Have you ever worked with a character that went beyond your current knowledge or was an expert on a discipline on which you are mostly ignorant?
Any character you needed to make research for so you could write his lines and understand his abilities?

I hate myself so much for pushing me so early into that situation, but life goes on and this is fanfiction.
Even if my OCD won't let me acknowledge that.

Anyways, how do you deal with that?

Don't write about that character.

961944 Google and wiki are your friends

961947
Agreed.

961945
But I like my nerdy, fluid mechanics obsessed ice queen, Not Dan.

961944 Bam.

961944
Type the question you want answered into Google, and 9 times out of 10 you'll find some forum where it's been asked and answered in exhaustive detail, with supporting links to help you understand it all ready to go.

961944
Torrent some books on the subject and get to reading. It's what I'm doing on an OF piece about a criminal psychologist.

The minute I have a question about something I go research it. Yeah it may seem inane to ask "What's ready to harvest in early August". But somewhere there's somebody who knows more than you do about whatever it may be and they're going to call shenanigans. A couple hours of learning something means I get to know something more and somebody else gets more enjoyment.

So yeah, never be afraid to research.

961951 if you need some information on fluid mechanics, I actually took some college courses on that

I haven't run into that problem with a character's expertise yet (although I really should look up fencing for another character of mine because it will become an issue in the future). I most definitely did have to do quite a bit of research on Gnosticism for my current story, though; even if it's only hinted at in passing, one character's history is steeped in Gnostic mythology, and that mythos is only going to expand as my story wears on.

961944

As a rule of thumb, I try not to write about anything I`m not knowledgeable in. If it`s a subject I`m not directly familiar with, I tend to read up on it prior to penning something down and crossreferencing what I write with wiki and other encyclopedic resources to make sure I`m not writing down something blatantly false.

I'm still writing the story and I'd actually like to go more in depth but when I wrote On theHorizon I did research. Of course I did write it for class and then just ponify it when the teacher handed it back. But I had ten tabs open on apothecary at least. Though it seems like that's a hard subject sort of to research, I was having trouble finding stuff I could use. I intend to have flash back scenes where, even if it is only a secondary action to what the characters are talking about I get to show them in action. Plus I want an excuse to describe necrosis and the like.

961944
All the damn time, luckily there is one thing I am an expert in: The internet.
And that pretty much covers my ass on all gaps in knowledge when writing

961944 I did a lot of research on equine anatomy ad body language, such as ear and tail movements.

I consider reading other fan fictions and books as a form of research. I don't really have any stories that need facts looked up but if I trying to think or plot ideas or maybe what should happen next it helps me to read similar stories. Which is a form of research.

I did a lot of research to write my first story. I think if you write about anything in an unfamiliar terrain, research is really your friend.

Research is a wonderful thing, because you give yourself an excuse to expand on your knowledge. I always do this with my writing, and include a Works Cited page at the end of my works to show my readers what inspired me. This way they too can learn something new.

961944
Welcome to the world of a great majority of sci-fi writers. But really, it can happen in any genre. Research is just another tool for writers, allowing us to write beyond our scope but never our means.

I've had to do some research for the Heistverse fics, not so much for characterization, but world building purposes. A bit here or there for some other characters. It's really just an offshoot of the advice for writers of, "Read everything!"

961944 Do the research; google is your friend. I actually find it fun.

For more general things, talk to someone who has the experience. For example, I've got a story where one of the characters is heavily pregnant; this will be forever outside my experience, so I talked to my sister. She's not a pony, worse luck, but has had two kids. After that I did some research into horse biology and mixed the two up, then gave it to her to read. It worked for her, so that's what I went with.

961944
if its somthing that can be researched, and it is a major thing and you cant skip, than it is your DUTY to research it. Ill give a few examples:
I had to write a section for a story of mine that involved a guy recovering from exhausting battle, so i could just give him water, or I could do some stupid health potion, but instead i looked for healthy drinks on the internet and wrote that he was drinking Pickle juice to recouperate his strength.

In my story "Celestia Kills Luna," i wanted to have a section that parodied fighting games, so i watched hours worth of Mortal Kombat videos to understand things about how they work and the differences between people fighting an dvideogames.

This one pisses me off: Many authors dont know how taxes work, and use a juvenile and cartoony representation of how a kid would thik taxes work, and that rich people are evil. (in reality, the top 5 percent of Americans pay over 60% of government revenues.)

But sometimes there are certain things that you cannot simply research, and you WILL have to make up. I had to watch fighting videos and use basic techniques and such an then apply it to horses so i coudl explain how ponies could do judo and such.

Another thing to keep in mind is, if you have to make something up because it's not "real" (whatever that is), make it plausible by researching what's close in real-world terms.
Lightsaber fights? That's kendo. Haidoken? Telekinesis works pretty well - RPGs can be your friends.
And so on. Just make sure it makes sense.