Mike Rowe from Discovery Channel's DIRTY JOBS has nothing on me. The toughest job around is...yes that’s right...being a writer. As you know, writing is hell on a manicure.
As grueling as my job is, I love it. I really do. Who could blame me, being a writer is amazing. I make stuff up all day long, my heroine says witty things to the hero, and the sex is always INCREDIBLE.
Even better, for my novel, The Body Dwellers, I spent days shopping the internet for pink combat boots, all in the name of ‘research’. My friends argue that researching pink combat boots isn’t really work. I prefer to think of my ‘research’ as a necessary evil. After all, poor footwear can cause real problems for a half-human, half-mutant woman on a mission to protect the man who betrayed her in order to save those she loves.
So how do you research? Are you an internet voyeur? Spending days surfing the web for the perfect character name, locale, or tiny detail that favors your manuscript just right? Or do you visit exotic locations? A writer friend of mine who's working on a novel set in St. John, goes on 'research' vacations to the island every year. Not bad, right?
But what about the other, less fun details? For example fight scenes? I learned a valuable lesson on this one (hint: don't try catching a knife mid-air). How about historical facts? Like the type of corset worn in Victorian England? Do you fudge the details?
Sometimes I wish I did (see example below).
Currently, I'm working on a second novel in the F**ked Up Fairytale series (CURSES! A F**KED UP FAIRYTALE will be released in March 2012). The 'research' hasn't taken me to alot of vacation destinations, and in fact, I've spent days researching amphibian parts. For example, I recently learned male frogs are less than...well endowed... In fact, they don't have genital at all.
Yep, that's right. I've been watching frog porn.
In the name of research.
Take that Mike Rowe.
~ j.a. kazimer (Writer & Frog Sex Expert)
Partially stolen from RomCom Blog, June 6, 2011
5 comments:
I've recently discovered Google Maps shows not only the satellite photo of a place but also lists locations like Mike's Coffee Shop on the corner of Main and Center Street. You don't even have to go on research vacations any more to know actual locale details.
I've been taking virtual tours of NORAD for my next one. You have to know someone to get in there in person, so online will have to suffice. Interesting stuff, though.
I saw leave the technology out of it and go every where you can, see everything you can see, touch everything you can feel, hear every noise that's made, taste everything to eat. And then, if you're not in jail, come back home and make stuff about it all.
My favorite place to do research is museums. I loved the small prairie museum near Mahomet, Illinois, and the Natl Historic Trails Center in Casper, WY.
Since I write Westerns, I do lots of internet shopping for pickup trucks and horses. Sometimes it's tough not to hit the "buy" button...
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