How do you learn so good?!

[CJacobo]

The title is silly, but the question isn't.

What tools, if any, do you use when researching for a story?

My favorite has to be iTunesU whenever I need to learn about a new subject for a story I'm working on.

[Persei]

Probably Google. But then again, I write stories about things I know quite a bit or have read about it already so I don't need to do a lot of research. If I do need to research an awful lot, I buy a non-fiction book about the subject.

And voila!

[CJacobo]

Originally Posted by Persei

Probably Google. But then again, I write stories about things I know quite a bit or have read about it already so I don't need to do a lot of research. If I do need to research an awful lot, I buy a non-fiction book about the subject.

And voila!

Google is always great! And buying the non fiction book is great advice. Thanks for sharing Persei.

[benbradley]

Here's something I recently saw in a tweet:
http://noexcuselist.com/

[CJacobo]

Originally Posted by benbradley

Here's something I recently saw in a tweet:
http://noexcuselist.com/

Wow, benbradley, the No Excuse List looks extremely helpful, thank you for sharing.

[Medievalist]

In order:

Google
My public library
Friends, contacts, former colleagues, peers
Specialized research libraries.

[CJacobo]

Originally Posted by Medievalist

In order:

Google
My public library
Friends, contacts, former colleagues, peers
Specialized research libraries.

Great resources Medievalist, thanks for sharing!

[Red Dog]

I think it was Damon Knight who wrote that he looked things up in the encyclopedia, and if it wasn't there, he made up an answer and kept on writing. (To fair, he was a smart guy and a copious reader, so I suspect the answers he made up were fairly plausible, if not correct.)

I'm an academic, so I'm well aware that you can disappear down the rabbit hole of research and never tell the story you had in mind originally. Still, it bugs me to see writers who haven't taken any steps to investigate. I read a story set in the late 1700s involving a newspaper (the conceit was that the story itself appeared in the newspaper). It was evident from the first paragraph that the author had never seen an eighteenth-century newspaper and didn't know how they differed from newspapers today.

[CJacobo]

Originally Posted by Red Dog

I think it was Damon Knight who wrote that he looked things up in the encyclopedia, and if it wasn't there, he made up an answer and kept on writing. (To fair, he was a smart guy and a copious reader, so I suspect the answers he made up were fairly plausible, if not correct.)

I'm an academic, so I'm well aware that you can disappear down the rabbit hole of research and never tell the story you had in mind originally. Still, it bugs me to see writers who haven't taken any steps to investigate. I read a story set in the late 1700s involving a newspaper (the conceit was that the story itself appeared in the newspaper). It was evident from the first paragraph that the author had never seen an eighteenth-century newspaper and didn't know how they differed from newspapers today.

Great stuff Red Dog, thanks for sharing.

You bring up a good point about how much a writer needs to know versus what he should imagine.

[Red Dog]

I should have clarified: eighteenth-century newspapers (even the front pages) would remind today's readers of a want ads section--lots of tiny snippets (announcements, ads) with a few narrow columns reprinting stuff from other newspapers in bigger cities and a few letters from people in other locations. Remarkably little local news.

Where would one find an eighteenth-century newspaper? Increasingly, they've been scanned into full-text searchable databases, but you'd need a major library to access these for free. Smaller libraries might have subscriptions to the databases, but they also might have microfilm on site (you can pack a lot of newspapers onto a little reel). I'm not sure if Google Books is scanning newspapers yet.

[WildScribe]

My research mostly involves professions or things like that, so I talk to people. What does your job entail? What don't people know about it? What is a normal day like? How did you train for it, etc.

For one thing, it is FUN to learn, and for another, I get the details right (or right-er). But often I stick to what I know, have an inkling of, or can 'vague' my way around without being an idiot (like having an office worker looking at spreadsheets without explaining what they're doing or what their exact position is).

[kuwisdelu]

I mostly stick to "what what you know."

[LaceWing]

http://thebrowser.com/fivebooks has interviews with experts who recommend five books in their subject. History, science, arts, whatever. It's quite an archive they've built up.

[CJacobo]

Originally Posted by LaceWing

http://thebrowser.com/fivebooks has interviews with experts who recommend five books in their subject. History, science, arts, whatever. It's quite an archive they've built up.

Great resource LaceWing, thanks for posting.

[mccardey]

A different kind of research, but one I love as much as any other, is conversation. The pleasure of a really long conversation with someone from a different time - because the very young live in a different time, and so do the very old - is incalculable. Especially the listening bit.

The only downside, I think, is that as I get older people are going to mistake my finely-honed research skillz for, you know, nosiness or worse.

Won't stop me though.

[CJacobo]

Originally Posted by mccardey

A different kind of research, but one I love as much as any other, is conversation. The pleasure of a really long conversation with someone from a different time - because the very young live in a different time, and so do the very old - is incalculable. Especially the listening bit.

The only downside, I think, is that as I get older people are going to mistake my finely-honed research skillz for, you know, nosiness or worse.

Won't stop me though.

Don't let anything stop you mccardey!

You gave some really important advice here, thank you for sharing. One of the saddest memories I have is a day I forced an older gentleman to leave my single mother alone because he was odd. I was hurt that my mother was hurt that we missed out on learning what the gentleman had to say about his life in the military during the second world war, a conversation that was rare and worth hearing.

Thanks again mate!

[LaceWing]

Originally Posted by benbradley

Here's something I recently saw in a tweet:
http://noexcuselist.com/

Cool. There's some resources here I didn't know about.

They might could add http://www.learner.org/index.html on which I found a 13-part survey of mathematics course that I thought was just terrific.

[CJacobo]

Originally Posted by LaceWing

Cool. There's some resources here I didn't know about.

They might could add http://www.learner.org/index.html on which I found a 13-part survey of mathematics course that I thought was just terrific.

Hey LaceWing,

That is great that you got something useful from this thread! That was the goal. I am bookmarking your link, thanks for sharing.

[lucky8]

Normally I get interested in the subject before starting to write about it. I find podcasts are a great way to get into new things. Then I'll use Wikipedia and general Google searching if I need specific information. Will have to check out some of the sites you guys have linked to.

[CJacobo]

Originally Posted by lucky8

Normally I get interested in the subject before starting to write about it. I find podcasts are a great way to get into new things. Then I'll use Wikipedia and general Google searching if I need specific information. Will have to check out some of the sites you guys have linked to.

Hey lucky8,

when you say that you normally get interested in the subject before you start writing, do you mean that you will pick up a new hobby in order to write about it, or that you are the kind of person who picks up a hobby, then decides they want to write about it?

Thanks for sharing mate!

[EddyJ]

Given that your location is Southern California, I'll tell you that my novella (Fair), which I finished this year, is set in L.A. I live around Toronto. I've been to L.A. a couple of times as a tourist, but as I started to write Fair I started my research with Google which took me to a variety of links. I used on-line photos and comments from people on those photos; I used articles from the LA Times; I used wiki; I used Google Maps. All of this research didn't change my story, but it enriched the story in that it lead me to include aspects of LA that related to my protagonist. A couple of small examples: I refrerenced the Griffith Park fire in 2007; Jurrasic Museum on Venice Blvd; Rosedale Cemetery.

The old axiom of "write what you know" has always made me smile: what is it that we know? The more you research, the more you learn, the more you know. All I would say is that, as an earlier post commented on regarding the use of 18th century newspapers: there is no excuse for not getting those details right. It can be hard work, at times, but you can get a hold of artifacts like 18th century newspapers and use that understanding to "get it right". Particularly now with on-line research so readily available.

Laziness, intellectual or physical, is the enemy of good writing.