![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I’ve been thinking about this since I’ve been relying heavily on Derek Lowe’s chemistry blog Lagniappe for stuff that Lex would know. Over the years, I’ve researched various and sundry things for stories, and I really feel I’ve learned useful or at least interesting information as a result. It reminds me of one of the reasons that women in Janice Radway’s excellent “Reading the Romance” said they read historicals: to learn more about history.
In that spirit, I’d like to see other writers’ responses to the following, or readers' responses about what they learned from other stories, which I guess would only be appropriate for the second through the fourth items.
Most research you’ve ever done for a story: for the unfinished original-character story, on suicide hotlines.
Most interesting thing you learned researching for a story (reading a story): Apiculture and the sad state of bees in America, for Up the Ladder. As a reader, I always learned great stuff from Nascent.
Most embarrassing factual mistake of which you are aware: Toss-up between putting a trunk on an SUV and confusing a basketball team with a football team. As a reader, the one that comes to mind is the SV story I read in which a 29-or-so-year-old Lex was elected President. Absent constitutional amendment -- which another story did at least mention, though I found it ludicrous; implausibility is different from sheer inaccuracy -- it's 25 for the House, 30 for the Senate, and 35 for the presidency.
Most embarrassing typo: Can’t even count them. As jordan said of one of MustangSally and my stories, we skipped more periods than an entire inner-city high school. As a reader, I've seen "for all intense purposes" a couple of times, though that's actually pretty funny. I also saved "all the sorted details" in a file I keep of potentially funny titles -- also included: Squirrels Just Want to Have Fun -- and I still think "fateful manservant" is good.
Factual item on which you’ve gotten the most feedback: The story of Hanukah. I guess that counts as a fact. Since I’ve never been in an environment less than about one-third Jewish, I was surprised by this, but some people I guess learned something from the second Syadiloh story.
Specialized thing you wrote about because you know it: Though not perfectly on point, the custody law of Virginia for Res Judicata. Not perfectly on point because I had to look it up, but I knew where to find it and found it in the way I ordinarily use when I don’t know the answer to a legal question off the top of my head.
Best “fact” you made up: For the Martha/Lex story in progress, what the inside of an elevator shaft is like. I’m relying in part on “Speed,” but I refuse to count that as research.
Reviews soon of multiple works by Nancy Kress and C.S. Friedman.
Finally, what Krycek slash cliche am I? Or, realistically, what Krycek slash cliche would I want to be, if I had to lose an arm and all that?
What Slashy Krycek Cliche Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
In that spirit, I’d like to see other writers’ responses to the following, or readers' responses about what they learned from other stories, which I guess would only be appropriate for the second through the fourth items.
Most research you’ve ever done for a story: for the unfinished original-character story, on suicide hotlines.
Most interesting thing you learned researching for a story (reading a story): Apiculture and the sad state of bees in America, for Up the Ladder. As a reader, I always learned great stuff from Nascent.
Most embarrassing factual mistake of which you are aware: Toss-up between putting a trunk on an SUV and confusing a basketball team with a football team. As a reader, the one that comes to mind is the SV story I read in which a 29-or-so-year-old Lex was elected President. Absent constitutional amendment -- which another story did at least mention, though I found it ludicrous; implausibility is different from sheer inaccuracy -- it's 25 for the House, 30 for the Senate, and 35 for the presidency.
Most embarrassing typo: Can’t even count them. As jordan said of one of MustangSally and my stories, we skipped more periods than an entire inner-city high school. As a reader, I've seen "for all intense purposes" a couple of times, though that's actually pretty funny. I also saved "all the sorted details" in a file I keep of potentially funny titles -- also included: Squirrels Just Want to Have Fun -- and I still think "fateful manservant" is good.
Factual item on which you’ve gotten the most feedback: The story of Hanukah. I guess that counts as a fact. Since I’ve never been in an environment less than about one-third Jewish, I was surprised by this, but some people I guess learned something from the second Syadiloh story.
Specialized thing you wrote about because you know it: Though not perfectly on point, the custody law of Virginia for Res Judicata. Not perfectly on point because I had to look it up, but I knew where to find it and found it in the way I ordinarily use when I don’t know the answer to a legal question off the top of my head.
Best “fact” you made up: For the Martha/Lex story in progress, what the inside of an elevator shaft is like. I’m relying in part on “Speed,” but I refuse to count that as research.
Reviews soon of multiple works by Nancy Kress and C.S. Friedman.
Finally, what Krycek slash cliche am I? Or, realistically, what Krycek slash cliche would I want to be, if I had to lose an arm and all that?
What Slashy Krycek Cliche Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject