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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: ۞†Grey Warden†۞ on February 14, 2012, 07:09:26 AM
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Im not looking for a standard answer to how authors research for their books but more a bunch of different things different people do. Interesting or weird things.
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Explain different, interesting, and weird?
You mean things we do ourselves or ways we do research?
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For my research I read several thousand sci-fi and fantasy books :P :P
That said. I also studied ancient history and especially ancient and current political organizations.
Then I went a watched a bunch of sci-fi and fantasy movies series ;D
Finally the time had come and I chained myself to the laptop until a book flowed out from under my hands.
The Deposed King
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One of my best sources is the NY Times on microfilm from my time period of choice (Late1940s.) Also forensic and police manuals from that same period.
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i read books (mostly fantersy and crim) and watch documentry programes on rrealated topics
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Dr Google and Professor Wikipedia are my friends. You can go to the external references links and find more even more sources.
People are down on Wikipedia for research papers but its actually pretty good- at least as a first pass for fiction writing. (Although I really wish the article on space habitats had a citation for the phrase "The L5 position is now thought to be too far away and many recommend 2:1 resonance orbits." Thought by whom? And whats a 2:1 resonance orbit and who recommends them?)
Most state university libraries allow any old schmoe to walk in and use the books, microfiches and other resources. Logging onto the university wireless may not or may work. Oddly, I can look through the University of New Mexico library catalog at home, although I cannot log into the wireless network in the engineering library. I did login to the wireless network at the law library. YMMV, so be prepared.
Usually you can buy a pass for a nominal amount (~$50/yr) and then check out books. And you'd probably get access to the wireless network also, though I'm too poor to try this at UNM.
Thoroughily check university parking regulations before parking on campus! Or lock your bike to a proper bike rack, not a landscaping or handicapped railing.
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Dr Google and Professor Wikipedia are my friends. You can go to the external references links and find more even more sources.
People are down on Wikipedia for research papers but its actually pretty good- at least as a first pass for fiction writing. (Although I really wish the article on space habitats had a citation for the phrase "The L5 position is now thought to be too far away and many recommend 2:1 resonance orbits." Thought by whom? And whats a 2:1 resonance orbit and who recommends them?)
Most state university libraries allow any old schmoe to walk in and use the books, microfiches and other resources. Logging onto the university wireless may not or may work. Oddly, I can look through the University of New Mexico library catalog at home, although I cannot log into the wireless network in the engineering library. I did login to the wireless network at the law library. YMMV, so be prepared.
Usually you can buy a pass for a nominal amount (~$50/yr) and then check out books. And you'd probably get access to the wireless network also, though I'm too poor to try this at UNM.
Thoroughily check university parking regulations before parking on campus! Or lock your bike to a proper bike rack, not a landscaping or handicapped railing.
If you are doing starwars fan-fic or just have no clue as to what your ships shoudl be like. A google of starwars warships will take you to wookipedia, there you can find everything from fighters and gunboats all the way up to strike cruisers and star destroyers. Most of them have weapon counts, ship lenths and crew allotments.
For fan fic its a perfect fit. For non-fan-fic its a good starting place.
The Deposed King
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Thank you for the help, peoples.
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All depends on what you're researching. I've bought books and movies for stuff that there's no way to get practical experience--like angels and demons, planning and pulling off a heist, stuff like that. I know other authors do more if they can--Patricia Briggs and her husband made and shot silver bullets; Shannon Butcher's gone to a writer's police training weekend thing, at least once. I've seen some authors ask quick questions on twitter.
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Ok im not really looking for novelish research or internet, im looking for maybe quirky, maybe funny, adventuress things.
I'll give you the premise,
We live in a paradise world, people are not drones, but can't deal with conflict, so there is very little conflict. You see a group of writers decided the world was crap, so they got a army together and wrote the book on paradise, they took the world over and made people calm, but they knew that problems would arise so they created a group of writers, who solve the problems by writing them into books to figure out an acceptable ending. So 3000 years later, we find our protagonist who discovers that writers are disappearing, being one of 200 he needs to solve this problem, and goes on the move and researches his book. He has to find out what's happening so he writes it like a book with many alternate endings so he can find a way to stop it. It's him writing the story in first person as he researches what's happening.
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Well, someone once said and in all honesty it's true - The sum of all knowledge is contained in fandom.
Whatever you might be interested in - somebody, somewhere in fandom knows about and or has done it.
I would guess you're starting by talking to us here on the Forum.
Let's face it - SHS knows more than all of us combined about igniting things (usually himself) but he does
know. He also knows about wrestling.
I know about making jewelry, printmaking, bellydancing, and working as a carpenter at the studios.
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Sigh,
I just spent a lot of time digging through the records of correspondence from the colonial office of New Spain. I had to get an accurate street plan for Santa Fe, NM in the 17th century..... Pompous bureaucrats, they haven’t changed much in three hundred and eighty years.
Regards,
Kevin
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I sometimes think bureaucrats are grown in slimy tanks out back of the city dump.
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And my thread was derailed, lol i guess it was only a matter of time
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Tv Tropes is good for knowing if something has been done a thousand times before in media you've never checked out. Especially if you have an archetype or idea for a story that while isn't a cliche could be a trope and could be quite well known and expected. Its handy to at least read through especially for you want to surprise your readers and think you have something new to throw in the mix.
As for me I read several books on the religion and mythology of the era/culture I was aiming at and even spent some time on wikipedia and other websites on the subject. I like to think all the other reading I've done over the years helps too. But it's too early to tell if this actually going to help me in the long run.
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Anything and everything you read, hear, see, smell, and touch can come into what you're working on.
I have a story and in it - I've used something a friend told me, something someone on the Forum told me, something an acquaintance told me years ago, and something I saw on TV years ago. All disparate elements but they all work in that story.
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i always know if i have a spesific question i could always ask the furom someone will know somthing in the area or will look it up out of cureosity and tell you :)
but snow is right everything can be reaserch for a book just depends how you look at it
life is reaserch :)