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26 – What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you've had to research for a fic?
So the thing is that I'm a librarian, and I'm a librarian in large part because if someone asks a factual question in my hearing or sight I cannot rest without finding the answer. Even when that person is me. Especially when that person is me.
So I research a lot of things, is what I am saying, and the vast majority of them never end up in the fic. Most of the time I don't even write the fic in question. I just really enjoy the research; I don't like to plot things without knowing that I've got a factual basis in place. For a while there, between moving between fandoms and my propensity for plotting kidfic, it seemed like I was reading up on California custody law every year or so. (The time I went and read entire history of sodomy law in California was not actually research for anything I planned on writing, although after reading it I did consider writing some things on that basis.)
Anyway. I've lost track of what constitutes odd (knowing all about the points system for Canadian immigration isn't weird, right? and ditto stuff like Googling paddle party and then realizing it's going to work better--for these purposes--if you include Marines), and all research is more or less equally fun for me, but a couple of months ago I spent a really unconscionable amount of time doing research for the Ham Radio Apocalypse (or, as it developed over time, Gay Post-Apocalyptic Sleepless in Seattle with Recon Marines on Ham Radios). Eventually I decided against writing it because, you know. Apocalypses are sort of depressing; 99.999% of everyone is dead and the people who are left are communicating by ham radio. But also, as it turns out, it's really hard to find exact information online about how far you can propagate a radio signal with stuff you can loot from an electronics store, and precisely what atmospheric conditions would be required for those scenarios. I eventually concluded that I would actually have to contact humans who knew this information and tell them I was researching a novel and then later tell them that the novel died a sudden, tragic death, lest they ever ask to read it. Which was further than I wanted to go researching something I didn't even plan to write.
( All 30 questions under the cut )
So the thing is that I'm a librarian, and I'm a librarian in large part because if someone asks a factual question in my hearing or sight I cannot rest without finding the answer. Even when that person is me. Especially when that person is me.
So I research a lot of things, is what I am saying, and the vast majority of them never end up in the fic. Most of the time I don't even write the fic in question. I just really enjoy the research; I don't like to plot things without knowing that I've got a factual basis in place. For a while there, between moving between fandoms and my propensity for plotting kidfic, it seemed like I was reading up on California custody law every year or so. (The time I went and read entire history of sodomy law in California was not actually research for anything I planned on writing, although after reading it I did consider writing some things on that basis.)
Anyway. I've lost track of what constitutes odd (knowing all about the points system for Canadian immigration isn't weird, right? and ditto stuff like Googling paddle party and then realizing it's going to work better--for these purposes--if you include Marines), and all research is more or less equally fun for me, but a couple of months ago I spent a really unconscionable amount of time doing research for the Ham Radio Apocalypse (or, as it developed over time, Gay Post-Apocalyptic Sleepless in Seattle with Recon Marines on Ham Radios). Eventually I decided against writing it because, you know. Apocalypses are sort of depressing; 99.999% of everyone is dead and the people who are left are communicating by ham radio. But also, as it turns out, it's really hard to find exact information online about how far you can propagate a radio signal with stuff you can loot from an electronics store, and precisely what atmospheric conditions would be required for those scenarios. I eventually concluded that I would actually have to contact humans who knew this information and tell them I was researching a novel and then later tell them that the novel died a sudden, tragic death, lest they ever ask to read it. Which was further than I wanted to go researching something I didn't even plan to write.
( All 30 questions under the cut )