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| “Der Naturforscher” – Carl Spitzweg |
One of the best parts of being a writer is the strange things you’re forced to research. I was delving into some very bizarre flora and fauna over the weekend and learned way more than I ever thought I would about the climate of a very particular time period. (But I can’t reveal which time because it would be a spoiler).
What’s the strangest thing you’ve researched in the course of your writing?
This should be good.
Hmmm…don't know about strange, but for my current main WIP, I had to do a lot of research about Japan, including high school day-to-day life, marriage requirements for non-residents (well, he is a demon after all LOL), youngest someone can live alone (14 – seriously), education requirements, various locations, health care, foods, house configurations, and emergency services. I also looked into various heart and lung aliments, which medicines are used to treat which symptoms, and their side affects. Probably the most interesting to learn about was Japanese views of organ transplants. They are surprisingly against – due to their views on souls and suspicions doctors would declare someone dead just to get the parts. They are rare, though the view is changing some, and almost unheard of for kids.
Once, I researched at what temperature a man's skin might rupture with blisters. AIDS terrorism. Specialized Prostitution. How to cook a human being.
I've had to do research on Dissociative Identity Disorder. (Previously called Multiple Personality Disorder.) It is the most amazing example of how the human mind can work. One part takes the abuse and lets the rest of the mind develop different personalities so they don't have to feel the abuse. Incredibly true stories, one of which is my son. (His homework used to get ripped up and stolen all the time. It was only after much therapy, that he has realized that the "angry" part in him, the one who experienced horrific child abuse, didn't want "the rest of him" to do well. "He" was jealous!
Recently researched the effects of atomic explosions…on the environment and on people. I was amazed to find that there were photographers paid to stand in the wave of nuclear blasts to photograph test explosions. Many have since died of cancer. And we think writing is tough some days!
What a great question! My answer: Antlantic hurricane names,origins of hurricanes off the coast of Africa, their path and time it typically takes before making U.S. landfall. (Since I live in FL I knew something about surviving one already). Also gender non-specific names for characters.
The weirdest successful research I did was on my first book that's published. It was on how to do a rape kit which led me on the path to how to do a full pap. I'm a dude, so watching videos and that kind of stuff was interesting but getting the feelings of the dr. and the patient/ victim down were hard to research. I've had cops and victims read it and wonder how I got it so well. Some wonder where I hide my feminine side to know how a girl feels about anything.
The unsuccessful research in progress for a specific disease that a victim had in Season 13 Episode Two of Law and Order. This was after I had gotten net accountability so I had to explain to my wife and my closest friends and pastor why I was searching Law and Order so much. Apparently, you can't get that episode anywhere. I even went to NBC in NYC to see if I could buy it from the gift store. Nope. Can't buy it off of Blockbuster, Best Buy or anything. I even searched Craigs List around the country. Then I googled the symptoms… still no luck. I have IMBD set to email me when that epidsode will be on TV. Oh, I even emailed digital piraters to see if they could find it… I didn't want to break the law… but if I had been arrested for it I would have wrote that down instead because surely I would use that in a story. If anybody has that episode, let me know 🙂
https://www.5pocketphilosopher.wordpress.com
I write historical fiction – Civil War era. I had to research how they did limb amputations in a field hospital after a battle…pretty gross.
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Define 'strange'. =)
I've researched things from how fast red blood cells recuperate, to what happens to a person's body once they've passed away, to what scares people most, etc. I can't say that anything I've ever researched is strange. It IS strange, however, that I actually researched certain topics. Anybody who didn't know I'm a writer would call the police if they found my books plastered with notes about death and cults and stuff.
Loni Longshore–
They were exported to Japan in 1880s according to: https://www.percheron.com.au/midac/reception.pl?UEPage=1&Page=UE1&Source=&Code=iINozh47&returnURL=&Template=percheron&st=&Ref=&exc=&wide=600&tw=600
My strangest research topic? Probably something related to death though the one I am currently thinking of is "Are people still aware of what's going on for a few minutes after they have been decapitated?" The answer is inconclusive. But I found it interesting to learn that of a science experiment that was done at a beheading to find out.
Thank you, Robin!
How to start (and drive) a 1926 Austin 7 automobile. Turns out it's much more complicated than starting a modern automobile.
I had to research a seal called Nelson. He was blind in one eye and a hit with the fishermen.
Nothing gruesome.
Just discovered that moles (burrowing mammals) do not exist in Egypt.
Did some research on ancient-Egyptian mathematics. I have a hard enough time with mathematics of any kind. Ancient-Egyptian fractions are really mind-blowing. Luckily, my protagonist isn't good at math either!
The dimensions and layout of a laundry room in a early 20th century TB sanatorium.
Not necessarily strange, but difficult and time consuming: While writing book two of my Second Advent trilogy, I went down the rabbit hole after a rumored document that the Catholic Church had secreted away over 1700 years ago. I didn't find it, exactly, but I did find enough allusions to the parchment to put it in the book. Hey, it's fiction…;o)
Haha I no longer feel so weird. Currently I'm researching a meeting in a real estate boardroom – the top executive officers. I also didn't know how someone could own a company in the U.S. before with all these anti-trust laws.
Strangest thing I've researched? Well, I had to find out what would happen if a person injected vodka into their veins, and what the temperature of a morgue is.
Filicide, suicide, and gangrene. Depressingly large amount of information available on the net about suicide and filicide but the research was a powerful tool to better understand my character, adding great emotional and psychological depths.
Some of these are hilarious! I love the fact that a large number of them are about, or are at least related to, murder, death or murderers.
I found myself doing a whole lot of research the other day – in order to write a song.
I don't even know any more.
Anyway, I spent about twenty minutes reading through a bunch of pages on 'Tardis Files', regarding Gwen Cooper. Just – don't even ask… Librarian was giving me odd looks by the end too.
I've had a few other ones, but none of them are hugely interesting as I mostly get my research from guessing / other books / not writing anything that needs research.
Although, watching films totally counts. When I was writing Legacy, I think I watched 'Lord of the Dance' four times. The thing took me a month. That's once a week! :/
Golly, these are hilarious! I did some in depth research on arsenic once because of Faulkner's _A Rose for Emily_–I was writing a critical essay and trying to determine when she killed the guy and what exactly arsenic *does* to the body. Apparently there is arsenic everywhere, and that is why you shouldn't let your infant eat dirt.
What a fun topic!
Aside from having to research the definition of a virus and what exactly biopharmaceutical science is, at this point the weirdest thing was vacuum chambers. Not the kind for left-overs, but the kind NASA would use… (and my brain still hurts from trying to understand it all) 🙂
We did this one on Absolute Write and I think I won strangest… self-administered ECT, complete with medication you would use for anesthesia that would have amnestic properties with an appropriate half-life AND be available as a street life. I even found a vintage machine on eBay that could run off 9V batteries.
Great question!
When I was a health reporter at the Houston Chronicle, I wrote a few stories about a mystery disease called Morgellons: https://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5461761.html
I became so fascinated/horrified by it that I started itching all the time, thinking I was experiencing the symptoms!
My vote for Comment! Of! The! Week!:
Joe Iriarte said…
Is that where Skittles come from?
he he he
Unicorns, fairies, fairy rings, elves, Robert Burns, Scotland, Ireland, folklore, Gypsies, horses, plants of various altitudes in the American Southwest, midwestern forest flora, gnomes, stone circles…
I've had to do more research for my fantasy writing than I ever had to do otherwise.
Stayed up late one night, researching traumatic brain injuries, burn treatments, and Michigan pickle farms.
*grin*
Thanks, Heidi. 🙂
Medical schools, their applications and curriculum circa 1890. This led to a lot of autopsy info.
Another search required finding a mushroom soup recipe that used Death Cap mushrooms and what the first and final side effects would be.
Serial Killers, Drag Queens and Priapism… please don't look up the last one – you'll never be the same!
How to clean a slop jar.
https://carol-ervin.blogspot.com/2011/02/cleaning-slop-jar-in-1883.html
Hmm…It would have to be interesting incidents about chewing gum. In my research travels I came across a forensic dentist who was involved in a murder case in which a piece of bubble gum was found at the scene of the crime. The suspect in the case claimed to have never been at the scene but the dentist was able to positively identify that gum as having been chewed by the suspect. This, along with other evidence, helped bring about a "guilty" verdict.
The Long War (a Serbian Rebellion) that started in 1593. May I also state that my book is neither placed in this time zone or this country… Luckily, my history classes came in handy for World War I 😉
I remember that someone from my authors-list on Twitter once tweeted: "If I should die before I wake, I hope God clears my browser history." (I apologize, it's been ages ago, and I honestly can't remember who exactly it was). Amen to that.
The cooling rate of a body underwater… no, apparently about half the people on this list have researched that, so I suppose it's not that odd after all. 😉 I'll have to go with what people used instead of soap, before soap existed (the joys of a bronze age setting.)
Strangely enough, how to butcher a pig (and I'm a vegetarian).
What I love most about novel research is that it is, in a way, transcendent, taking me out of who I am and putting me into the book that I am imagining. One of the best parts of the "job".
I like that way of looking at it, Lisa Ahn. 🙂
Among other things, I've researched…
– French nursery rhymes
– Agoraphobia (it's not just a fear of open spaces)
– How a girl can help a cast horse by herself
– Whether or not smoking weed stains the walls
– What would happen if an entire royal family died
– How to buy an island
– Gasoline or gunpowder when burning down an entire building
– Whether or not boxers have pockets
– Irish language
– How to throw knives
Though not all for the same WIP.
I chewed grass to know how to describe the bitter taste. Why I couldn't just write bitter is beyond me. Worst of all, the scene was cut.
Some things I've researched have been more unique, or I've had to research far more deeply to get the answer I needed, but when it comes to 'strangest,' I would have to say the underwear used in various pre-elastic societies for both men and women, both in and out of armor, for a scene in a fantasy story where people (from both European and Asian fashion styles from roughly the 10th to 15th century in technoloy) needed to undress to go swimming.
Types and names of dances by letter. Alliteration played very strongly into a previous WiP and I ended up learning how many dances begin with the letter M.
The origins and reception of belly dance in the US in the 1930s. That one stalled, as I had trouble finding reliable research done on the subject. The origins of the dance led me to the mystery of a dancer named Little Egypt, who to this day, people theorize, but still don't know for certain who she was…
Medieval plumbling (or lack thereof). It was fascinating.
Whether it's possible to hijack the entire internet… The internet didn't respond well to my request.
The inside of a 1978 Playgirl magazine, what flying squirrels eat, the TV line-up for April, 1981, a Welcome Back Kotter episode, how much space camp costs, yellow throat plated lizards, the list goes on.