Weird Things You Researched for Your Erotica

[alexp336]

It can apparently stretch anything up to 800% without breaking, though 500% seems to be the more generally accepted benchmark. Guess that's why they make wrestling singlets out of it!

 

[Maryn]

So is this when blended with other fibers, or by itself?

I have a big stash of fabric. A good bit of the knit supply has either Spandex or Lycra blended with its main fiber, usually only 5% but sometimes as much as 10%. The amount it stretches doesn't seem directly related to the percentage of the stretchy stuff.

 

[alexp336]

So is this when blended with other fibers, or by itself?

I have a big stash of fabric. A good bit of the knit supply has either Spandex or Lycra blended with its main fiber, usually only 5% but sometimes as much as 10%. The amount it stretches doesn't seem directly related to the percentage of the stretchy stuff.

I think it's for "pure" spandex, or Lycra. I imagine the stretch is dialed back when it's a blend (though I'm a sucker for jeans with some stretchiness in them myself).

 

[Unimportant]

The difference between coach and carriage in the Regency period.

 

[InkFinger]

The difference between coach and carriage in the Regency period.

There is a difference between a coach and carriage that isn't regional?

 

[Maryn]

The coach has a whistle, and the carriage is part of a typewriter.

 

[InkFinger]

Well, I'll be damned - the difference is a fixed roof.

 

[Maryn]

The first "real" writer I knew got letters from readers for misusing the name of a particular kind of carriage, which she'd researched, to include other similar carriages. It was then I knew historical fiction was not for me.

 

[Unimportant]

From what I can tell, 'carriage' is a more generic term for several various equipages, whilst 'coach' specifically refers to a large, closed carriage that carries 4 - 8 people and is drawn by two or, more usually four, horses, and is built for long-distance hauls and comfort rather than fashion and speed.

It's coach that I'm wanting in this instance.

 

[Catriona Grace]

The first "real" writer I knew got letters from readers for misusing the name of a particular kind of carriage, which she'd researched, to include other similar carriages. It was then I knew historical fiction was not for me.

What really sets my curls in a whirl is reading about diamondback rattlesnakes in Wyoming. Even writers who live here and ought to know better make that error. There are no freaking diamondback rattlesnakes in Wyoming unless someone deliberately imports one, and then it will die in the first winter.

Recently, I had to look up a couple of things in Through the Looking Glass, but I don't generally write the kind of erotica that requires much research.

 

[Maryn]

Detroit auto plants and Catholic Churches in 1950. I’m turning an odd genealogy discovery into erotica.

 

[InkFinger]

From what I can tell, 'carriage' is a more generic term for several various equipages, whilst 'coach' specifically refers to a large, closed carriage that carries 4 - 8 people and is drawn by two or, more usually four, horses, and is built for long-distance hauls and comfort rather than fashion and speed.

It's coach that I'm wanting in this instance.

Yep, squares and rectangles. I had no idea.

 

[InkFinger]

What really sets my curls in a whirl is reading about diamondback rattlesnakes in Wyoming. Even writers who live here and ought to know better make that error. There are no freaking diamondback rattlesnakes in Wyoming unless someone deliberately imports one, and then it will die in the first winter.

Recently, I had to look up a couple of things in Through the Looking Glass, but I don't generally write the kind of erotica that requires much research.

Just because I couldn't help myself, this is the range of the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake



And these are the native snake species of Wyoming according to Google.

1. Prairie Rattlesnake
2. Garter Snake
3. Crotalus Concolor
4. Common Garter Snake
5. Bullsnake
6. Northern Pacific Rattlesnake
7. Western Terrestrial Garter Snake
8. Eastern Racer
9. Striped Whipsnake
10. Western Hognose Snake
11. Rubber Boa
12. Smooth Green Snake
13. Milk Snake
14. Red Belly Snake
15. Great Basin Gopher Snake

 

[Catriona Grace]

Don't get your snake information from Professor Google.

We have the prairie rattler (Crotalus viridis) east of the Divide and the midget faded rattlesnake (C. concolor) in the southwestern corner of the state around Flaming Gorge. No Pacific northwest rattlers. No other rattlesnakes at all. Some of the other snakes in that list are wrong (or just so vague as to be meaningless), but we're concerned with rattlesnakes here, right?

 

[InkFinger]

I will confess, I thought the Western Diamondback had a larger territory, since I've always lived with them. I hunted them as a child and we were all taught how to avoid them early. I've stepped on one twice - ranch hand for a while, both times I was carrying stuff and didn't see them. I've turned over a rusting piece of corrugated steel to find a bunch of them - that actually spooked me. But Wyoming is pretty high and definitely cold. I learned something today.

 

[Maryn]

I researched the cost of a mixed drink at Nobu, a fancy-and-hip LA restaurant, as well as their most expensive entree. I won't use their name in the story, but it's the right kind of place. (I'm so glad I can both mix a drink and cook!)

What happened was I decided to update a story I wrote so long ago that my character set down a ten at a fancy restaurant where she'd been stood up, to pay for her drink and a tip. I had her drop a twenty, then wondered if that was even enough. Turns out the drink (gin and tonic made with Bombay Sapphire) is $18, so that's a lousy tip.

Maryn, good tipper

 

[Seaclusion2]

I researched the spawning habits of the Atlantic Striped Bass. They are anadromous, which means they swim upstream into fresh water to spawn. Didn't know that.

 

[Maryn]

It's going to be hard to find the perfect opportunity to drop that into conversation, though.

 

[Seaclusion2]

You mean you don't see it worked into some post-coitus pillow talk. Strange.

 

[Lilith Bayibalayen]

Anyone who writes erotic fiction knows it isn't all sexytimes--there has to be a story and solid characters and a setting and all that sort of thing. And that often requires research.

I'm sometimes surprised or amused at the things I need to learn more about to get some detail right. It'll be fun for us to list some of the specific things we needed to research here. (Please, no sexual topics; this is for other research topics.)

I'll start. Today I did some research on the names of the parts of staircases and their railing systems. I found one of the terms I was looking for, baluster, but not the other, the name for the sphere or other decorative shape or finial on top of a newel post. All this for a moment when a character comes down the stairs, bare legs visible through the balusters, and pauses at the bottom, a hand on the top of the newel post, which is contemporary and not likely to be topped with a ball.

Maryn, who may have to take herself online shopping at Houzz or or someplace

do you find using the actual names for objects, detracts from the stories. Or may even over complicate a small point ?

 

[Trying To Be Good]

Just because I couldn't help myself, this is the range of the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake



And these are the native snake species of Wyoming according to Google.

1. Prairie Rattlesnake
2. Garter Snake
3. Crotalus Concolor
4. Common Garter Snake
5. Bullsnake
6. Northern Pacific Rattlesnake
7. Western Terrestrial Garter Snake
8. Eastern Racer
9. Striped Whipsnake
10. Western Hognose Snake
11. Rubber Boa
12. Smooth Green Snake
13. Milk Snake
14. Red Belly Snake
15. Great Basin Gopher Snake

The part of Arizona without the snake is way higher up and actually snows in winter. It's not really a desert in terms of sand, but it is very dry and just endless Ponderosa pines.

 

[Maryn]

do you find using the actual names for objects, detracts from the stories. Or may even over complicate a small point ?

Not really, unless it's so esoteric I have to stop to define it for the reader. Then I'd try to find a work-around.

So I'd be fine writing that my character stands on the landing, his [redacted naughty bits] protruding between the balusters, then goes down the stairs but pauses at the bottom, one hand on the carved finial, to look at something. Even if the reader isn't familiar with the terms balusters and finial, they'd probably be able to "see" the scene.

 

[Maryn]

Whoa, Ink and Trying, can you reduce that image size and host it someplace you control? Or delete it.

 

[Trying To Be Good]

Whoa, Ink and Trying, can you reduce that image size and host it someplace you control? Or delete it.

Done

 

[Unimportant]

do you find using the actual names for objects, detracts from the stories. Or may even over complicate a small point ?

Welcome, Lilith Bayibalayen! Why not pop over to the New Members section and start a thread to introduce yourself? We'd like to get to know you.

As a reader, I generally prefer actual names for objects rather than more generic or euphemistic terms.