Anyone else research their fiction?

[Wooley]

I'm wondering if anyone else does any research into their fiction works, to make things more realistic, or any other reason.

[dracenstein]

Yes. Interviewing zombies can be pretty stressful at times and interviewing vampires can cost an armful amount of blood, but you really need their input, really. Sorry, but I guess you really let yourself in for that one. But seriously, the internet is a really useful research tool. And knowledge of real locations helps.

[dannoofthedead]

Someone beat me to the smart comments so I'll just answer your question. Yes, I found that it does help to research it. For most of my stories (zombie related) I've read books about voodoo as well as studied some anatomy and biology to try and understand how the body looks and reacts to death and decomposition. It always helps regardless of what you're writing about to read up and study it if you don't know. You can go back and improve your rough draft after you've done your studies on whatever the topic is. The net is a great rescource as well as the library.

[Arcades057]

Always. Sometimes drama sells better than reality, but usually reality is dramatic enough.

[capncnut]

I've had research periods that have lasted six months or more, when I only have 40-50 Word pages done...

[Neil]

I'm wondering if anyone else does any research into their fiction works, to make things more realistic, or any other reason. Definately, when needed... For 'Testament' I did research to get scientific facts, and also a couple of locales correct...

[sandrock74]

I have gone out to shoot people to study how bullets and shell casings work. That has taken up some time but the utter realism in the stories is well worth it!

[Neil]

I have gone out to shoot people to study how bullets and shell casings work. That has taken up some time but the utter realism in the stories is well worth it! *eeeek*

[Suicycho]

I do.

[Wooley]

I can't believe I walked right into that one. Anyway, has anyone found something while not doing zombie fiction research that they've used or thought about using? In my case, being interested in survivalism, I read a lot of boards, and read a lot of stuff on those boards, like how in one town during the 1918 Flu Epidemic, the town doctor drove around town in the winter seeing patients. He knew which houses contained live people because there was smoke coming from the chimneys. Houses without smoke contained dead people. As he drove, he spotted someone in the window of such a house. It was a little child trying to keep warm in the sunlight after their parents had died. My idea being the survivors in a small town try to deal staying warm once our modern heat systems fail. Another was how some towns closed themselves off during the flu, putting up barricades, setting up checkpoints. These towns usually kept out the flu by keeping out people who may have had it. My idea was that by digging trenches or filling concertainer walls and putting up gates across roads, and railroad tracks, the town could keep out zombies Yet another was how the US government was going to feed survivors of a nuclear war the stored grains in grain silos. The plan was in the late '70s, early '80s. Another news article states that those reserves are practically gone. In other words, I was thinking of having FEMA dust off old nuclear war plans as a way to feed people fleeing the cities, only to find that the food is gone now since the idea of nuclear war as unsurvivable meant the plans weren't kept updated to reflect the decreased stocks. I've read some articles on transportation units in Iraq, who drive gun trucks, big military cargo trucks loaded with armor, weapons and ammo, who add security to convoys. I'd thought about doing something from the point of view of a National Guard trooper in a transport unit bringing supplies of grain to these walled off towns, and doing combat missions in zombie infested urban areas, driving down streets mowing down deadies with their machine guns, or with riflemen in the beds picking them off with marksmanship skill. This is still in my head. I'm busy with work and stuff and usually am not in a mood to write when I find I have time to do so.

[Arcades057]

I get factual incentive for my fiction all the time. One of my favorites was studying the human brain in depth for my first set of stories on this site; the other cool thing was studying decomposition and muscle degradation in cadavers to answer the question "to run, or not to run" in regards to zombies. Once, while watching a video online, I saw a shootout with police against an armed suspect. Once the suspect went down in a hail of gunfire, the police handcuffed his clearly-dead body. I kind of laughed at that (not him being dead, but them handcuffing him) but quickly stopped. How many zombies would be handcuffed by the police and then tossed unceremoniously into a holding cell with uninfected people? How many people, picked up on simple possession or DUI charges, would be bitten or killed by zombies in the first few hours because of this? I like it when something you read in the paper or see on the TV impacts my writing.

[EvilNed]

Always. Sometimes drama sells better than reality, but usually reality is dramatic enough. Then why are you writing zombie-fiction? Myself, I haven't written that much. But I'm currently working on a script (non-zombie related) that I'm hoping to film this summer, or so. So far I've mostly been researching genre-theory, and getting good ideas for the plot, storyline and details from existing culture (such as music videos, old sci-fi films, whatever). Not much research yet, but given the nature of the script, I wouldn't mind digging into some research concerning gang culture.

[deadpunk]

Always. Sometimes drama sells better than reality, but usually reality is dramatic enough. Then why are you writing zombie-fiction? The answer to that question requires that a person take what they think they know about Zombie Fiction, and throw it out the window. Zombie Fiction, quite simply put, is not Horror Fiction. I doubt anyone has ever walked out of a Romero Film and thought: "Well, I sure won't sleep tonight!". Zombie Films and Fiction are closer related to Science Fiction, in that they are designed to make the audience question. I challenge anyone to dispute the fact that after having viewed their first Living Dead movie, they did not say to themselves: "Now, here's what I would do..." Good Fiction, truly memorable fiction, is always grounded in reality. While it represents something wholly impossible, the writer makes it appear plausible. And, the only way that can happen is for the writer to know what he/she is talking about. There is nothing that can interrupt the flow of a solid story faster than when an author starts flubbing the details. (You never know when your reader is going to be an expert in the subject that you're butchering) The hardest story I ever wrote for this particular site involved a taxidermist whose work came alive in his hands. Turns out it's pretty hard to find a lot of how-to information on taxidermy (I guess they don't really want you trying to teach yourself the craft at home ) But, I did as much research as possible and made sure I had my facts straight before I posted it. I didn't want to get typed as one of those writers that just pulled information out of thin air for the sake of seeing my name attached to something people were reading. Yet, even research can be a tricky feat. The internet is indeed a wonderful tool for this because you can utilize multiple information garnered from multiple sites. You never want to look up a subject, quote the author and run with it. How do you know that author knows what he is talking about? Personally, I'm a huge fan of the reference section at my local library. Way back when I was in High School, I took a Creative Writing course that really sparked my interest. The course was only 9 weeks long, but I'll bet the instructor probably said the following statement 1,000 times or more; "Write what you know." I don't think anyone before or since has offered me better advice regarding writing. I would wager that if you had ever read a piece of fiction on this site that you didn't care for, it was something that hadn't been researched and came across as amatuerish and poorly written. Okay, here endth my rant

[capncnut]

Way back when I was in High School, I took a Creative Writing course that really sparked my interest. The course was only 9 weeks long, but I'll bet the instructor probably said the following statement 1,000 times or more; "Write what you know." I don't think anyone before or since has offered me better advice regarding writing. I've attempted subjects in the past that appealed to me but essentially knew nothing about. I can safely say none of those projects went past the ten page mark. "Write what you know" is probably the soundest advice one can be given. A career in erotic fiction awaits!

[deadpunk]

A career in erotic fiction awaits! Note he said FICTION.