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

[TheRedLantern]

I found myself looking up the average number of calories consumed when swallowing a man's ejaculate (less than 25), the average refractory period for men (depends on age & cardiovascular fitness), and whether semen actually has any skin-care value (it does not).

This was all for the chapter of my series where the protagonist and her team are competing in the National Intercollegiate Blowjob championship.

Google's search AI now thinks I'm a horny slut.

 

[FrancesScott]

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

What a nice thing to say! I think obsessiveness and writing can go hand in hand. I don’t want total accuracy, but neither do I what the reader pulled out of the moment by some stupid misrepresentation of fact. Plausible verisimilitude is my objective.

 

[Djmac1031]

@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.

Besides the above mentioned foray into ancient supernatural mythology for our shared Angels & Demons Universe stories, I once dug deep into researching Only Fans for a planned story for the Pink Orchid Event, to the point of interviewing several models (I paid them for their time) on why they were involved, how it worked, if they got any satisfaction from it etc.

The story i planned on writing never happened..
I decided i wasn't the right person to be writing about women's empowerment... But there were details I gleaned from their responses I used in other stories.

 

[THBGato]

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

In contrast, they always make me feel like I should do more!

Recent research was on New Zealand English, and I'm now doing similar research on Kenyan English.

I also did do lots of research for Clara and the Solar system, but if I told you the topic I'd spoil the story.

 

[WittyUserName]

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.

College sports. I did a lot of research into cheerleading. Also some course maps for various majors so that I could plan out schedules, shared classes, etc.. Oh, and I even created an entire org chart for a fictional company in one of my stories.

 

[iwatchus]

I do check out college curricula regularly. Several of my stories involve college students and another one had two alums of the same school who had been in one class together. I had to make sure the class I wanted to use was in both majors. I did not go so far as to check whether the curriculum was different for either major a decade earlier when they would have been in school. But no one called me on it, so maybe I was good.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

-snip-.. Oh, and I even created an entire org chart for a fictional company in one of my stories.

If you count creative/organizational efforts beyond just digging up facts & linking them in my head, my prior partial list is a mighty tiny dribble of the oceans of skull sweat behind some of my writing…

 

[EmilyMiller]

Oh, and I even created an entire org chart for a fictional company in one of my stories.

Does creating a governance structure for Hell count? Complete with an Administrative Council, and Lucy Morningstar’s inner Coterie? Demonic regulatory compliance can be very demanding.

 

[gunhilltrain]

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.

Here he is. The AK-47 was invented just after World War II, and he was influenced by German assault rifles used during the war. It and variants of it have totaled over 100-million units, making it one of the most widely-used weapons ever. He truly changed history.

 

[RetroFan]

The Mandela Effect, false memories and tales of alternate dimensions and time/reality slips to write my ongoing story series 'Incest In Another Dimension' in which a young man driving between the Gold Coast and Brisbane in Queensland, Australia has a lapse in concentration for a few seconds and somehow slips into another dimension. At first the signs are subtle, like him seeing a car with stickers for a long-defunct rugby league team and the neighbours wearing tee-shirts for a defunct AFL team, but then things become stranger when he meets a stepsister he never knew, his male cousin is a girl in this reality and September 11 never happened among many other differences.

 

[WittyUserName]

Does creating a governance structure for Hell count? Complete with an Administrative Council, and Lucy Morningstar’s inner Coterie? Demonic regulatory compliance can be very demanding.

Yes, it does. It's not like it's Wall Street; it's Hell. They have integrity.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

Yes, it does. It's not like it's Wall Street; it's Hell. They have integrity.

Yep! They’re all fully committed to screwing everyone else over!

 

[EmilyMiller]

Google's search AI now thinks I'm a horny slut.

AI never makes mistakes you know

 

[ICantLeafYou]

I read into sex shop glory holes and their etiquette. I seem to have done a good job as the resulting story has received praise.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Doing research on various thick skinned animals to give my orcs a touch of realism, and found out that elephants go into musth not musk.

In my defense, I can't actually hear s or th sounds, and so my brain tends to add in sounds that it thinks should be there.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Yes, it does. It's not like it's Wall Street; it's Hell. They have integrity.

I suddenly had a flashback to Terry Pratchett's Eric.

 

[dirk2024]

and whether semen actually has any skin-care value (it does not).

Sshhh....we don't want to spread that one around.

 

[dirk2024]

Compared to most of you, I only dabble in research. I have researched colleges, their curriculum and a few teacher bio's to get a feel for their qualifications. I've also done a little miliary research on what work is like for a support person and various military bases. I have a WIP with a transgender character, so I've explored a little in that area, enough to know I need to do more if I'm going to complete that story. Oh, and cuckqueaning...that research has been on a recent WIP and some of the research has been here.

 

[PapaRomantic]

I recently did some research into the very popular social media attention being paid to the act of the "tap-out," particularly in the United State Air Force. After basic military training graduation, the new airmen/guardsmen must stand at attention with their eyes forward until a member of their family or a loved one "taps them out - basically tapping them on the shoulder, which usually results in very teary hugs for all. I had in mind to write a story that starts with that scenario, but I'm not sure now if I'm going to continue with it.

I did extensive research into the kidney transplant process for my story Lydia. I also did research into the ALS disease for Good Day Iowa!, though I also had personal experience with that topic from knowing friends who had that disease.

I also must say that for my series Bull With a Conscience, I spoke to several men on Literotica who claimed to be cuckolds, and one man shared so much information with me that as part of that series, I wrote he and his wife into the story as a reward for his willingness to let me explore his mind.

 

[WittyUserName]

I suddenly had a flashback to Terry Pratchett's Eric.

It was meant to be a reference to the television show, Supernatural.

 

[HordHolm]

And now I've turned to London nightclubs of the 1920s. I've even found some floor plans....

 

[LisaMayTurner]

I paid a lot of money on a three week trip to Paris to try some things I've never done.

 

[TheRedLantern]

I spent some time over the last few days researching the J-pop/idol industry in Japan, and whoa boy is that ever f**ked up. They basically buy these girls and turn them into products, trap them within the company and cut off any ability for them to work anywhere else, monetize EVERY aspect of their lives, and then most of the girls just kind of vanish into the ether, presumably to work in sex clubs where the company extracts the last bit of what it can out of them. Secretive, awash with yakuza money, and so big and exploitative that an entire sub-industry of "host clubs" sprung up to cater to the idols.

Sauron would look at the j-pop idol industry and say "yo, that shit is dark."

 

[redgarters]

For The Woman in the Spare Room I studied the realities of everyday work of a police officer in New York - shift patterns, pay, overtime, precinct sector assignment, locker room ettiquette, slang and acronyms, radio talk patterns, disciplinary actions and more. It's maybe not the most interesting thing to research, but it's the deepest dive I've done for a story yet and I'm happy with the realism it provided.

 

[ChuckWolf]

Just finished some light research on mechanical bulls and their use in organized competition.

There's actually very little info on this, so I'm just as happy making stuff up.