noise."WRITING: How To Research, part 1 · 4:17am Mar 1st, 2018
But first!
February, as we all know, is the month of Lurve, and you can tell by all my stories with a romance tag that—
Well, never mind.
Anyway, the point is that Obabscribbler, AshadowOfCygnus, and a whole bunch of other lovely and talented people did a reading of Miss Harshwhinney Becomes a Relationship Counselor.So do go and check it out, eh? I'll wait.
The family sat in the living room.
A pretty basic sentence, that. And one that would probably slip by most readers. It's what a cinematographer might call an 'establishing shot,' where we get our first look at the family, or where we might get an insight into how they live; it could be that they're all gathered for some purpose like a wedding or a funeral or a murder. This, in and of itself does nothing except say where they are.
Thing is, it bothered me.
You see, in the story in question (and y'all haven't seen it yet) they live in more of a cabin type arrangement, and I thought that it was important to keep that theme up. After all, I'll wager most of us don't live in cabins in the woods, so that's not the first thing that's going to come to mind. Living room is going to conjure up images of living rooms that we know.
So, I put a little mark on the working draft, and this last weekend when I was at one of the group homes, doing nothing because the one guy who needs the most attention was out of the house, and the other two didn't even want me to make lunch for them, I started researching.
This particular story is set in a New England-ish setting, so my first go-to was a list of regional vernacular and vocabulary.
There I learned that in Maine, at least, some people call the living room the parlor.
I made the change, but I wasn't overly happy with it. To me, parlor conjures up images of fancy British people enjoying their tea. Just the same, it was regionally accurate, so that was a plus. And maybe it was just me who thought of fancy parlors.
Well, one of my pre-readers also thought it was too fancy a word to use, even if it was technically accurate, so it was back to the drawing board.
One would assume that such a room in a house would have a name. After all, if you invite guests over, you've got to call it something. So my next google search was for historical cabins and farmhouses. I figured I might find something there.
And I might have. But I didn't in any reasonable amount of time, and there was lots of other work that needed doing, so I didn't really want to devote hours and hours to figuring out one really tiny detail that most people wouldn't even notice.
I didn't give up, either. I thought about other ways to approach the problem, did synonym searches, and when that didn't give a good result, I found the list of rooms on Wikipedia, and started a good old-fashioned search using names that sounded like they might be right, clicked on the link, and eventually found hearth room.
That's fairly satisfactory, I think, but I also have a backup plan. Last night at the library, I checked out a copy of Little House on the Prairie. It's in nearly the correct time period, and it also features a small cabin.
In case you're wondering, thus far I haven't found anything useful, at least in terms of what such a room might also be called. But I did learn more about building a log cabin than I knew before, so there's that.
Besides this blog being a way to illustrate some of the difficulties of writing something halfway decent (and I bet when the story goes live, y'all are going to be looking for hearth room or whatever else I might have changed it to), it's also a good illustration of coming at a problem a different way.
Sometimes, I think that us old fogies have a bit of an advantage over you darn kids, and not just because we're smart enough not to eat Tide Pods.
Source
Of course there's a tide pod pony. Why wouldn't there be?
Back in my day, we didn't have the internet. We had books, and to find those books, we had a card catalog.
Now, some of y'all probably don't know what that is. There were paper cards the size of index cards and they were all skewered on a little rail so that you couldn't take them out and get them out of order. You'd shuffle through them all looking for what you wanted.
Each book would have multiple entries, of course. Some of them would be obvious—the author, the actual title of the book—but there would also be categories by subject (and those had sub-categories).
Now, unlike google, you couldn't catalog everything. So you'd pick what the book was most about, and maybe it would get two or three subject tags. For example, a copy of Driving Horses would be cataloged under that title, under Bowers, Steve, under Steward, Marlen (the authors), and then possibly under subject cards such as HORSE, CARRIAGE, HARNESS, etc.
Most likely, I would not find a result for D-ring harness, or kick strap, or jockey stick, or any of the other subject matter I might really be interested in.
I can also say, since I own a copy of this particular book, that if I was looking for information about horse breeds, this book would be of no value whatsoever.
Therefore, I had to learn how to guess what books might have the information I wanted. As an example, when I was in high school, my high school history teacher bet money that nobody could find a picture of Stalin smiling.
I did.
I went to the library and found every book that might have pictures of Stalin. A biography, that was obvious, but also World War II books, books about the Soviet Union, etc. And I flipped through them all, and by golly, I not only found a picture of him smiling, but also one of him thumbing his nose at the camera. And I showed him, and he did pay up, and he also showed the picture around to the class.
Of course, this time around it was a lot easier to find the picture. I didn't even have to leave my desk.
When you're researching something, especially if it's something that you don't know much about, the hardest part sometimes is getting a place to begin. And I'm going to go through a little exercise with y'all.
Let's say that I need to know what kind of machine is used to harvest hay. My first search actually might be a YouTube; there's a good chance I can find the thing in action, and if I'm lucky, someone's going to be narrating the video and I'll learn what it's called. But if there isn't, then I might search 'haybailer,' and see what that gets me. Maybe click on some of the links, and learn more about how hay is harvested.
From there, if I need to dig down to more specifics, I might be able to find a particular implement. Let's say a hay rake or a windrower or swather (the terms are somewhat interchangeable, at least to a layman).
Now that I've learned what the implement is called, I can maybe find a brand name for one, and see what I can find in historical records of them. A lot of times, farm companies that are around these days were making implements back in the horse-drawn days (John Deere, McCormick, etc.). I might find that the design has changed over time, or I might not.
Then, depending on circumstances, I might want to know what particular parts of it are called. If it's something newer, a service/repair manual might be available; for older equipment, you can often find patents online, and they might have useful text to accompany them.
The rake-head C is pivotally connected to the semicircular bar or rack C, the connection being effected by ear-plates h, secured to the upper side of said bar or rack near its ends, and staples h, secured or driven into said rake-head and engaging said ear-plates
Now I know that it has a part called a 'rake-head' and 'ear-plates,' if that's something that is useful to know in my story. Like if somepony brings one to Apple Honey with a damaged rake-head, and she notices that the ear-plates are damaged, too. And I can continue on in that manner as needed.
I think it's important to note before I close this out that this in no way makes me an expert in any of the subjects I research; in some cases, I probably only know enough to be dangerous. I should also note that there's all manner of wrong information on the internet, so always proceed with caution. And there's also things like what the proper name for something is and what everybody calls it, and that can lead you astray, as well.
I'm a big fan of research, even though I tend to the shallow skimming just enough to sound good without any real in-depth knowledge getting through my thick skull.
I write about the ocean, although I live in Kansas, and have all my life.
I write about tea, and the elegant procedure that goes along with it, although I don't.
I write about coffee and Starbucks drinks... Yep, that too.
Admittedly, there's a downside to this. I wrote about Twilight Sparkle meeting this traveling tutor, and a minor problem with birth control medication resulting in an accidental pregnancy and a child. So my daughter in Kansas City... did I mention I'm a grandfather now?
Next, I plan on writing about being rich. Winning the lottery, probably.
You know, I hate to tell you this, but I think the proper term actually IS living room. If it's a regular old-fashioned cabin, it likely doesn't have more than two rooms in it, and the living room gets its name because most of the living is done in there, typically including kitchen-ing and sleeping as well. But yeah, it certainly doesn't conjure images of hand-hewn log walls and a wicker chairs gathered 'round a cozy stone hearth.
When I was in school, they tried so hard to teach us how card cataloging worked. I doubt I'm the only person that didn't retain any of it.
Too true.
I have written two stories now that included quite a bit of detail on brain and nervous system anatomy, and I was gosh-darned sure I wasn't going to look like an idiot with it. I now know way more than I ever needed to about how the bits north of my neck work.
I am signed up for lectures from MIT on AI and AGI research (and now psychology), thanks to starting my second story based on them.
Another story had me becoming extremely familiar with the dosage and administration of anti-rabies medications (even had a pharmacist exclaim in the comments at how accurate I had gotten it).
I love doing research for stories, all the little details might not make sense to everyone, but a few of your readers will understand the lengths you have gone to, and danged if it doesn't give the warm and fuzzy feelings to hear them say that.
That last picture: AJ is smart; Rainbow is not--using her wings.
And of course there's a Tide Pony. <3
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And definitely. Recently I was looking up stuff that I can use for a pony's name. One thing that came out of it was a catalogue of farming vehicles, each of which had the most perfect names for ponies. I ended up not using any of them, though. :T
Over here the 'living' space of the old mudbrick/slab hut homes was often just called the main room... it did not really get a name as such, as you only had the bedroom(s) and the kitchen/larder otherwise. Laundry and 'bathroom' were usually an outside tin shed with a 'copper' (large metal tub, usually copper, with a fireplace under it for hot water) along with the further away outhouse. Lived in one on a remote outstation for six months... an real experience and a half. The outhouse and laundry were clad with tin from old kero drums. The main room was just the 'main room' or simply referred to as 'inside' as opposed to the bedrooms or kitchen. I had a Scottish friend who used to refer to it as the 'living space' in his bothy but, eh, don't know if that works for you either.
Card catalogues... that brings back memories! You get so used to the modern world you begin to forget what you went through back then to research obscure facts and information. We often remember them fondly, like many lost things of the past, but maybe we also repress the memory of the frustration of the experience!
Ah, research. I grew up in that awkward transitory period as the Internet got its act together, so I'm familiar with card catalogs as much as search engines. (Okay, not as much, but I can use the things. Also microfiche readers.) My ponyfic research tends to be brief but fruitful. It helps that my job largely consists of investigating my company's codebase function by function until I find the bit that's breaking something. Compared to that, finding something on the Internet is a breeze.
I grew up in the transitional period, but I'm young enough that, before the Internet, I only ever had experience with an electronic catalogue.
A quick research run confirmed that they were running Dynix (I'd recognize that menu screen anywhere) with what was almost certainly a mixture of WY-30 and WY-60 terminals (I remember interacting with one with amber phosphor and several with green)... I know that because I remember some of the terminals being without swivel bases (WY-30) and some being with them (WY-60).
I'd have gone with front room, myself.
Ah, I miss card catalogues. Fewer results, aye, but fewer false positives too. Nothing quite like the frustration of clicking through a link in the search for something, only to find that your term is in the metadata and doesn't actually show up on the page. Good times.
Card catalogues also had a miniature typewriter, sized just for typing up cards. Does anyone know where I can get one?
I mean, I agree it's too fancy, but my main objection was that it's not technically accurate, at least in general. Maybe the meaning has drifted regionally, but for most of the world "parlor" refers to a kind of dedicated reception room, whereas "living room" means, appropriately enough, one kind of room intended for living in. (Incidentally, that also explains where terms like "ice cream parlor" derive from, which isn't really something I'd thought about before this came up.) Living rooms can of course double as reception rooms if need be, but calling a living room a parlor would be sort of like calling a living room a spare bedroom just because it's got a futon people can sleep on, if perhaps not quite as extreme.
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"living room" would certainly work, and indeed, before "hearth room" got discovered it was the only proposed term that actually worked. However, as far as I can tell "hearth room" does describe the room in question just as well, but with the added benefit of conjuring a more appropriate mental image for most readers.
Very minor spoiler: it's not quite that old-fashioned a cabin.
4807804
"front room" was considered, but I think it got consigned to runner-up.
I am old enough to remember when informatic catalogs were a new shinny (and buggy) thing and having two librarian as parents, I remember how complex it was to implement. Maybe not from personal experience, but close enough. Nowadays, my mother work as one of the person who choose the tags for the book in the library she works for and my father is some sort of database specialist for a governemental agency. I still ear about that stuff from time to time. To quote you, this in no way makes me an expert, just enough to be dangerous.
Last session at the uni I had a class on proper methodology for studying, wich included a part on how to use a search engine to find text for your work. That part was stupidly easy for me, none of the concept were new.
If someone only takes away one thing from this blog, I'd suggest it be that Wikipedia lists are often extremely useful when you're trying to research something you don't know much about, particularly when you don't even know where to start looking.
My personal experience has been that starting with a search engine and/or Wikipedia (or a subject-appropriate wiki) is usually better, simply because a preliminary look takes so little time: in extreme cases, you can skim through everything linked on the first results page faster than you can finish assessing the first video you try. Even if the hit rate of new keywords to refine your searches is lower for the linked content and the related searches list than for watching videos (which may or may not be the case, depending on what you already know), you can blitz through searches so much faster that you're likely to stumble across something fairly quickly. And then you can move on to videos with a much better idea of what to look for and to not bother with, so you can winnow out irrelevant ones without having to invest nearly as much time on them.
Anyone else watch the PBS series Ghostwriter as kids?
I was already well-acquainted with reading, writing and using a card catalogue, but my family watched it rather religiously. They did a great job with mysteries and dramatic suspense.
4807832
Agreed. The language picker in the sidebar is also a great first stop for finding the correct translation of a word, since each Wikipedia page only corresponds to one of a set of homonyms and, if you can read a little bit of the foreign language you're investigating, then Wikipedia will tell you which regions prefer which terms.
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All you really need IMHO is enough to be accurate in the story. It's okay if the readers assume that the characters know things that you don't.
And I'm generally in the same boat . . . I can make it believable that Sea Swirl knows a thing or two about diving, for example, but you'd better not trust me as your dive instructor.
Predicting the future though fanfiction, are you?
It doesn't always work, in my experience. True, I called the last Super Bowl point spread (well, technically not at the very end, but the last spread I mentioned was accurate) and the last play.
I also killed all the mainstream presidential candidates before the 2018 election, and that didn't work out at all. Which is a pity, because I want my free pony.
rvastickers.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/4-x-4.jpg
4807687
I'm not saying that it isn't, but it's not the term I wanted to use. Mostly because I didn't want my readers to think of a modern living room right off the bat.
Dude, knowing how a card catalog worked really helps with google searches, because the fundamentals are the same.
Although I will admit that I memorized the parts of the Dewey Decimal system for the stuff I cared the most about, to save time.
4807713
Isn't it crazy how far a person might go for research? I watched lectures on thermodynamics and multivariable calculus for Silver Glow's Journal, which is something I know absolutely nothing about. But if you want to get it right, that's what you've got to do.
That's when you know you've done it right. I've also had people in the comments assume that I've had experience that I haven't.
The other thing that I've found (and you probably have, too) is that as you do more research, little plot bunnies you'd never intended or conceived of make themselves apparent.
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It's like Tom Sawyer whitewashing the fence--the smart way is to have someone else do it.
I wasn't expecting there to not be, to be honest.
Send me a link to that catalog, if you can still find it. I'm not too proud to admit I suck at coming up with pony names.
4807769
And a lot of those homes only had one room, so why would you even name it?
The tub could also be used in whatever room(s) you had in your house, or outside (depending on season). And I believe we've seen in one episode the CMC being group-bathed in a wooden washtub outside. And yeah, outdoor 'plumbing.'
I've never had the experience of actually living in a one-room house, for better or worse. I think it would be a good experience to have, to be honest. I have stayed for brief periods at small cabins or less, especially in Boy Scouts, but I don't think that really counts. The tent wasn't a 'home.'
Also, bothy is a word I've never heard before now.
Yeah, I don't regret that now all that stuff (and more) is easily available online. But it was a special kind of skill, and it's possible that if it weren't for the advent of the internet, I could be making a living as a research librarian.
Actually, maybe I still could.
4807774
Whereas I barely ever used a computer catalog until I was in college (I think some of the university libraries I occasionally visited had computer card catalogs, but I could find the stuff I wanted faster in the paper catalog).
I don't miss microfiche readers one bit.
The only code I've ever debugged was BASIC back in the day, and that sucked. I can't even imagine with how complex it's gotten since then.
4807790
Oh, man, you missed out.
I actually had some old library terminal parts back in the day; my buddy and I picked them out of the trash after the college library upgraded. Wound up junking most of it (the monitors had serious burn-in), but I've still got two or three printers.
4807804
That was a possibility. There was one word for the front room that I did use in the draft (dooryard, IIRC), but it got dropped because it wasn't clear (it was Maine vernacular).
I don't have much trouble with false positives, although I suppose that's just a matter of the search terms. I mean, I get stuff that isn't terribly helpful all the time, but that's a different animal.
Maybe eBay? And that's something that I didn't know existed until just now.
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Yeah, that was what I meant by 'technically accurate.' It's vernacular, and if my research was correct, people in Maine at least would have known what I was talking about. Wouldn't have been much use to readers anywhere else, though.
That's the one problem with language conventions. Of course they're useful; when you say 'living room,' people think of living rooms and not bathrooms, but sometimes that works against you because people picture what they are now and not what they were then.
And I'll be honest, I don't know if I had stuck with living room, most readers probably would have figured by the context that it doesn't have shag carpeting and a projection TV or whatever the kids are doing these days, but still. It didn't sit right with me.
Yeah, I think that (or possibly 'main room') was the fallback if nothing better could be found.
And who knows; it's entirely possible that there is still the perfect term out there that just wasn't found. Maybe if I started browsing through period literature I'd eventually figure out that people back then called their living rooms Bob or something like that.
4807814
Yeah, back in the day the catalogs were really not user friendly like they are now. Misspell one word, and you were sunk.
I didn't have librarians as parents, for what that's worth. Although both of my parents have a love of knowledge, so. . . .
Choosing tags for books actually sounds like an interesting thing to do for a job. There's probably a lot of stuff that's hard to classify. Heaven knows I've got enough trouble with my own stories, and I'm (presumably) intimately familiar with them.
There are a lot of people who could learn from that, starting with about half my friends on Facebook.
4807832
Yeah, that's one of the biggest things: having a starting point. Tom Scott actually mentioned that in a recent episode on YouTube. Once you've got your starting point, then you can start chipping away into the meat of the matter.
The advantage of YouTube is that if you can find a video on the subject matter you're pursuing, it might cover everything you're looking for in a neat, easy-to-understand package. Like, in this story most of the stuff on foal birth was from watching YouTube videos, and then I looked up some specifics. If it's not something that's easily demonstrated, though, probably YouTube isn't a good first choice.
Yeah, that's very true. And it does depend very much on what you're looking for. In the example of a hay rake, it might be easier to find a video of one in action first (assuming you had no idea what it was actually called), vs. google searching. Or in the case of the samp, where I got better video results than I did from online cookbooks.
Like all tools, though, what works for one occasion won't work for every occasion.
4807849
Can't say that I did.
Of course, not having a TV really put a crimp on what I watched as a kid.
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Ooh, that's something I haven't run across yet. That's probably something I wouldn't use a whole lot, since I suck at foreign languages, but I bet my mom would be interested in it.
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Accodring to her, it is. She really like it there.
Yeah, she is working for a university, so they have a bigger team with (in theory) one specialisation each. I don't know in the states, but here librian need a master degree, so they all have a baccalaureate in something.
4812977
That's cool! I always like hearing about people who have specialty jobs that I'd never even though of (and even better, enjoying their job).
I'm not sure what the rules are here, and it might vary depending on where you want to work. I know that there is a library science degree, but I don't know if it's needed at a local library level.
4813003
Some minor library give a librian job to someone who only have a "technician in documentation" degree, The closest metaphor I can make is like giving the job of a doctor to a nurse; without any lives on the line.
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I've got to figure that the more rural the library, the less the requirements. Maybe it's something I should look into, though.