Research You Did For Your Work

Ever did some extensive research for your fiction, be it in written or visual work?

Well, I never did any extensive research due to lack of time, but I do remember doing some research on how memory works, Jungian psychology, and firearms. If I get plenty of time, I also want to do some in depth research on...

• Psychology
  • Jungian psychoanalysis, especially bits about collective unconciousness and symbols
  • Dissociative Identity Disorder
  • Retrograde Amnesia
• Mythology, especially Norse, Celtic, Welsh, and Hindi.
• Physics regarding Time Travel and Alternate Universe
• Geography: mostly so it can help my world building.
• Catholic and Christianity: I'm the latter but honestly don't know shit about it.
• Human physiology
• Martial arts, mostly Krav Maga
• Military
  • How it works
  • Helicopters and other vehicles.
  • How campaign works

And on. Really, when I put something in my work I want to be sure that I know what I'm talking about. I just cannot tolerate when creators Did Not Do The Research unintentionally. Given the nature of my work, I will most certainly end up using some Artistic Lincense, though...

edited 6th Apr '11 9:43:36 PM by dRoy

I have a magic research thread. Somehow it's kinda hard to come up with a consistent magic system from scratch >___>

Is that all for one work? Wow.

I try to write hard science fiction, so as a result, I try to research lots of hard science. I also tend to study things like this for any real-world theories related to somewhat softer concepts like FTL - even for Acceptable Breaks from Reality, I hate just making things up myself.

edited 6th Apr '11 10:11:59 PM by nrjxll

You have no idea. You have no idea.

Btw, do you actually understand any of the stuff in the links? Holy shit, dude.

For the project I'm writing right now, my main character has the ability to detect the minerals in soil, and make it more fertile for the plants growing in it (by assessing their needs and either calling the requisite nutrients from other places in the evironment or conjuring them from scratch). So I had to do research on soil chemistry—what are soils like? What kinds of nutrients do different kinds of plants need? What elements would you likely find in a given patch of soil? And for the kind of geologic profile I needed to create for the area, what would the soil and rocks most likely look like? In addition to being important for the main character's power, she lives close to a mine which is extremely important to the plot, so making sure I made something that made sense was important to me.

She also has a best friend who's into chemistry, so there was a brief, panicked moment when I had to figure out to myself if he was using the proper element in his alcohol solution to make a green flame. (Near as I can figure, he was.) This is pretty much the most scientific work of fantasy I've ever encountered.

Mostly for me it's been geography and weapons; detail work.

• The specs on:
  • The Ferrari 512 Testarossa (makes a good getaway car)
  • The M-16
  • Various magic systems, before picking and choosing elements of Mahou Sensei Negima, Harry Potter, and Dungeons And Dragons.
  • The layout of a typical small-town jail
  • Basic Latin grammar and syntax, hoping to avoid Canis Latinicus
  • Authentic Japanese surnames for my main characters; got tired of stringing random hiragana together into something that vaguely sounds Japanese.

edited 6th Apr '11 11:59:19 PM by animemetalhead

Sounds hard, well, at least for me. I don't like geology; it just doesn't appeal to me. Are you familiar with any of the fields that you are engaged in?

Heh, some Latin, cars (can you share some information on getaway cars? I'm researching on that too), and M-16, they are what I'm researching too.

I think it's just that I abhor Small Reference Pool''

edited 7th Apr '11 12:01:53 AM by dRoy

Dude. Fascinating. I saved that link so I can read some of it it when I'm not half-asleep and really busy.

—

Thanks for starting this topic. I've wanted to talk about it for a while.

So basically, I'm doing this stupid little webcomic about a girl who gets lost in her own dreams.

The script should be mostly finished by the end of this month's Frenzy, after which I'll start on the art.

Here's a sliver of the research I've done. I can't remember 90% of it, though:

Writing references:

• Making trope lists for my characters and settings to help find examples of works that already pulled them off well.
• Tutorials on writing fantasy, horror, comedy, dialog, suspense, characters, etc.
• Psychology, primarily:
  • Body dysmorphic disorder.
  • Depression
  • Social anxiety
  • The various "aspects" of the mind and emotions.
• The life of a teenage girl.
  • Menstruation, and whether or not it plays a big enough role in their lives to be discussed in the story. (It does.)
  • Bullying and ostracization, and the effect it has on your mind.
• Interior design for schools and houses.
  • Layouts and photos of typical high schools in the US.
• Life, climate, demographics, and neighborhoods in the North Carolina triad, where the story's set, along with names and pictures for real schools in the area.
• I looked up several dream journals and downloaded the Lovely Sweet Dream book scans in their entirety.
• Proper housing, feeding, and care of goldfish.
• Whether or not you can survive a fall from 15 feet into a river.
  • Finally, I didn't know whether or not the concrete retaining walls on bridges were wide enough to stand on, so I tried it myself. Yes they are, but I'm sure as hell never doing THAT again.

For the drawings, here's what I have so far.

Over 2 gigs of pictures saved in my hard drive to use as drawing references.

• Fantasy art. A lot of it.
  • As well as tens of designs for anime girls. Makes Sense In Context.
• Literally hundreds of pictures of people who look like the characters I have in mind.
  • I went out and took a lot of them myself.
  • I was also able to find my old middle school yearbook, which was a big help.
• I also Google street view-ed the hell out of the area where the story's set and captured a lot of pictures via Print Screen.
• I have two of my textbooks from architecture, as well as a huge book of suburban home designs, in my studio to help with drawing buildings.

Finally - partially since the main character's an Occidental Otaku and partially for helping me tell stories and design fantasy worlds - I consumed a lot of fucking anime and manga. Like so much you wouldn't believe.

edited 7th Apr '11 12:25:16 AM by Wheezy

Depends on the scenario; a getaway through tight city streets will need a light, nimble sports car (a la The Italian Job) whereas an escape down a deserted highway will want something fast and powerful, more like a Bugatti Veyron.

Since my characters are escaping from the edge of a town and down a long patch of highway, I went with a good-handling, high-powered sports car that fit the time period. Thank god my dad's a car guy...

Also, I recommend playing some racing games (I use Forza Motorsport 3) to get a feel for how a vehicle performs in various scenarios. I discovered that the Ferrari I mentioned is a pain in the ass to handbrake turn.

I did a good bit of research on the operating mechanism of Modern-to-WW 1-era firearms. It's a personal interest in addition to research, but looking up at the rest of the thread it's apparent I haven't done nearly as much as the rest of you fine folk have. I'll need to correct that.

Ohohohoho, lots.

• The Minoan Civilization
• Albinism
• Blindness
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Histrionic Personality Disorder
• Hypoglycemia
• Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome
• Alchemy
• 1850s Russia
• Glassblowing
• Blacksmithing
• The history of cities
• Milestones in human history
• Cyrillic (I can finally read some of it at a glance, yay!)

None...technically. I just avoid stuff I don't know, and since I like to learn a lot in general, I use the stuff I am already learning.

Well, I'm still learning lots of stuff, but so far I'm doing research for these:

- Tarot Deck Readings (Both Major and Minor Arcana. I have a book at it at home. Pretty accurate, I shall say) - Mythology (Mostly Japanese or Greek Mythology) - Music Terms (Basically I know this by heart since I'm currently studying in an arts academy) - Meiji Era History (To be frank, there's not much info about this) - Psychology (Still digging on it, so many psychological conditions...)

Basically that's what I know about things for my story so far. I still have a long way to go...

By the way, does anyone know how to find info for a layman to understand about technology and anything related to computers? Need that for my big project.

I'm learning about Tarot as well. In fact, I'm learning pretty much anything that can be related to "fantasy" in some way or another.

I did plenty of research on astronomy (all stars in my works are real locations, the planets might not be...), military tactics and regulations (that I didn't know already), various bits of technology, and a few other things.

Some of the examples are ridiculously accurate. For example, in one chapter I gave the velocity, distance and distance to reaching a specific point and the mentioned time-to-arrival is actually calculated and accurate. (I had to break out a calculator to help for chrissakes.)

Some of the geography and geology stuff (especially pertaining to scenery in many areas) was more Write What You Know than needing research. (Which thoroughly explains why some of the scenery areas heavily resembles the High Plains and Rocky Mountains of North America.)

edited 7th Apr '11 7:13:23 AM by MajorTom

I generally tend to make it a priority to research geography of an area if I'm not making one up whole cloth.

Other than that, generally I end up researching or asking others about weapons (mostly firearms, considering I'm not too knowledgeable) and realistic effects of any injuries sustained. Also, any illnesses will be properly researched and represented.

Heh, you guys research a lot.

I have done some research as well, both for major consistency and minor details in the works I am writing. I'm more dedicated to the minor details, as those I'll be using more frequently for the time being.

Overworld Consistency:

• Geography and the very basic of geopolitics in order to do macroscale worldbuilding.
  • In particular, coastal geography.
  • Stratigraphy (I find it fun for some reason).
  • The creation of geopolitical and topological maps.
• Urban and road planning in Eastern Europe (granted, the language barriers have made it pretty difficult) and South America (far easier).
• Overworld / common mythology trends (mythology semiotics? like, you know, how there are deluges and dragons everywhere?).
  • Names (to run away from pretty fast) in Aztec and Norse myth.
  • The Pillan Great Deluge myth.
  • The Inca account of creation of the world.
• Given the settings, of course the diverse elements of the involved canons. In particular for Pokémon I'm helping and feedbacking via The Pokedex Extended Fanon Edition.
• Seasonal migration patterns for several forest and sea species, in particular the ones from which 'mons draw their design upon.
• Rank naming, insignia and chain of command in the Latin American navies and air forces.
• Tech levels requirements for a stable SHIELD-like airborne HQ program.
• The underlying elements required for the concept of inter-species employment.
• Use and design of trains, submarines and zeppelins as transportation systems.

Minor details:

• Wall and tower clocks, in particular the evolution of their design.
• Caring of terrariums and solariums.
• Pet caring and housing laws in Europe.
• Physics constraints of "indestructible" containers (got a thread in WB about that, haven't managed to progress too much myself).
• Workplace and home ergonomics.
• Seismic-proof and fire-proof storage construction.
• Tactics (law-enforcement and military) for both suburb raids and VIP vehicular protection.
• Schedule and naming schemes of projects like the "Ubuntu" software distribution.
• Production and operation of aircraft bombers and tankers.
• Technology associated to food preservation and shipping.

Tropes under study:

• Unusually Uninteresting Sight.
• Combat Pragmatist.
• Combat by Champion.
• Sink or Swim Mentor.
• Law of Conservation of Detail.
• Everything european under Useful Notes.

edited 7th Apr '11 9:02:06 AM by SilentReverence

This isn't really extensive research, but I use a perpetual calendar for finding dates set in the future for my Harry Potter fanfics that are set after the epilogue, so that I get dates and things correct (so that I don't fall victim to Writers Cannot Do Math). I think the one I use might even go to the 30th century (2900s) so I use that for my Crystal Tokyo-set Sailor Moon stories too.

edited 7th Apr '11 10:11:54 AM by Rainbow

@dRoy: I like geology in general, so yes, it's interesting to me. It helps that one of the things about geology I had to look up (which is super-spoilery, so I'd feel awkward disclosing it) is on one of the topics I consider most fascinating. And I got to read an incredible book about it that was pretty much worth the research.

I wrote a Historical Fantasy story set in 1896, and did very little research, which was probably unwise. If I ever wanted to do anything about it, I'd have to do a ton of research on the late Victorian period and then go over it to revise/correct everything.

OK, for one work, I researched Duchenne muscular dystrophy, gay teenagers, and child prostitution over the internet. For another, I researched ancient Roman ideas about spousal and child abuse, and female sex offenders who were coerced into it by a male partner. For a third, I researched prostitution, both looking at the prostitutes and at the johns, and also the Pickton case. For a fourth, I researched epidemiology and medieval population demographics and death rates. Some of my stories I don't research at all, others I research extensively. It depends on whether I think I know my topic well enough already.

For one of my stories:

• Mesopotamian/Semitic mythology and culture. Hitting that hard, particularly:
  • Arguments that the Abrahamic God originated as a god in a Semitic pantheon
  • The Ba'al Cycle.
  • The Sumerian, Akkadian, Hebrew languages, among others.

For one of my short fictional essays i found out when the first automatic pitching machine was invented.

I started writing a fictional essay about evolution vs. creationism... in the Pokemon universe. Which ended up with me researching Charles Darwin quite a bit.

I spend far more time researching my stories than I actually do writing the stories.

Stuff that I still need to know for AB!Beowulf at the moment:

• What wagons in 6th century Scandinavia looked like
• My impression of fashion is fairly uniform save for colors, embroidery and some jewel-work. I need a little more variety.
• What urban planning in 6th century Scandinavia looked like close up and afar, because I suck royally at drawing places.
• How horses in 6th century Scandy were dressed
• An Old English translation/cognate for the name "Borghild", which is Old Norse.

There's probably a lot more, but that's the stuff in highest demand.

edited 9th Apr '11 9:59:33 PM by annebeeche