What do you need(ed) to research for your writing piece?

[Oriole]

For me it's Shaolin monks and martial arts. I don't have the vocabulary to support one of my characters.

What about you?

[Sagesgirl]

Thus far, I've been researching Texas folklore & then chromatography.

[sahmama_12]

neuroscience

[lula]

The fun: hacker techniques.

The very fun: forgery and oil paintings

The not fun: computer programming

The very not fun: in depth erlang

[allgirls]

The history of midwifery in Newfoundland and the folklore of said midwives

Crotchety old men with big chips on their shoulders about Newfoundland's confederation with Canada..lol.

[cdmaze]

Wow! I wish i could help you guys. Fascinating!

For my current story it's paranormal phenomenon, but most of it I'm just making up- no rules, right?

But for my fantasy I want to re-write, there will be tons:

Biology, weapons development, some history, maybe. The premise is the idea that if we went completely natural here, no more fossil fuels, all recycled, etc- what if the earth reversed and started over growing, mutating until it became unlivable for humans- predators, virus', even just the simple fact that everything becomes overgrown within days, crowding people out entirely. Except...for a small population that evolves within the structure of this new earth.

So, yeah, I'm going to have some homework...

[Aufilia]

Rather ridiculously, the #1 thing I've researched has been clothing. I'm writing fantasy but I don't have the gumption to make up my own clothing styles... so I figured I'd better pick a historical era and stick with it.

Also, technology levels... like usage of things like glass for windows, carriages vs horses, ....oh, and one day I wasted a whole evening reading about the history of locks and lock-picking!

The only thing I've had to do any in-person inquiring about is horses. Everything I know about horses I read in a fantasy novel , so when I get to actually writing about horses, I feel a little lost. I've got a couple horsey friends I turn to for horse help.

[cdmaze]

Yes- technology levels is a tough one for me! But so interesting. It can be hard to find good information sometimes.

[St. Margaret]

Geography. For some reason I decided to make my characters walk from Nevada to California.

I know I need to research California plants; luckily we are members of a great botanical garden and I am going to pump the docents and my green-thumb mom for the info.

And just this week I came across a passage in my novel with detailed descriptions of an archer's bow and arrows and wrist strap... and it sounded great and real was all just made up. I yelled to DH, "Oh great, I have to research ARCHERY now?!" I tend to just write whatever and then go back and research and change things. I haven't written myself into too bad of a corner yet.

I like Ann Lamott's chapter in Bird by Bird where she talks about researching and how people will ask her about loving to garden, and she tells them she doesn't garden, just talked to gardeners a LOT and wrote about it really convincingly. But people assume she really does garden!

[PJsmomma]

Fun things in your lists

The only thing I need to do right this minute is research how an artist goes from idea to a finished painting. I just need to know the steps and thought process.

[Smokering]

My novel:
Ancient myths and legends
Styles of writing throughout history
Sea creatures (no small feat given that I have a severe phobia of many undersea critters, and don't like to click on any links in case there are pictures)

My Script Frenzy musical:
Ancient Jewish customs/culture
Ancient Persian customs/culture
How to write a musical

My next article:
The wedding customs of various different faiths

[MommyHawk]

My novel mainly takes place in California and I live on the East Coast now...bummer... need to fly out there soon and remember what it looks/feels like to be there!

Also, technology...it moves so fast, by the time I edit it fully I'll have to change my MC's job description again!...or just find something else that's mundane for her to do that's not techy...any ideas?