I don’t know everything, and sometimes, I realize I don’t really know what I thought I knew. So if I want to write believable fiction, I have to research. A recent blog post by Christi Craig started me thinking about what I’ve researched lately.
Common sayings using the phrase quicker than or faster than. I didn’t want to use a cliché, but I hoped reading some would help me come up with something original. Still hoping.- Modern techniques for inscribing grave markers. I did this late at night after I saw the movie Woman in Black and had to stop because I started imagining ghostly sounds in my house.
- How alcoholism affects the kidneys. I need to know if a man only two years sober can donate a kidney to a family member.
- The tobacco growing process in the 1960s. I eventually found my way to YouTube where I listened to people talk about how the process has changed since they were young(er).
Those topics were research for three different projects, but now I’m looking at them and see that I could fit them all in one work. But no. I do not need the distraction of another story idea.
I’ve finally wrangled a few people into giving me feedback on some short stories I want to include in a collection. Then I’ll have to revise/edit them. Sometimes that’s easy, but other times my brain refuses to deal with it and I have to back away for a while. I know I could ruin the story if I force it, so I’ll trust my Muse to sort it out and get back to me.
A non-writing note. I don’t know how you other WordPress bloggers respond to your comments, but I use my Dashboard exclusively. I try to avoid looking at my blog too much because when I do, I want to fiddle with it. In the early days of this blog, I changed themes every couple of weeks, which I’m sure was a bit disconcerting to my new followers. Then I realized that if I didn’t actually see my blog’s “face”, I left it alone. Recently, when I uploaded my new book cover and saw it on my blog, I got that old urge to give it a whole new look.
The problem is, even with dozens of theme choices, none of them is quite what I want. So I’m using one of my private unused blogs to audition each possible choice to see what comes closest. Anyway, don’t be surprised if you come here and fail to recognize the place one day soon.
Hmmm, I guess that’s a kind of research too. What about you? Have you researched anything lately?
Linda Cassidy Lewis 
I’m guilty of changing my blog themes more often than one should.
As for research, I spent a vast amount of time researching the effects of radioactive exposure and other related topics for a Post-Ap novel that sits in the outline stage. It was quite depressing and produced some fairly dark poetry throughout the process. All I can say is I’m glad the story’s plot and subplots are more tied to mankinds determination to survive than on the destruction that brings about my protags change.
However, lately I’ve been writing a few grim-styled fairytales and my research has only stretched as far as the need to observe the wackos that all-to-often surround me.
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I can certainly understand how your research would be depressing, T.A. Being surrounded by wackos sounds like an abundance of fodder for your stories though. 😉 Fairytales, huh?
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Just about every day I’m researching something on line for my work. And often it leads to such interesting places, that leads to ideas and notions I would have never entertained otherwise!
hope it all goes well and falls into place nice and smooth 🙂
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That’s the fun side of research, Jennifer. You never know where it might lead. 😉
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