How far will you go to research for a story?

[ronde]

I've always loved history and so I've written several stories based upon actual history. I do research into the time and area through a variety of sources, Wikipedia being one of them, but there are a lot of sites dedicated to history out there that are excellent references for what I write. I base my historical stories on the events of the times, but my characters are normal people who are caught up in those times. Wikipedia will give me the events. The other sources give me what the common people were doing. For instance, there are websites that have transcribed letters from soldiers to their wives or sweethearts.

Most of my other stories are based upon personal experience or just my imagination or how things could be.

I do get it wrong on occasion, but not often because I'm pretty thorough with my research.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

I climbed into the cockpit of a fighter jet to write my story featuring a fighter pilot ... I wish.

 

[Gamblnluck]

As far as emotions go, I am able to empathize with my characters for the most part, male or female. I say that but I cannot quite get there with cuck stories.
While I can understand a man dissociating his emotions and think of watching his wife getting screwed as live porn, I just cannot fathom anybody accepting his wife's sneaking off to cheat. Or the disrespect of rubbing it in his face. I get angry imagining myself in those situations so I stay away from writing them. (writing about ACCEPTING it).
As far as research itself goes, I do enough to fit the story. I wrote a story called "Jasmine Patel" about a woman of Indian heritage who nails her misogynistic cousin. I had to do quite a bit of investigating because I dealt with a different culture even though the events were staged in the US.
I am currently writing a long story about a woman who submits to her young neighbor. It is from the older woman's point of view. I am trying to put myself into her skin and make the story progression logical.

 

[ChuckWolf]

I don't really go to any extremes in doing research on stories; pretty much rely on the internet and make up the rest.

Some of my current and future stories involve different areas of showbiz and down the road, I have two stories planned that involve classical art and modern dance, so I'll need to research those topics, just to get the voice and the dialogue of the characters right.

EDIT: For the modern dance story, I may try to watch a few old episodes of, "So You Think You Can Dance" and use the judges for the cadence and pomposity for the modern dance teacher.

 

[Rob_Royale]

How far? Google.

 

[Melody_Lightdraft2]

Many creative writing classes will tell you, "write from experience," which is all well and good. Yet many of my characters are equine, or equine based, such as centaurs. So as you can imagine my search engine history makes interesting reading, like how much ejaculate does a stallion produce?
Or problems like, do Centaurides suffer from PMT?

 

[Cagivagurl]

Hi

Not sure if I'm so out on a limb here, does anyone else try to explore or experiment to understand how an person (or persons) feel to then be able to use the experience to develop characters?

I'm no youngster, haven't led a path on the straight and narrow, therefore have a wealth of personal experiences to draw on. Throw in friends that don't mind me probing them when I have questions (most know I write on Lit)and I'm pretty well covered. But not completely, at least in my mind.

My wife is into BDSM, not heavily(in both senses of the word!) whereas it's ok for me, but doesn't necessarily get my motor running, although I did finally find what what does do it for me almost by accident. I'm more than happy to be a voyeur and watch my Mrs do her stuff as a dominatrix and I certainly have a nice story in mind to pull on the dynamics we have. I have some other stories I want to develop, but flounder on emotions that may be felt, so I can certainly "nudge" my Mrs and she'll happily come exploring with me.

We attended a BDSM market (LAM- London Alternative Market) and were looking at these big chunky leather collars with a bid stainless ring on the front. I asked if she would want to see me in one, she readily agreed then picked the one she liked, and put in on me. The affect it had on her was amazing, after standing back and looking she grabbed the ring and pulled me in, then basically said, if she was a guy, she would have a monster hard on right now. The dynamics of power (in day-to-day life, I'm the more dominant one) really turned her on. We brought it, and I've worn it since. The beauty of it is I can ask her how she feels, I know how I feel with it on, so I store away those thoughts and conversations for later use when writing.

I'v pushed the boundaries harder, I ordered a male chastity case which she received yesterday. It's one of the last pieces I need to have a decent library of emotions to draw on, last night she fitted it to me. Fuck, talk about turned on! I asked her how it made her feel, what could she imagine doing if she kept me in the cage. And with that, her mind exploded with things she could imagine doing, we are very open, so no holding back. We'll discuss how I felt, and how would I feel if put into the scenarios that were clearly turning her on. Without going into detail, she ended up having, and I'm fairly sure it was, the most intense orgasm ever.

I may have opened a Pandoras box, where I was looking to feel and understand emotions, will have to see how this plays out. Am I alone in looking at using real life scenarios created explicitly to help with writing?

How far will I go to research a story??????

The pantry is about it.

 

[Inkent]

How far will I go to research a story??????

The pantry is about it.

LOL, that sounds a lot easier

 

[RetroFan]

Have you ever been researching something and just had things fall into your lap?

I had this experience earlier this year when researching for my Titanic story. Many of the real life passengers died in odd ways and on dates strangely connected with the ship, so I was doing this for the fictional characters in my story when they died as the years went by.

While looking for a way to despatch the wife's younger sister Charlotte who had been collected from finishing school and returned to America, I was thinking of her dying in another real-life disaster close to the date. But what should it be? Then in 1954 I found that a Comet Airliner had crashed off Italy on 8th April, the same date the family had travelled to Southampton in 1912, so Charlotte and her husband found themselves aboard the doomed Comet airliner 42 years after she was on the Titanic...

 

[ElectricBlue]

Then in 1954 I found that a Comet Airliner had crashed off Italy on 8th April, the same date the family had travelled to Southampton in 1912, so Charlotte and her husband found themselves aboard the doomed Comet airliner 42 years after she was on the Titanic...

That's a handy coincidence. If it happens a third time, it's divine intervention.