Open Thread: Oracle Hotline

[mithen]

--What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

I freaking love research. I basically let whatever fic I'm writing determine my current reading list so I'm always absorbing more information from various tangents from fandom. I ended up in an entirely different fandom because I was doing research for an AU, so that can be dangerous! But right now I'm reading up on the history of Quebec during WWI (it's fraught! Apparently there were a lot of Francophone draft dodgers!) and loving it... oh, and reading Japanese boy's love vampire manga to steal me some tropes. I'm a vacuum cleaner when it comes to research...

Comments

[me_ya_ri]

*rueful grin* I do either no research at all ahead of time or all the research. There's no inbetween. Currently I'm researching early Meiji Japan because I've had the urge to write murder mysteries set then but I don't know enough to make it work. I figure I'll have enough details to start, oh, maybe in 2 years or so.

On the other hand, I'm perfectly comfortable starting up a story and writing into the dark, only jumping onto the internet long enough to get tiny details when I hit them in the writing. It depends on what the subject matter is. Japan, I'll spend ages. Ancient Greece and Rome, too. Other things, nope.

But then I'm also totally happy to just read nonfiction books and then later the stuff I've read shows up in stories so you could say that I'm always researching.

Go steal those tropes! That's the most fun. There are very few tropes I won't grab and take home. I'm a magpie for shiny new tropes. :D

Have fun with your writing and research!

[mithen]

It depends on what the subject matter is. Japan, I'll spend ages. Ancient Greece and Rome, too. Other things, nope.

Oooooh, that's so true that there are some areas I'll do a ton of research and then others it's like "Nope, I'm just winging it." :D

The trope-stealing is continuing apace!

[bradygirl_12]

Research is SO my thing! I use stuff I learned years ago and also do a lot of research as needed for my stories, especially the historical tales. I do my best to get the little details right as well as the 'big picture'. :)

Right now I'm doing some research on 1908 so that I can get back to an historical story that's been sitting around awhile. I may do some on-and-off refresher research on the '80s, as the next Wonder Woman is set in 1984. :)

Since I read a lot of historical stuff, both fiction and nonfiction, I pick up a lot of things by osmosis. I can dash off '40s slang and tell you what were the popular radio programs of the era. I can name quite a few of the Westerns on TV during the 1959-1960 season, the year that set a record for the number of oaters on TV. :) I can give you the political situation in the spring of 1961 here in the U.S. and around the world. All off the top of my head! :)

But research is essential, of course, to make sure you get the right song during the right year, and what was the bestseller your character is reading in a particular year? I find research fun. You immerse yourself in a different world and learn new things. :)

[luciferxdamien]

Japanese boy's love vampire manga you say~ Sounds like my reading list.

I think I spend too much time on research and fretting small details. Especially concerning late Edo Japan/Early Meiji. It's stuff I want to know and incorporate but it can also get in the way of me writing and enjoying what I write if I feel I have to stop every other sentence to look something up. And it usually ends up being very arbitrary stuff I could probably skip over... The lengths I go to just to write smut. :')

[mithen]

Edo/Meiji Japan is KILLER for research because there's just enough that it's hard to stop researching, but not so much that it's overwhelming, if that makes sense? I always feel like there's just one more thing I could find... and then, like you say, you end up not using most of it! :O