Your latest fun research detour

Lakey · May 11, 2017

I know most of us have been there. You are planning or writing along. You go to look something up - it will just take a minute - and you find yourself half an hour or an hour later off in a delightful detour, fully absorbed in learning about some esoterica or the other. Sometimes these are shallow but fun; other times they take you fascinatingly far afield. What's your latest?

Here's mine: I stayed up way past my bedtime last night reading up on and watching clips of late '20s and early '30s movie stars, trying to decide who might have been my protagonist's adolescent crush.

MadAlice · May 11, 2017

Recently, zombie ants.

ajaye · May 11, 2017

Lakey said:
I stayed up way past my bedtime last night reading up on and watching clips of late '20s and early '30s movie stars, trying to decide who might have been my protagonist's adolescent crush.

Ooh, who did you choose?

MadAlice said:
Recently, zombie ants.

Good grief :O

I got sidetracked by Britain's Bright Young Things of the 1920s - same era as you Lakey! - and had fun following many of the names listed. Decided I need to read Waugh's Vile Bodies.

Maryn · May 11, 2017

I spent a happy hour or so researching what small items might be stocking stuffers for a young adult woman in 1939. I looked at print ads for drugstores and dime stores and got five or six items, some candies, gum, lipstick, and a diary.

Maryn, who thinks this sort of thing is fun

Lakey · May 11, 2017

Maryn said:
I spent a happy hour or so researching what small items might be stocking stuffers for a young adult woman in 1939. I looked at print ads for drugstores and dime stores and got five or six items, some candies, gum, lipstick, and a diary.

This is wonderful! (And, uh, might be relevant to me, too.) It reminds me of the time I was reading Shirley Jackson's story "The Tooth" and nearly jumping out of my chair when I got to the part where the woman in the story empties out the contents of her handbag. It was as if she had written: "Dear Lakey; In approximately 70 years, you will find yourself writing a novel, and you will have many questions. In the spirit of encouraging the next generation of writers, I would like to help. And so, with a sure sense that you will find it extremely illuminating and useful, here is a list of what you might find inside the handbag of an ordinary, white, middle-class, 30-ish woman in New York City in the years of prosperity following the Second World War. Yours, Shirley Jackson."

I mean, apart from asking my mother if she remembered what was in her mother's handbag (I do ask my mother questions like this all the time), I don't think I could have asked for a more perfect little piece of knowledge than this.

Lakey · May 11, 2017

ajaye said:
Ooh, who did you choose?

I haven't made up my mind yet - in the running are Claudette Colbert, Greta Garbo, Myrna Loy, Barbara Stanwyck... it's going to be a tough choice, really. I have to watch more clips. For research.

ajaye said:
I got sidetracked by Britain's Bright Young Things of the 1920s - same era as you Lakey! - and had fun following many of the names listed. Decided I need to read Waugh's Vile Bodies.

Oh, now, THAT sounds like a delicious group to write a historical fiction about. Yum yum.

(I'm writing about the early 50s but ended up in late 20s and early 30s while pondering my character's adolescence. The research paths are delightfully endless.)

Cindyt · May 11, 2017

I spent a big part of two days surfing outlaw motorcycle gang patches. It was fun because it flashed me back to the 60s and Easy Rider and a few Outlaws I went to school with.

Lakey · May 20, 2017

Today I've been looking into where one might have been able to see a particular sculpture in the years after WWII.

Maze Runner · May 20, 2017

Lakey said:
I haven't made up my mind yet - in the running are Claudette Colbert, Greta Garbo, Myrna Loy, Barbara Stanwyck... it's going to be a tough choice, really. I have to watch more clips. For research.

There sure was something about Barbara Stanwyck.

vicky271 · May 20, 2017

^^

Ocean currents, and weather.

The most fascinating research i've done thus far is tectonic plates. I did some research on tsunami's, but i need to reread. But it's fascinating!

WriterDude · May 20, 2017

Today's research has been architectural inspiration for a character penthouse that suits all the needs of the plot across the various scenes whilst also being visually interesting and consistent. Its tougher than it sounds.

sockycat · May 20, 2017

I was attempting a story in my homestate centered around invasive species. Michigan has a lot of problems with invasive plant and bird species, but I feel like I don't hear that much about mammals. And thus I discovered the Nutria (apparently otherwise known as a Coypu, but Michigan's DNR website has it listed as a Nutria)

Jaymz Connelly · May 20, 2017

My latest fun research was Indian tribes in the midwest (? From the Dakotas down) in the mid-1800's. I think I spent three days trying to work out what tribe my MC belonged to. *g* Also, hurricanes. (all weather is absolutely fascinating to me)

LuzPinilla · May 25, 2017

A few weeks ago I got an idea for a new novel. The premise involves labeling trees inconspicuously, so I ended up looking at different ways of marking trees--with paint, wire, cuts, etc. The coolest thing I found were these little embossed metal signs... and then when I looked into that I discovered a whole new art medium!! Which led to a trip to the store for art supplies and then a whole lot of experimenting with embossed metal. I absolutely love it!! (But as for the story, I haven't fleshed anything else out since.)

Cindyt · May 25, 2017

How much a gram of cocaine costs in Miami. Not as much as I figured.

airandarkness · May 28, 2017

I got almost no writing done the other day because I went off on such a detour on Google Maps! I'm writing a story that takes place in Portland, and I've never been there before (was hoping to take a trip there before I wrote this book, but it hasn't happened yet and I got tired of putting the book off), so I started using Google Maps to familiarize myself with parts of the city. Little did I know that you could zoom so far in to the map that you can basically take a visual street tour, and before I knew it, I'd spent hours "walking" the streets of Portland lol. Ended up only getting about 300 words written that day.

LuzPinilla · May 31, 2017

I love Google for this! I take a "walking tour" before visiting any new place now, so when I get there I feel as if I know where I'm going.

KTC · May 31, 2017

Mine was NOT through Google. It was via PLANE. Yes...that's true. My research mind said, "You're writing a few scenes that take place in Belgium. Bruges and Brussels, to be exact. Your husband is going to USA for a week with his sisters to visit Disney. You promised him you wouldn't step foot in THAT country until the Asshatpillhead was out of the White House. Why should you stay home for the week? Go. Research!"

So, I just recently got back from Bruges and Brussels. And the research was fantastic...and I wrote a SHITLOAD based on my research. It changed the trajectory of the novel. I knew intrinsically that a Google search wouldn't be as powerful this time. BAM.

Cindyt · May 31, 2017

I used to love Google Instant Street View and used it to go on a walking tour for a history of my town, but it's gotten to be a pain in the butt. It will not show certain streets. I'll type in Hill St. and Shadburn Ave pops up. And sometimes it flat refuses to flip to the correct city and state. :Shrug:

I did get a couple good looks at the Miami River and the Oleta River. But It's gotten so I use regular maps.

DamienLoveshaft · May 31, 2017

I decided to write a scene on Lake of Hali /Carcosa and know I'm reading the entirety of The King in Yellow. I need to be careful how far down the rabbit hole I go. It makes me long for the simplicity of Google street view. Doesn't help my piece is set in 1880 soooo, not terribly accurate anyway.

airandarkness · Jun 5, 2017

I did get kind of annoyed that I could walk the streets lol. I was like, but I want to go IN that building! Why can't I? LOL.

KTC said:
Mine was NOT through Google. It was via PLANE. Yes...that's true. My research mind said, "You're writing a few scenes that take place in Belgium. Bruges and Brussels, to be exact. Your husband is going to USA for a week with his sisters to visit Disney. You promised him you wouldn't step foot in THAT country until the Asshatpillhead was out of the White House. Why should you stay home for the week? Go. Research!"

So, I just recently got back from Bruges and Brussels. And the research was fantastic...and I wrote a SHITLOAD based on my research. It changed the trajectory of the novel. I knew intrinsically that a Google search wouldn't be as powerful this time. BAM.

That's so cool! I love Bruges, though I haven't been since I was a kid, so the memories are fuzzy. In-person travel research is definitely the most fun way to do it.

Alessandra Kelley · Jun 5, 2017

Sufi love poetry.

LuzPinilla · Jun 8, 2017

lol. I did a Google tour of one of the small islands in Hawaii and wanted to get all the way up to the beach! Then I wanted to go up the mountain... nothing. Such a disappointment.

)

Lakey · Jun 17, 2017

I had a great conversation with my parents about what certain neighborhoods of Brooklyn were like in the 50s. My parents were born in 1942, so they were digging back into their own memories and their general knowledge about changing demographics. My mother was born in Williamsburg and moved to Flatbush as a teenager; my father was born in Flatbush and grew up there, not far from where they eventually raised me. We talked about demographics - who lived in the Victorian houses in Flatbush like the one I grew up in, who lived in the nearby apartment blocks, who lived in the brownstones of Park Slope, when all those demographics changed.

My father remembered that he has some books of photographs of Flatbush and other parts of Brooklyn that are full of pictures from the postwar era; he's going to bring them to me the next time I see him. I have already raided my dad's library for research - he is obsessed with 20th century American social and political history, and his vast collection (as well as his impressive memory) has proven very useful. I picked a convenient era to set my novel in.

Ink-Pen-Paper · Jun 18, 2017

I spent a night at a horrific shooting site surrounded by LOE. Excellent memories, no photos as it was a working crime scene, which can be used for many various scenes in different works.

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