“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.
Jan Priddy, Oregon says
P.T. Barnum and circus freakshows; what would happen to an unmarried mother in Tennessee in 1915?; weather in 1925 on July 8th in 1925; laws addressing animal hoarding; euphemisms, synonyms, and misogyny. I've learned a lot of interesting stuff along the way.
Hollister Ann Grant says
Ghost photos… like the one of Uncle Orb.
My late husband was a military history buff and nature photographer who took thousands of photos of the Gettysburg battlefield, including some uncanny ones. Just for fun, and as a tribute to him, I created a small ebook of Gettysburg ghost photos.
I did some Civil War research so I could summarize what happened at each location, but ran into a problem when I wasn't sure where he took a few photos… like the one of Uncle Orb. I thought Uncle Orb was across from the Irish monument, but when I went there, the boulders didn't match the rocks in the photo.
I ended up crawling around in the woods until I found the right spot. Then, to be scrupulous, I drove and/or walked to the location in every photo just to be sure I had the right places.
Jan Priddy, Oregon says
Anonymous @ 10:41. No offense taken. Yes, I've noticed too. But you could look at it the other way around—how we are useful to Nathan… then and now.
S. Kyle Davis says
Deep back story for my novel, including amongst other things fringe skirmishes in the Quebec region France during the French and Indian war.
Jessica Young says
French toilets of the late 1800's.
Sylvia Ney says
WOW! Some really interesting responses. 😉
I want to extend a personal invitation to my blogfest: https://writinginwonderland.blogspot.com/2011/07/wonderland-giveaway-blogfest-2011.html
Matthew C Wood says
Witness accounts of Encounters with Men in Black. Some of those tales are just bizarre!
R.D. Allen says
Vasospasms and the kind of medicines used in mental institutions. Not for a WIP, actually, for a play-by-post forum rpg. Wish I got paid for that stuff, it's gold. xD
Kristen Simmons says
How to make a pipe bomb. Pretty sure big brother is on to me.
sherylmonks says
Loved reading these responses! The most recent weird thing I've researched… how to dissect a cat, for a short story newly written.
G says
"The Divine Comedy", Pulp Fiction and the Bible for a longish short story and a half completed trunk novel.
AspiringAuthorSarah says
For my latest WIP i've been researching British insults and butchering(like turning game into meat).
Bethany J. says
How to butcher an animal. I didn't find anything. 🙁 Either I wasn't looking hard enough, or there weren't any YouTube videos at the time… (I'm glad…eew.)
CageFightingBlogger says
Liquid explosives, police procedures for handling suspects who are social services clients, how the world would work if it was flat, which direction a running man would fall if he were shot in the head close range, songs from films about food. to name a few!
Anonymous says
Relative weights of a person on the different planets and moons in our solar system, for my sci-fi story.
Johnvise says
Elephant genitalia
Kristin Laughtin says
The history of artificial blood, Sweden in the 14th and 15th centuries, and the Cambodian climate in the Ice Age. Two of those were for the same book!
Lee Wardlaw says
World Records for longest bout of sneezing and longest bout of hiccuping…
also the oldest piece of chewing gum ever found. (9,000 years!)
J.C. Martin says
Bomb-making, London Underground stations, London's new Olympic Village, hierarchy and procedure in the Metropolitan Police Murder Investigation Teams, the effects on the human body of being electrocuted in the bath tub…
Does it sound like a list of a potential terrorist?
CT says
This is a wonderful question!!!!! I'm still working on my first novel, so I don't have that much of weird topics (mythical murderous creatures of the world who are similar in several countries is one) but I'm the unnoficial researcher in my family. Lately I've had to research on duck breeding, victorian house construction and hypnosis.
Carrie M says
Pole dancing! I spent an evening watching how-to videos about pole dancing for a short story I was working on. I walked a fine line as far as avoiding sites that would give my computer viruses that night!
Juli Page Morgan says
Recently I've researched how one feels when on heroin, Rolls-Royce body styles and the interior of London's Marquee Club in 1967.
Natalie says
I don't know if it's the strangest, but recently I've been researching Wuxia stories and literature from China. This stuff goes back over a thousand years. It changes over time but always has martial arts. Crouching Tiger, HIdden Dragon was a wuxia story. Fun stuff and I'm learning about cool weapons!
Cool question and fun reading the comments.
Elizabeth Haysmont says
I had to research odd University degrees. Apparently you can get a degree in bowling alley management. Perhaps you'd care to minor in Astrobiology?
I had a character who was bragging on her "precious daughter" and I needed the most ludicrous college degree I could find. The daughter went on to design ball return equipment, by the way.
Lani Longshore says
Does failed research count? I've been trying to find out when percherons were first imported by Japan. Yes, European war horses. Darian, if you've got a suggestion, please share!
Angela Brown says
I once had to resarch the 'art' and 'benefits' of Chinese foot binding.
For a fiction project, I had to research ways in which people experience carbon monoxide poisoning.
bsiscon says
I was actually researching from the designers side for this particular project, and had to find objects made of/covered with human flesh…There were a lot of things I came across that I didn't need to know 🙂 Including finding a company that produces faux flesh for wholesale; like cloth.
bsiscon says
I was actually researching from the designers side for this particular project, and had to find objects made of/covered with human flesh…There were a lot of things I came across that I didn't need to know 🙂 Including finding a company that produces faux flesh for wholesale; like cloth.
Michelle McLean says
LOL I've emailed a horticulture society about the plants that bloom in England in the winter; researched the history of the toilet so I'd know if my characters needed chamber pots or could go ahead and flush; and emailed a doctor once to ask how long a dead body would have hair 😀
Good times 😀
Seeley Street says
Jesuits hunting meteorites in Antarctica.
Shadowkindrd says
Aztec food. Heck, food period. So very many weird foods out there, it's astonishing, tbh. Frog eggs skimmed straight out of the lake, pressed, and eaten. Ever researched what garum is really made of? And how it's made? Salt trade routes? Salt cod trade? Wars were fought over these thnigs, folks. How much, and what type of grain can be grown in what climate? What happens if x piece of technology is missing in a culture? What happens if the culture doesn't have pack animals? So many awesome things to research. One of the most awesome things I found out is that up until refrigeration kicked in, one of the most important considerations on where to place a town was access to salt. It's those little things that ground the stories.
IMO, fantasy writers (including myself) need to do just as much if not more research other genres. Way too many subtle things to miss if they don't, and without that foundation, the worldbuilding can easily come across as shallow. Science fiction writers need to do some of the same, but that's so they can extrapolate into the future.
Seeley Street says
Jesuits hunting meteorites in the austral summer of Antarctica. Seems the Vatican has had a long standing interest in extra-terrestrial life. Big collection at the Summer Palace.
Heather Marsten says
For anonymous who researched "beaver" my husband as a Boy Scout named his patrol group the Beaver Patrol – couldn't understand why adults chuckled, he was thinking working as hard as a beaver and eager beaver.
I'm writing a memoir – as one of my scenes I had to recall my research of the sixty-four names of the God Mercury to use with the magic square of Mercury to invoke him. I was in the occult during that stage.
To the person who had to self-learn Tarot the current chapter of my Memoir – Tell Me What He Did that I put up in Critique Circle in the general category (to be posted tomorrow) has a lot on Tarot. If you are a member might check. Critique Circle is a great critique site, one of WD 100 best websites for writers.
What a delightful post!
Heather
Heather Marsten says
Forgot to add, regarding the Beaver Patrol, years later at Christmas I found a toy stuffed beaver in a resale shop, bought it for a few dollars and had my kids give it to their dad as a joke gift. He still has it.
The priest called all kids to the front of the church and asked them what they got their father's for Christmas. My oldest raised his hand and I groaned (thinking he was going to mention undergarments that we wrapped up as token gifts.) He proudly said, "A stuffed beaver."
The priest was speechless, finally said, "I'm sure he enjoyed it very much.
LOL
toquemag says
Two quaint mourning practices of the Victorian age. One was the fine art of hair jewelry, made from the hair of your dead loved one. The other was commissioning a photograph of a child after death–all dressed up, sometimes with props, sometimes in her mother's arms. Macabre, and sad.
Heather says
Either 18th century British ghost towns, the mechanics of how dolphins communicate under water, or coastal hamlets in Denmark.
Soraya & Nick says
I researched odorless, colorless, tasteless poisons that are relatively available. Yes, a few exist.
Also, whether or not there are raccoons in Russia, types of sawmills/saws used in the 1900s lumber industry in Northern California, and what outward signs bodies (human and jack rabbit) killed by Co2 would show upon discovery the next morning.
Joe Iriarte says
Hair jewelry! It's too bad that died out so long ago . . . it would totally solve a plot problem of mine!
Anonymous says
Lollipop sex.
Don't ask.
Joe Iriarte says
Is that where Skittles come from?
Neil Larkins says
The strangest thing for me has been the phenomenon of the success of Harry Potter, Twilight, any Amanda Hocking, etc. Can't figure out what has generated the amazing popularity when the writing is only so-so, the stories not original or derivative and the main characters generally pedestrian. Flies in the face of everything I've learned good writing is.
Anonymous says
Tertiary nipples.
LeeAnn Flowers says
Thank you, Nathan, for this entertaining subject. I've laughed myself silly over quite a few of these.
I had a baby name book on the dashboard of my car for story names and my mother saw it. That was an interesting conversation. I've researched Skara Brae for a story. Also gamma radiation and what frequencies of light are used to diffuse it, the distance in light years to nearby stars that actually have documented planets orbiting them, the longitude and latitude for a city in Colorado, and subcutaneous stitches.
Anonymous says
"Is that where Skittles come from?"
LMAO!!
T.K. Thorne says
Wow, these comments were interesting reading.
For me it was researching the actual origins of middle eastern religion (mind blowing) for my novel NOAH'S WIFE. If its kosher to give a website–www.tkthorne.com
Thanks for the great question!
Betty Atkins Dominguez says
I spent 3 months researching Chicago and railroads for a novel once, then ended up writing only one line about it.
Not exactly strange research.
collectonian says
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.
derekberry says
Once, I researched at what temperature a man's skin might rupture with blisters. AIDS terrorism. Specialized Prostitution. How to cook a human being.
5kidswdisabilities says
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!
Michelle says
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!