ATTF: Research!
Greetings, Denizens of the Hawkeye/Black Widow Bar, also known as the place where cool people hang out, aka the best bar on earth, aka our ship is a yacht, and hundreds of other names. How’s your Friday? Good? Oh, you got that promotion/gift basket/thing you've been waiting for in the mail? Excellent! I’m so happy to hear that. Me? Oh, I’m good, too. The mods have let me loose in the bar to host today’s All The Things Friday.
Anyway, the topic I picked is something I know we all wake up thinking about with giant smiles on our faces in the morning: Research!
Yes, I know. Usually we focus on Clint or Natasha and head-canons and aww-inducing stuff, and research is boring compared to that. But I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that nobody here is a spy or a marksman employed by a well-funded shadowy government organization. So, really, “write what you know” isn’t going to help you much when writing from Clint’s perspective or from Natasha’s. In fact, you probably need to do a little research to get the details right. I mean, you could make everything up-and a lot of writers do-but chances are, you take pride in what you’re writing and want it to be a little factually accurate. A story with good world-building has a few details salted throughout to “ground” it, to make it dynamic and interesting.
So here’s the question-how much research do you do? And, for that matter, how do you research? A typical Clint and/or Natasha story might have a myriad of topics with which we’re unfamiliar: geography, military tactics, weaponry, surveillance protocols, anecdotal data specific to a character. If it’s an AU, even, all bets are off the table. Going down the research rabbit hole can start with you looking up the capital of Peru and end with you, three hours later, reading about the number and skill of knots on ropes given out for Brazilian Capoeira (I may be speaking from experience here).
We live in a digital age, which makes it easier to find research and that’s fantastic, but it can be daunting to even begin, especially when it’s a topic that’s completely unfamiliar to you.
So we have this post! I’ve gathered some links that have been helpful during my times of going down said research rabbit hole. In addition, I know we’ve got a diverse and eclectic community of wonderful people right here at this bar, pill baristas and traveling diplomats, technical writers, needlework genii, and people from all over the world that might know something about the topic you’re writing about, whatever it is. So I thought this post could serve as a great resource to everybody in the community. Chime in with any links you’ve found super-handy over the years, and what you can answer questions about!
(Also, graphics resources are awesome and should be shared, by all means)
Some of the Links I've Found Useful Over The Years:
little-details - Little Details is a research-themed livejournal community that's neatly organized by tags and topic, where you can ask questions about specific research concerns you have. It's a great resource when Google has failed you.
Speaking of Google - This is a great infographic that shows you how to search Google more efficiently, which includes narrowing your results by relevancy and other neat tips and tricks.
The Internet Movie Firearms Database: The Avengers - If it were up to me, I'd describe weapons as "the gun" and "the other gun" but I came from a fandom where weapons were pretty common. This website is a lifesaver. It provides images of guns used by actors in TV and film, with descriptions and cross-referenced lists of where else said firearm has been used. Probably won't want to visit it on your work servers, though.
Wikitravel - I know, it's lame to reference wikipedia in a research article, given how much information is wrong on that site, but I do think it's a good place to start, provided you take everything on the site with a grain of salt. When I'm doing a lot of geographical research, I always start at Wikitravel, and move on to other vacation sites, as they can provide a surprising amount of information about a local area, including the cheapest and best ways to get somewhere.
Writer's Forensics Blog - Probably not directly relevant, but I love reading this blog and I thought I would share.
Anyway, I'll kick things off: my name is Frea, and I'm well-researched into dealing with fraudulent activity, falconry, how to juggle, and the greater St. Louis area, which is why watching Defiance sometimes makes me grit my teeth. What about you? What's your research pattern like? Do you outline or use a program like Scrivener to keep it together? Any tricks or great links or things you can provide help on?
Things to remember:
1) Always label NSFW (Not Safe For Work) stuff in the title and post under a cut.
2) Fic and artwork needs to have a rating and warnings (or you can say that you’ve chosen not to use warnings).
3) For people with annoying internet connections, say in the title if a comment is graphic/images/gif-heavy and post picspams under a cut.
4) Have a damn good time! (Because if that’s not happening then this post has clearly failed.)
Anyway, the topic I picked is something I know we all wake up thinking about with giant smiles on our faces in the morning: Research!
Yes, I know. Usually we focus on Clint or Natasha and head-canons and aww-inducing stuff, and research is boring compared to that. But I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that nobody here is a spy or a marksman employed by a well-funded shadowy government organization. So, really, “write what you know” isn’t going to help you much when writing from Clint’s perspective or from Natasha’s. In fact, you probably need to do a little research to get the details right. I mean, you could make everything up-and a lot of writers do-but chances are, you take pride in what you’re writing and want it to be a little factually accurate. A story with good world-building has a few details salted throughout to “ground” it, to make it dynamic and interesting.
So here’s the question-how much research do you do? And, for that matter, how do you research? A typical Clint and/or Natasha story might have a myriad of topics with which we’re unfamiliar: geography, military tactics, weaponry, surveillance protocols, anecdotal data specific to a character. If it’s an AU, even, all bets are off the table. Going down the research rabbit hole can start with you looking up the capital of Peru and end with you, three hours later, reading about the number and skill of knots on ropes given out for Brazilian Capoeira (I may be speaking from experience here).
We live in a digital age, which makes it easier to find research and that’s fantastic, but it can be daunting to even begin, especially when it’s a topic that’s completely unfamiliar to you.
So we have this post! I’ve gathered some links that have been helpful during my times of going down said research rabbit hole. In addition, I know we’ve got a diverse and eclectic community of wonderful people right here at this bar, pill baristas and traveling diplomats, technical writers, needlework genii, and people from all over the world that might know something about the topic you’re writing about, whatever it is. So I thought this post could serve as a great resource to everybody in the community. Chime in with any links you’ve found super-handy over the years, and what you can answer questions about!
(Also, graphics resources are awesome and should be shared, by all means)
Some of the Links I've Found Useful Over The Years:
little-details - Little Details is a research-themed livejournal community that's neatly organized by tags and topic, where you can ask questions about specific research concerns you have. It's a great resource when Google has failed you.
Speaking of Google - This is a great infographic that shows you how to search Google more efficiently, which includes narrowing your results by relevancy and other neat tips and tricks.
The Internet Movie Firearms Database: The Avengers - If it were up to me, I'd describe weapons as "the gun" and "the other gun" but I came from a fandom where weapons were pretty common. This website is a lifesaver. It provides images of guns used by actors in TV and film, with descriptions and cross-referenced lists of where else said firearm has been used. Probably won't want to visit it on your work servers, though.
Wikitravel - I know, it's lame to reference wikipedia in a research article, given how much information is wrong on that site, but I do think it's a good place to start, provided you take everything on the site with a grain of salt. When I'm doing a lot of geographical research, I always start at Wikitravel, and move on to other vacation sites, as they can provide a surprising amount of information about a local area, including the cheapest and best ways to get somewhere.
Writer's Forensics Blog - Probably not directly relevant, but I love reading this blog and I thought I would share.
Anyway, I'll kick things off: my name is Frea, and I'm well-researched into dealing with fraudulent activity, falconry, how to juggle, and the greater St. Louis area, which is why watching Defiance sometimes makes me grit my teeth. What about you? What's your research pattern like? Do you outline or use a program like Scrivener to keep it together? Any tricks or great links or things you can provide help on?
Things to remember:
1) Always label NSFW (Not Safe For Work) stuff in the title and post under a cut.
2) Fic and artwork needs to have a rating and warnings (or you can say that you’ve chosen not to use warnings).
3) For people with annoying internet connections, say in the title if a comment is graphic/images/gif-heavy and post picspams under a cut.
4) Have a damn good time! (Because if that’s not happening then this post has clearly failed.)