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#IWSG Writing Research


Holla, writers! Good to see you for the Insecure Writers Support Group started by Alex J Cavanaugh.

Join us HERE to share insecurities, worries, tips, and celebrations.

 Let's talk research. How do you research unfamiliar topics to increase the authenticity of your writing?

 My WIP Spiked (Blocked #3) has two main characters:

 * Mateo is a music performance major with diabetes

 * Jessica is an art major on the varsity swim team

 I have part lungs, part gills after swimming all my life, so I'm good with that aspect of the story. But I know very little about the intricacies of music, art, and diabetes.
Thank goodness for Professor Google. For this story, I've consulted the inter webs for ideas about college curriculums, acoustic guitars, and the Secret Service. Of course there's a lot of crap on the internet, but I try to verify information with two or three sites.

 Human capital is awesome for research, too. Lovely reader Nelly Guajardo guides me with the diabetes aspects and my kickbutt crit partner Nicki Elson helps me as well.

 How do you research?

 Happy writing!
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Comments

Nicki Elson said…
Haha - I guess after reading my post today you can see my answer is - "I don't"!

But srsly, writing in the age of Internet is a dream. Even when not intensively researching it's necessary to go on small fact finding missions, and it's lovely to have it all at our fingertips.
March 2, 2016 at 8:35 AM
Alex J. Cavanaugh said…
I'd be good to go with the music part. (And I own two acoustic guitars.) As you said, for everything else, there's Google.
March 2, 2016 at 9:33 AM
Cherie Colyer said…
Google can be a writer's best friend when it comes to research. I use it all the time.
March 2, 2016 at 3:07 PM
F. Stone said…
I use google up to a point. My favorite is to contact someone with personal experience. I sometime find them through this group, facebook, or in my community.
March 3, 2016 at 12:57 PM
Julie Flanders said…
I use google and google earth a lot since I'm usually writing in settings I don't know that well. I also use books though because I like to use history in my stories.
Thanks for your comment about the Cincinnati book events! I wasn't aware of any coming up but would love to meet sometime. I don't think I can make the July event but October would be great!
March 3, 2016 at 3:56 PM
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