History Main / ItsForABook

* Played with in ''Film/BirdBox''. Charlie comes up with a theory on what the monsters are, and when it's suggested he's just an internet conspiracy theorist he admits it's research he did for a post-apocalyptic novel he intended to write. Later he's [[GotVolunteered 'volunteered']] to go on a supply run, it's suggested he think of it as research for his novel.

* ''Series/OdysseyFive''. The protagonists consult a cantankerous sci-fi writer (an obvious Creator/HarlanEllison expy) on the events of the series, claiming it's for a sci-fi novel. He criticizes the numerous scientific errors in statements clearly based on internet fan criticism of the pilot episode.

A subtrope of the BavarianFireDrill, compare IHaveThisFriend. Comes up a lot because MostWritersAreWriters. See also FilmFelons and WeWereRehearsingAPlay. Compare to WildCardExcuse. Compare IShouldWriteABookAboutThis, when the unusual experience comes first and gives someone the idea for a book. When the research shows up clearly in the finished book, that's ShownTheirWork.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12857714/3/Adrift-in-a-World Adrift in a World]]'' Harry ends up in an alternate dimension and asks the ''Daily Prophet'' receptionist for back issues, claiming that he's writing a book on the history of Dark wizards.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13374289/4/Harry-Potter-and-the-Hands-of-Justice Harry Potter and the Hands of Justice]]'' Peter requests records of suspected Death Eaters, claiming that he's writing a book on the Blood War.

Luckily this works for characters in fiction too. Bob can ask for suggestion how someone could hide the bodies in his trunk by telling Alice that he's writing a book about a murderer with several bodies in his trunk. Occasionally, she will PullTheThread on this and Bob will either come up with a story or have the plot be what actually happened.

Unfortunately, there are instances in RealLife where people trying to research potentially dangerous or volatile information got investigated, and in some cases arrested, despite the fact that they ''were'' actually researching for a book or paper. However, pretending to be researching is also a tried and true SocialEngineering tactic, making this an example of TruthInTelevision (with the variant that information as suspicious as the listed above is usually not requested for obvious reasons: usually Social Engineers ask apparently more harmless tidbits like technical jargon or internal proceedings, so they can impersonate employees more easily). Even authors who hadn't heard about this tactic could probably figure it out, since as they did research for their book, people gave them potentially dangerous information without batting an eye. Examples of this can be found in Kevin Mitnick's book ''The Art Of Deception''.

* Jiraiya from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' is always peeking on women in the hot springs in the name of research. Here, this rather perverted "research" ''really is'' for a book: Jiraiya is the author of the incredibly-popular ''Makeout Paradise'' series of erotic novels (the very same that Kakashi enjoys reading).

* In ''Fanfic/{{Intercom}}'', Riley accidentally lets her knowledge of the Mind World slip, but covers it up by saying it's a school project on psychology she's working on.

* Subverted in Kevin Smith's ''Film/{{Mallrats}}'', where there is a high-school aged character who has sex with older men (and films it) for a book she is writing. The book is actually published, and becomes a best seller.

** King himself had to ask his brother how he'd go about burying a Cadillac, and got extensive details (even down to how to hotwire a digger). Of course, King had spent years preparing the alibi of being a best-selling writer by this point. He also claimed (in the author's notes of ''Nightmares & Dreamscapes'', in which this story appears) that details of the crime were changed in the story so that it [[AndSomeOtherStuff wouldn't actually work]], just in case anyone reading it got ideas.

** This kind of thing happened in real life, when writing the books, too (mostly by ghostwriters). Laura Battyanyi-Weiss had to look up limited information on Giant Squids when writing #27 ''The Exposed''.

** In ''Literature/ThirdGirl'', author surrogate Ariadne Oliver claims to be researching how easy it is to follow someone, when following a suspect on behalf of Poirot. She tells the suspect she's concluded it's quite difficult.

* ''[[Literature/TheCurseOfTheBlueFigurine The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull]]'': During Johnny's trip to Vinalhaven Island, Maine, he and his friends stop in the local library to do research, trying to find something that'll lead them to the answers they need so they can find and rescue Professor Childermass. Father Higgins' excuse to the librarian, when he asks her for pamphlets, guidebooks and pencil and paper to take notes with, is that he's writing a book on the Maine seacoast.

* On ''Series/{{Friends}}'', Chandler leaves Ross's baby on the bus, and has to call the Transportation Department to get it back. Rather than admit he left the baby behind, however, he tells the operator it's for his book. "Yes, [[RepeatingSoTheAudienceCanHear that would be a stupid character.]]"

* One episode of ''Series/BostonLegal'' had a woman ask for details in how to commit a crime, then added the phrase "for a book" after Alan Shore said he'd have to call the cops.

** Also inverted when a method actress hired to play the Beckett CaptainErsatz Nikki Heat not only dresses and acts like Beckett (to the annoyance of the latter and the joy of Castle seeing ''two'' Becketts), but also tries to sleep with Castle in order to properly play the romance between Nikki and Rook (Castle's AuthorAvatar). She even goes so far as to ask Beckett for help in seducing him.

* ''Series/OdysseyFive''. The protagonists consult a cantankerous sci-fi writer (an obvious Creator/HarlanEllison-expy) on the events of the series, claiming it's for a sci-fi novel. He criticizes the numerous scientific errors in statements clearly based on internet fan criticism of the pilot episode.

* In ''Series/{{Spaced}}'', at one point Tim and Daisy get into an argument during which Daisy's procrastination and laziness is brought up. One of the ways that Tim lays into her is by mocking her standing in front of a bedroom mirror "bogling to Aswad!" all weekend instead of doing anything useful, to which Daisy wails in response that it was "research". Later however, after tempers have cooled and friendships reconciled, Daisy reveals she's sold an article about bogling to a magazine, prompting Tim to remark in surprise [[SubvertedTrope that her dancing actually]] ''[[SubvertedTrope was]]'' [[SubvertedTrope research]].

* Used by Dahlia Hawthorne in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations''. When asked what a literature student was doing in the basement of a courthouse she responds that she was doing a research in a paper she was writing. [[spoiler: Actually she was there being questioned by an attorney on suspicion of a murder, and she used the opportunity to poison him]].

* ''Roleplay/BehindTheVeil'' has an interesting version combined with a cover up; to hide the fact that a wererat was seen bursting through several university walls and the side of a trailer (not to mention running over any student in the way), the Technocracy ended up creating an elaborate cover up to pass it off as a marketing stunt gone wrong for an upcoming film. Then again the story was boosted with magic specifically to kill the idea that it was an actual wererat.

** The same goes for the Plot Realism Forum on Nanowrimo's website. Here someone asked how many bottles a blended five year old would fill. [[http://replay.web.archive.org/20090208114447/http://nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3140914 Wayback Machine archive.]] There was some disagreement on just how much a 5-year old would weigh and whether the child should be cooked first, but most said somewhere between 20 and 40 liters. The closest thing to an expert (someone who tried it with a duck) thought that a fifty-pound child would take ten quarts.

** The trope is often referenced in the [[http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/ Worldbuilding Stack Exchange site]], where authors and creators ask this kind of questions. Questions like "Where in Europe can I detonate 100 kt (non-nuclear) not to harm anyone?" [[http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12536/where-in-europe-can-i-detonate-100-kt-non-nuclear-not-to-harm-anyone]] get comments like "You're so getting flagged by your ISP for posting this. Seems like you're onto a good story though".

* Similarly, Pete Townshend of Music/TheWho claimed he was doing research for a book after being caught accessing a site which provided links to child pornography (although he apparently cancelled his access immediately afterwards, and thus never downloaded any actual porn). The main problem was that it was a pay site, and he'd used his credit card to access it. The officials basically said "It's not a question of whether he was doing this for a book or not, so much that he gave these people money."
* A surprising number of men on ''Series/{{Dateline}}: To Catch A Predator'' have claimed that their intention was not to have sex with the girl or boy, but to teach them about the dangers of talking to strangers online, or that they walked into a stranger's house in the middle of the night to research the housing market. Of course, their story is Swiss cheese once the host reveals he has a copy of the chat logs and that is definitely not what the suspect talked about.

Occasionally these are things that characters in fiction need to know how to do in order to do what they do. Which means the writers need to consult experts, otherwise [[HypocriticalHumor overly picky]] {{geek}}s will go onto websites and [[HomePage wikis]] and complain about how they got their facts wrong.

* On ''Series/ThirtyRock'', Liz Lemon allows someone to use her personal computer, adding "Okay, but if you look at my internet history, I’m researching a movie about two male centaurs kissing."

* In ''Series/OpenHeart'', Dylan walks in on her father frantically searching through newspaper clippings and “looking for patterns". He claims it’s for his novel.

* Used by the villains in the episode "Dirty Bomb" of ''{{Series/Numb3rs}}''. They contacted a researcher for a nuclear company for information about a particular radioactive isotope, claiming they were doing research for a movie script. Because the series takes place in LA, the researcher didn't give it much thought until she saw an internal Department Of Energy alert warning that three caskets of the isotope was stolen to make a dirty bomb. Her cooperation was a key component in finding the identities of the criminals.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'' episode "Solar System Bake-Off", Mitchell sneaks into Jet's house to gather info on [[LoveInterest Mindy]]'s baking contest entry. He writes down some information in his notebook. When Sydney asks what he's writing in there, Mitchell says its for a cookbook. [[BlatantLies Or a blog]]. [[{{Adorkable}} Or webisodes]].

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}''. After asking Vash about sneaking into Heaven, Rumisiel is worried he's totally disappointed his brother. As a way of making amends, he says the information was for a book "about a really stupid brother who says even stupider stuff", falling back on SelfDeprecation rather than seriously trying to make an excuse.

* Famke Smith-Rhodes-Stibbons is sent on the Vimes Run by an irritated Miss Band. Famke decides to research her subject 'thoroughly''. [[note]]She is the daughter of Wizard Ponder Stibbons, after all, and has her father's intellect and attention to detail. The Assassin stuff she gets from her mother.[[/note]] She visits the Land Registry and City Planning Archives at the Patrician's Palace and says she is doing a project at school, and could she look up a few records? I have to do a project on how one street in Ankh Morpork has evolved over time, you see, Miss Band wants me to do it by Thursday... and the schoolgirl in her best and neatest School Uniform is allowed to look at plans of drainage ducts and piping underneath Scoone Avenue. As well as plans of Ramkin Manor - admittedly dating from several centuries ago - which give her a hitherto unguarded approach route to Sam Vimes. [[note]]She is still caught long before she gets to Vimes, but he concedes the approach was original and he was impressed[[/note]]. Read more in the Literature/Discworld of Creator/AAPessimal.

* Famke Smith-Rhodes-Stibbons is sent on the Vimes Run by an irritated Miss Band. Famke decides to research her subject 'thoroughly''. [[note]]She is the daughter of Wizard Ponder Stibbons, after all, and has her father's intellect and attention to detail. The Assassin stuff she gets from her mother.[[/note]] She visits the Land Registry and City Planning Archives at the Patrician's Palace and says she is doing a project at school, and could she look up a few records? I have to do a project on how one street in Ankh Morpork has evolved over time, you see, Miss Band wants me to do it by Thursday... and the schoolgirl in her best and neatest School Uniform is allowed to look at plans of drainage ducts and piping underneath Scoone Avenue. As well as plans of Ramkin Manor - admittedly dating from several centuries ago - which give her a hitherto unguarded approach route to Sam Vimes. [[note]]She is still caught long before she gets to Vimes, but he concedes the approach was original and he was impressed[[/note[]]. read more in the Literature/Discworld of Creator/AAPessimal.

* This trope even shows up in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. When Frodo and his companions arrive at the inn in Bree, they realize they're going to need a plausible explanation for their wandering out of the Shire -- so Frodo claims to be a historian who's thinking of writing a book about the relationship between the Shire and Bree. Two volumes later, as they're returning home through Bree, Frodo is asked if he's written his book yet. He says he's still getting his notes in order. He wasn't completely lying - like [[Literature/TheHobbit Bilbo before him]], Frodo [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis recorded the story of the characters]] in the Red Book, which was then passed down through generations of hobbits.

* ''Series/OdysseyFive''. The protagonists consult a cantankerous sci-fi writer (an obvious Creator/HarlanEllison-expy) on the events of the series, claiming it's for a sci-fi novel. In a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}, he criticizes the numerous scientific errors in statements clearly based on internet fan criticism of the pilot episode.

* Used by the villains in the episode "Dirty Bomb" of ''{{Series/Numb3rs}}''. They contacted a researcher for a nuclear company for information about a particular radioactive isotope, claiming it was for a moviescript. The show takes place in LA, so the researcher didn't really give it much thought until she saw an internal DOE alert about three caskets of the stuff stolen to make a dirty bomb. Her cooperation was a key component in finding the identities of the criminals.

* In an early ''Webcomic/{{EGSNP}}'' storyline, Susan and Sarah are in a bookstore and Susan hears Sarah [[http://egscomics.com/egsnp/2004-06-01 comment on]] wanting a book with naked people in common poses. When confronted, Sarah [[http://egscomics.com/egsnp/2004-06-03 explains]] that she wants to improve the quality of her art, and that in order to draw a clothed human figure accurately, you first have to learn to draw a nude human figure.