Writing meme, day 26 -- research

[gryphonrhi]

26 - What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you've had to research for a fic?

I think my favorite is still the one where I needed to know if muffins predated the American revolution. The answer, by the way, seems to be that muffins date back to at least the 10th century CE, and possibly the 9th... Although I very much doubt that the muffins of that

Comments

[keerawa]

Oh, man, I do SO MUCH research for my fics, even the drabbles. A lot of it doesn't even ever show up on the page. I just need to KNOW. I have to say, the internet is AWESOME when you need to know the name of a restaurant open past midnight in a particular small town, or how long it takes to drive from X to Y, or Greyhound bus ticket prices in the 90's. I think the oddest might have been researching fishing seasons on Lake Victoria in Africa.

[gryphonrhi]

::laughing:: I have a friend who's a research librarian, which helps a lot on some of the *weird* things, but fishing seasons on Lake Victoria? How cool!!

[keerawa]

And my partner's an RN, which is really helpful for those times when you're like, "So I need an injury that will be incredibly bloody, and life-threatening, requiring an ER stay, but would let the person be walking around 3 days later."

Oh! No, I changed my mind. The oddest question I ever had to research was how you would actually go about being able to touch someone's still-beating heart in the midst of a torture scene. Turns out you really do need to crack open some ribs - the diaphram gets in the way, otherwise.

[gryphonrhi]

::nodding emphatically:: Oh, I just *bet* that's useful!! (And leads to odd questions and amused looks. Not, you know, that Dragon ever gives me looks of 'You're writing again, aren't you?' Followed by delivery of hot or cold drinks as needed...)

And, er, eeew? ::shudder:: Did they want the victim to live through that?

[xianghua]

For future reference? The rialto archive on teh SCA site has, I believe, a very long treatise on the history of muffins. :D

[gryphonrhi]

It does? How cool! Thanks for letting me know!

[adina_atl]

The oddest thing I ever researched in RL was the question (way, way pre-Google/internet) of whether it snowed in Hawaii. For the record? It does, and I won a dollar off my high school English teacher by proving that. Using nothing but the resources of a ridiculously small base library on an American airbase in Japan.

The oddest lack-of-research I ever did for a story was for The Gold iPod, where I looked at the research necessary to write Edwardian fan fiction without anachronisms, looked at the four days I had to write a pinch-hit before the Yuletide deadline, and went "Oh, fuck that," and wrote the wildest deliberate anachronisms I could possibly imagine.

The oddest bit of research was translating "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush" into Tolkien's Elvish (Sindaran, to be specific/pedantic) for Realm of the Dead. I spent a ridiculous amount of time on it for a 100-word drabble.

[gryphonrhi]

Yeah, I thought I remembered there was snow on the highest peaks, but I'd have to look it up too.

::snickering:: And you definitely win for the weird research. Good for you!

[adina_atl]

I managed to find a book on hiking in Hawaii that warned of blizzards (!) on one particular high mountain trail. You had to check in with the rangers before entering the trail, and check OUT when you left or risk being charged the full price for rescuing your ass from a blizzard if they later learned you were sipping mai tais on the beach while they were searching for you. Real rescue was free; unnecessary rescue was expensive!

It took me most of the afternoon pre-internet. Googling "snow in Hawaii" took .16 seconds. Tempus forgetaboutit.