remaining fuel and guns to raid the countryside farms, often stripping them. People with medical issues will die off rapidly because their doctors and drug suppliers will be gone. The insane, held in check only by therapy, drugs and locked doors, will get loose. People will form gangs, some of which will kill indiscriminately. People in cold climates are screwed in the first winter and the smart ones will get to temperate climates as soon as possible.

Nuclear power plants might self-maintain for a decade, but that won't matter very much because the surrounding infrastructure - the wiring - will start to collapse. (The wire you use to bring power to a town isn't something you spin and string by hand.) Armed city-states will form around natural supplies of water (because you won't be pumping it long distances anymore) and electricity. Note that solar cells have a limited lifespan (and you won't be manufacturing any new ones) and wind turbines require maintenance which isn't feasible without lots of technology. Coal and wood are your friends because they are still accessible.

Best case scenario is a world running on 1700's technology within a few decades, with a number of spots managing to keep electricity going with coal powered generators, and with everyone living in the temperate band on either side of the equator, more or less peacefully once the population crashes far enough to make fighting simply too hard to sustain.

Worst case is more disease - we're saying goodbye to modern sanitation and drug manufacturing here - and warring city states too stupid to stop fighting over the scraps.

A young girl alone on a farm? I feel very sorry for her.

People will point out that parts of Europe got hit for 50% in the middle ages, and didn't struggle that hard to get back on track. But they were relying on a kind of technology that anyone could learn and fix - most people could farm and preserve food, use animals for transporting goods, etc.. They knew survival skills and lived much closer to nature than we do.