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Damn the tornado, full speed ahead!I write alternate history fantasy. Last outing concerned the Battle of Hadrianople in 378. I found a resource to tell me the phases of the moon. I scoured Google Earth for pictures so I would know the flora and fauna of Thrace and Moesia. I spent a huge amount of time trying to determine how an army might cross the Danube at particular points.
Even after all that, I gave the manuscript to a Roman history professor only to find out that in late Rome it was not called a castrum, it was called a castella.
These things matter. To at least 47 people on the planet. :)
Ave atque salve!
Thank you for reminding me of that huge and lovable cartoon dog, Dwayne. I research things I know others either won't care about or even pick up on, but that's me being extra cautious and overly thorough because I'm a nervous Nelly by nature. As far as the weather goes, it's your story, it's your weather. Let that tornado whirl! Hugs
Oh my goodness me. Where to start. Latin for anal sex. Roman swear words. The weather in Bridlington in February 1643. Peanuts cartoons in a certain week (for a story I never finished). And that's just this week...
I do a lot of research but to be honest, most of the time I start looking for weather and I end up with twenty open webpages from all kinds of different things but nothing on weather. In the end I often end up scratching the idea entirely and I go with something else which, of course, requires more research. ;) Just now, I just got out of my WiP to search for the elusive word and found myself on Goodreads. No wonder it takes me forever to finish a story. :/
Maybe it's not research but rather procrastinating.
I once gave up on a story because of the amount of research I was doing. It was set in a country (Norway) I've only briefly visited, and as I wrote I wound up having to research every single little thing, watching videos, stopping every few paragraphs to make sure something was accurate, etc. I like learning as I'm writing, but it was too much. It was starting to not flow naturally, and I began to worry that it would get mercilessly harried the second I put it out, so I gave up on it and went back to writing pure fantasy, the genre of plausible deniability.
I'll admit it, I have somewhat of a wikipedia problem. I get on wikipedia to research the rules about naming comets, the next thing I know, I have twenty open tabs on various astronomy topics.I've found that it's about fifty-fifty whether the research I've done will even make it into a story, but at least I'm entertained. Maybe, as G.G. says, it's less research and more procrastinating.
Isabel wrote: "I'll admit it, I have somewhat of a wikipedia problem. I get on wikipedia to research the rules about naming comets, the next thing I know, I have twenty open tabs on various astronomy topics..."Ah, yes, Wikipedia... what was it I was originally searching for? Ha, ha!
Dwayne wrote: "Does anyone else kill themselves to research details of things that readers probably won't care about? How about under researching things you know some reader will call you on eventually?"Yes and yes haha.
In my first series, I was nitpicky about making sure I used the proper terms for things (butcher's knife vs butcher knife and the like), used Google Street view to fill in the gaps in my memory so I could accurately describe a location, painstakingly researched history to make sure that my characters were in the right place during the right era, all while pulling the science (this is a sci-fi after all) outta my butt.
Yes, obsessively on some things. I researched ancient Celts so much that I ended up writing a different story about Medieval knights. :)
I love research. Especially the kind that requires tax deductible travel, like this weekend!
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Ooo.... my characters are not very kind to Marmaduke I'm afraid. Or Garfield or The Family Circus... heh.
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Yes! Someone else studied comic history!
Ani Sexus? Am I right? Hey... whenever that day comes when I start writing erotica, that might make a good pen name. No?
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Ah, yes. This is why I pretty much only write stories set in Iowa or the Midwest. If only I had the funds for travel, but alas. Instead of setting a book in Norway, I have to settle for setting a book in small Midwest towns full of Norwegian descendants.
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Did a ton of that for The Asphalt Carpet.
What's important to the world? What parts of the story make the story and which parts are window dressing? Well ... it is called fiction ... We make stuff up. However, and there should always be a however there somewhere; I go by a few simple rules. Most important is that fiction is something that's made-up so it's almost fair to say it's a very advanced form of lying. When your lying it's always important to keep it simple. The fewer the details the fewer traps you can fall into. However, Dean Koontz once did a novel set in Kyoto. He did a lot of research. When the book came out a friend of his, who had lived for a number of years in Kyoto, chewed him out for never saying anything about going there. Koontz had never set foot in the country.
One of my novels is set in Seattle. I did a lot of research because I've never been there. I studied street maps. I studied the neighborhoods. I talked to Seattle natives. Google Earth. Wikipedia. Yes, I had 20 tabs open at a time. Did I use all this research? No. I didn't use even a quarter of it. Sure, I made some things up. But my goal is that if anyone in Seattle reads my book, it'll at least be somewhat familiar to them.I LOVE Marmaduke!
Roxanne wrote: "One of my novels is set in Seattle. I did a lot of research because I've never been there. I studied street maps. I studied the neighborhoods. I talked to Seattle natives. Google Earth. Wikipedia. ..."I totally get that. My story happens in many part of the USA (Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Los Angeles) all places I've never gone before, so yeah I used all I could to get to know the places. I even googled the mayor of Los Angeles. Like you I didn't get to use all I discovered (and oh boy was it fun!) but at least I didn't feel as if I was walking on egg shells not knowing if what I wrote actually existed.
(I might be the only one who never heard of Marmaduke lol)
G.G., Marmaduke was about a huge, goofy Great Dane and his family. Marmaduke, the dog, was always getting into some sort of trouble or another. And the cartoonist knew from whence he spoke. I have a huge, goofy Great Dane. Her name isn't Marmaduke, but it could be.
How much acceleration it would take to reach jupiter in 48 hours.It's a lot. You'd be crushed like a soda can.
Roxanne wrote: "G.G., Marmaduke was about a huge, goofy Great Dane and his family. Marmaduke, the dog, was always getting into some sort of trouble or another. And the cartoonist knew from whence he spoke. I have ..."Yeah of course I had to google it. What better way to procrastinate yet again. Great Danes are popular in comic. My favorite though has to be Scooby Doo. :)
Seems to be a common problem! Yesterday I spent most of the day reading Greek mythology because I searched the Prometheus statue in Rockefeller Center where my characters happen to be ice skating. I needed only the briefest mention of the statue, needed really nothing from mythology regarding Prometheus that I didn't already know, but somehow fiddled away hours.
I'm also in the alternate history camp, and research can get... exhausting. Fortunately I love historical research (a big part of choosing the genre) so even if I gripe about it, I do enjoy it. I'm actually just wrapping up a three-part blog post about alternate history research. I've spent a lot of time researching really unnecessary minute detail just to see when something was invented and how likely that thing would be invented anyway if the person never lived (such as modern pencils. Or the term "Deja vu.")As for the weather, I only focus on natural disasters or astronomical events that are not affected by humans. An eclipse happens no matter what's going on with humans. I just want to make sure my characters aren't witness to a full solar eclipse and I don't even know it. But who would ever take the time to correct me on that?
Any major research I do always seems to be fore stories I end up not finishing or not liking. I once did a ton of research on Irish accents and slang for a story that will probably never see the light of publishing. Research also intimidates me, in part because I'm terrible at it (I once tried to research the old west but all Google would give me was sites for vintage clothing stores). I do fine when researching something small but when it comes to something big like an entire time period... well... let's just say I have a ton of story ideas I keep putting off because of the research that would be involved.
One could argue that the level of research I do with my writing is a bit extreme. In order to get as much authentic inspiration and information as possible, I participated in medieval reenactments, tasted food from the period, and listened to historical documentaries. Soon, I will be taking my research even further by taking fencing, blacksmithing, archery, and horsemanship classes. By the time I am done, I will become quite the Renaissance Man. What do you think? Did I do too much research or too little?
Not my advice- stealing it from another writer. Research is good until it becomes an excuse not to write. Eventually you have to put fingers to keys and get to work. Like someone mentioned above, sometimes I find myself with nineteen browser windows open and barely a hundred words written on the page. In a particularly ironic twist, most of the browser windows are pictures (maps, paintings, photographs).
When you want to write a historical novel set in a time period where there is no one alive to give you how the group you are writing about actually lived, it is difficult. If you are being historically correct, it's also a problem. Mine isn't the massive amount of research, it's that I have so many other things to complete, I don't have the time to devote to the tomes I need to peruse to obtain what information I can find for the book. With that said, I love research and putting all the pieces together. I also like history as long as I don't have to memorize dates and names.
I do the same thing. I am currently revising my first novel and parts of the chapters takes place in the 80s. I am doing my research to find out what things were popular in the 80s such as cars, game systems, music and even perfume or cologne. LOL. I am even trying to research a popular gay club in the 80s in Richmond Virginia but I just decided to make up my own.
I'm guilty of doing lots of research and over researching everything I can and I've also done what all of you have done. So I guess you can just throw the book at me, lock me up and throw away the key. :)
I do research. Right now, I'm struggling to make one of my stories have an Eastern feel to like. I've been reading and watching stuff set in Ancient Egypt. It's a fantasy, but I still want it to feel right.
Not sure there's such a thing as over researching. At the very least--even if it never shows up in the book that prompted it--it can give one food for thought.I mostly write about the far future where research on "real life" isn't often important or applicable, which can leave you with an artificial sense of distance from the tangled web of research. However, I struggle to get my mind wrapped around the complexity of the worlds I create. It's far too easy to make the imagined world too simple, too dimensionless. I've found that researching often reminds you of how big and complicated, how incongruous and frustratingly contradictory things really are. Incorporating all that into a made up world could lend verisimilitude.
I really should start doing that one day!
I took a six weeks college course on Randomness to write The Hypothesis. How to obtain random results and why, even if I get a pattern, the next throw (of dice or coin) is still random.
I love the research. Playing around with Boolean strings to gather random and uncommon snippets of information is my idea of fun. Although I wonder whether I'm giving details because it's necessary or to show how clever I am. 'Hey look. I know this.' Having said that, I hate it when I discover an inaccuracy in a book ...
I research things I think might be challenged. Why? I had a character in one of my books that was raped, decided to keep the resulting baby, and years later had to face her attacker when he came back and wanted custody of the child.I got an email from a reader claiming to have spoken to multiple lawyers about the possibility of such a scenario. He was told it could never happen.
I'd read about a case in my local area where a man had raped a woman and then come back for child support years later. I did research and found it is not as rare as you would hope. It happened to work into the book I was writing, so I used it.
Because of my research, I was able to send my reader documentation about the subject which seemed to set his mind at ease.
I tend to write about things that don't require much research, but when I need to check something, Google and Wikipedia are my best friends! It's enjoyable because I like learning new things.My WIP is set in London, and although I have visited London several times, I know I will have do a 'research trip' before the story is published because I want to check some details I can't find on the web. Google Maps is great, by the way, when you need to view a certain spot for accurate descriptions! :D
I really enjoyed the research with my historical. Learning the history of the Ottoman Empire was far more exciting to me than any courses I had taken in school. I had read articles forewarning about historical writers books being picked apart for minor details of inaccuracy. I wanted to do my best to not leave critics such opportunities. Even still, I may have nailed all of my historical facts, but I used a teeny tiny word that apparently didn't come about until the 1960's or so...and there is my golden nugget of error, LOL. Oh well, it's hard to beat them all! ;)
Honestly, one of the copious reasons I decided to start a detective noir series was so I would be able to avoid having to do hours and hours of researching and just put knowledge I already had to use. All I've really had to research has been certain, time period things or locations.I fell like I did go overboard planning the main character's wardrobe, however. Of course, I needed to know that stuff for illustration purposes.
Latin obscenities. Early twentieth century movies. Strychnine
I am obsessive on the research for my Civil War ear trilogy, but I used to teach Civil War studies and LOVE the subject. There are tons of American Civil War buffs and if you get anything wrong , they will rip you to shreds. An example of my obsessiveness...I have a book that gives recorded weather data in 3 different sites in Virginia for the Civil War years. So even the weather is historically accurate in my novel.
But, I do bend facts for dramatic purposes. In one scene I have a protagonist whipped for violation of orders. This was a punishment for soldiers (both white and black for those of you who have seen Glory...don't get me started on the inaccuracies in that one) but was officially ended in 1863. My problem is I need it to happen in early 1864. So ...yeah...the key word there is officially and we all know what that means...I can bend.
My other protagonist is a female doctor for the CSA. Some people don't realize there were several female physicians and I figure someone will balk at that.
So I came up with a way to document my research publically. I have a Civil War blog that links to articles I use for my research. I will have the link to my blog in my books when I publish, so if someone wants to check my research...there you have it.
One can never over research, in my humble opinion. We do have our personal edification to satisfy. However, there's a point of minimal additional value. I try to stay focused on what will actually support the story. That said, it can result in a real drilling down on a focal point if it will lend true authenticity without over telling the detail to the reader. In a nutshell, the words balance and need are operative.
For my 2nd book, I enjoyed researching tall ships. I obsessed over diagrams and terms for all parts of the ship I had in mind, so that when I wrote a certain scene I was sure to use the right terms. The scene in question involved my protagonist convincing the ship's captain he'd be a good addition to the crew. The captain ordered him to prove it by lowering and raising a particular sail.
This Spring I had the chance to tour a real merchant ship, and I learned that the particular sail I chose would have taken several people to lower and raise. Oh well...chalk it up to fairy magic, I guess!
I researched for thirty years to produce one non-fiction biography. I ended up with 41,000 digital files (12 Gigabytes) of data and a manuscript of 480,000 words. Then it took almost a decade to discard 380,000 words to get to the end result which is now at the printers.If nothing else, I am confident I know my subject (eighteenth century Royal Navy).
Missy wrote: "The scene in question involved my protagonist convincing the ship's captain he'd be a good addition to the crew. The captain ordered him to prove it by lowering and raising a particular sail. This Spring I had the chance to tour a real merchant ship, and I learned that the particular sail I chose would have taken several people to lower and raise. Oh well...chalk it up to fairy magic, I guess!."
Forget the fairy magic dust. Just have the protagonist tell the captain he needs a few of his deck hands to get it done, and your main man passes the captain's test. No Tinkerbells and no hooks required. :D
Carlton wrote: "Missy wrote: "The scene in question involved my protagonist convincing the ship's captain he'd be a good addition to the crew. The captain ordered him to prove it by lowering and raising a particul..."Ha! Great advice, if the book wasn't already published over a year ago!
Hey folks, remember that this is a fun topic. We're not here to debate how much research others should or shouldn't do. Tell your own fun tales of too much obsession or winging it, kay?
I'm very familiar to the research time sink - I once lost an entire evening figuring out how to wear and draw a sword from a scabbard worn across the back. And how to figure out the actual historical information versus the stuff made for Renaissance Festivals. When I get too crazy, I remind myself of something I heard during the commentary track on the 1999 Mummy movie. At one point, I think the sun rises in the wrong position or something like that, and the guy on the commentary said, "Of course, we want to get things right, but when you get down to it, this is a Mummy Movie, not a documentary."
PS: Did I just lose ten minutes researching mistakes in The Mummy? Yes I did.
See, I have this gag involving a Marmaduke cartoon. The scene in question takes place on a particular date and I jumped through many hoops trying to pinpoint the exact Marmaduke cartoon from that date. I searched all over the Internet, I paged through any old Marmaduke book I could find in book stores, searched libraries and finally asked someone to teach me to how to run a microfilm machine*. I am too ashamed to admit how many hours I spent trying to find that cartoon for that date, but I finally found it.
Yet. When it comes to the weather that takes place through the novel, I winged it. All through the novel. Yes, there are places I could look up and find out the weather each day that my novel takes place, but in this book weather is almost a character itself and it must match what I want to happen in the scenes, so I am taking great liberties with the weather, even dropping a damned tornado on my characters at one point.
Does anyone else kill themselves to research details of things that readers probably won't care about? How about under researching things you know some reader will call you on eventually?
And remember, this is the fun folder. Feel free to laugh at your own obsessive research or lack of, but do not hack at what other authors do or do not do. Thanks.
*I think I ran one years ago, when I was in high school, but have forgotten. And it took about five seconds to realize the librarian set it up wrong and I fixed it on my own.