What interesting research have you carried out relating to recent stories you have written, or are writing?

[FrancesScott]

For me, I spent some time looking into paths from college into the army and what types of roles graduates might fill. This also involved looking at officer training programs versus enlisting. I wanted to make sure my story was at least reasonably accurate and to avoid any potential disrespect to people serving or to veterans. I also researched Arlington National Cemetery, which was a sobering thing to do. Again I didn’t want some gaffe to cause offense.

Update: I also looked into the deployment schedules of soldiers going to Afghanistan and the timeline for withdrawal. All rather difficult subjects.

 

[Jorunn]

While visiting France this summer, I thought of a story for the Oggbashan Memorial linking the Viking history of Normandy with a Canadian soldier who fought near Rouen in WWII. After the first draft, I did more research on the Viking history (fun), but it got serious when I went to Juno Beach and found out a different Canadian division that landed there. Faux pas! So I tracked the Canadian actions. A part of my story is talking with a 100 year old vet. I didn’t want use direct quotes, so I watched and read many different accounts, in order to imagine what my soldier would say. Really interesting, and I hope accurate.

 

[onehitwanda]

Some reading on the architecture of Annecy, and the distribution of barrows in Wiltshire.

 

[HordHolm]

I have been educating myself on the history of volunteer nurses in WW1, a subject that should really be better known amongst the British. The official volunteer nursing service for the army expanded from 300 nurses on the outbreak of war to 10,000 nurses by the end. And that was only one area in which women volunteered to dispense medical services - there was another, separate nursing organisation that was even bigger, plus many, many women volunteers driving ambulances.

 

[big_cane_sugar]

I did a lot of research into "one percenter" motorcycle gangs for Raoul's Eighteenth Birthday, Ch. 04 and the Raoul's First Murders stories. Once upon a time I had a big plan....

 

[ElvieG]

The main character in Enkantos, my last story, was a supernatural being called a Manananggal. Most Filipinos are familiar with the Manananggal from childhood stories, but I did read everything I could find on the subject before I started writing.

According to mythology, the Manananggal splits into two at the waist and leaves her lower half somewhere when she hunts. This is supposedly the explanation for her ability to fly, but it's none too elegant and didn't suit the storyline. I wanted a better description of how she could rapidly transform from a bipedal human to an accomplished flyer, so I researched the way that Pterodactyls were able to fly. I wrote an elegant and plausible description of how her body could adapt to fly, but I decided not to include it in the story because the story was already overlong and complicated by the time I finished it.

The story I'm currently writing requires quite a lot of knowledge about the finer points of high-end dressmaking, so I've been doing a lot of reading about an Italian couturier called Elsa Schiaparelli.

 

[Actingup]

I've been learning about skydiving techniques and safecracking.

 

[MelissaBaby]

My WIP is the fictional memoir of an actress from the Golden Age of Hollywood. I have read doing a tremendous amount of research into the silent movie era. One fascinating thing I have learned is that the coming of sound movies was a big setback for the movie industry, both fiscally and aesthetically.

Fiscally, because the studios began cranking out sound films before many theaters were equipped to present them, and hundreds of theaters went out of business, limiting overall profitability.

Aesthetically, because recording sound required severe limitations on staging and cinematography. They did not have microphones that could pick up dialogue from more than a few feet away, so actors had to stand close to hidden microphones. In addition, the cameras were very noisy and had to be enclosed in glass booths so that they wouldn't be audible on the sound track. This led to a scaling down, no more epics, no more crowd scenes, no more moving cameras, no tracking shots. For the next few years, most movies were little more than filmed stage plays.

Also, Hollywood in the twenties was basically one long booze and cocaine fueled fuckfest.

Sort of like me in my twenties.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

Pre-islamic Arabic, Shinto and Norse mythologies, the terrain of Lake Placid & vicinity, and odd firearms among many other bits for Hinn. Attributes & epithets for Sumerian deities, bronze patination (what it looks like as it corrodes) & mixology/bartending for an unpublished partial. Etc. I tend to google early & often and have been known to dig too deep rather frequently!

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I was planning to write a pirate story for the Crime and Punishment event. Started researching 18th Century piracy in the Caribbean. Went down several rabbit holes before abandoning the project (for now).

 

[StillStunned]

For me, it's generally the other way around. I often latch onto some tiny detail in a history or science audiobook I'm listening to, or a town I'm visiting, or an archaeological site, or a basilica, or the natural landscape, or even an economic report. And that becomes the germ for a story, generally fantasy or sci-fi, or it influences the setting in some way.

 

[EmilyMiller]

@Djmac1031 and I have spent waaaay too much time reading about the mythology of Hebrew demons in the last two years. Including both yesterday and today. Many of our demons have some basis in Jewish mysticism.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I wanted to use a Russian surname that meant baker, while looking it up I discovered that the Russian equivalent basically means bread, and the inventor of the AK-47's last name was essentially baker.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

It's for a non-erotic thing I'm scoping out. I'll just say that any plans for me to travel to the UK, specifically to tour Parliament on or around the date of The Kings Speech will not be happening. Based on what I've been researching, MI5 might want to have a chat.

BTW, the British government is fascinatingly different than what we do over here in the States.

 

[Erozetta]

Currently, nothing I'm writing involves research. Life experiences are working out well for points of reference to finish up the story.

I do have one that I will be working on soon that will require looking into some dragon mythos.

And I have another that will call on my witchy and religious knowledge, both of which can use some touching up.

 

[PennyThompson]

Appalachian folktales, cryptids, geology and tree species distribution

 

[Jorunn]

Appalachian folktales, cryptids, geology and tree species distribution

I mention Snallygasters in my upcoming Dark Fairy tale.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I mention Snallygasters in my upcoming Dark Fairy tale.

Curious, we use the term Snollygoster, but it has a very different meaning, sort of. From what I read, a snallygaster could well be a synonym for snollygoster, too..

 

[KittyOfSteele]

A few things... I want to study Luther's 95 theses not from an religious standpoint, but from a rhetoric standpoint because I feel I might have 95 theses myself about a particular subject, which might end up as a series of 95 essays. I don't know. It's a long shot.

For fiction though I went through a bit of a rabbit hole down the pizza delivery drivers for my novel. Got myself into a subreddit dedicated to that whole thing, and I was pretty surprised* that many keep track of their average mileage in a shift. I do need to get into the franchise business model and how do they work though. It only makes sense for my novel to have a franchise of restaurants rather than a singular one.

* KoS' narrator here: she is an idiot who shouldn't be surprised by this. She keeps track of her wordcount and time spent writing on her fucking BuJo, and even starts a journal for any writing, including flash fiction, the madwoman.

 

[iwatchus]

I spent about two days reading, listening to and watching interviews with dominatrixes for my BDSM piece that went up last week. I did make sure all of that was done using private mode in the browser. I'm not sure I want to know what ads I would have been getting.

 

[billrokra]

Several stories I have written for people involved naked women, so I have had to undertake a tremendous amount of jolly dedicated research into naked women.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

Not sure if it qualifies as interesting but spent a lot of time recently researching whether doing yoga (particularly for men) does actually improve sex.

 

[iwatchus]

Was that for a story or just personal gratification?

 

[Rob_Royale]

For a recent story, Bouncing Bonnie and Tail Chaser, I had to learn about oversized load hauling and the rules of trucking such over long distances and the escort vehicles required.
I also read up on trucker CB lingo and whether or not it's changed much since Smokey and the Bandit. (it hasn't)
It was a lot of fun to learn about and I think it served the story well.

 

[HordHolm]

I love these kinds of threads. Makes me feel that I'm not on my own...