RTW: When You’re Strange

Researching Song of the Day: “People Are Strange” by The Doors

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic:
What is the strangest/weirdest thing you’ve ever researched (for your novel/WIP)?

We often find ourselves typing in questions and topics to Google or Bing pretty much every time we sit down to write. Seriously, what did people DO before the Internet? Anyway, even though we do this often, there have been a couple times where we realized: hmmm, this is pretty strange…

Pam’s Answer:

While writing Wants, I had to look up the proper spelling of painkillers–that may look a little strange to someone browsing my computer history. Oh! And when I wrote (and completed, thank you very much) my NaNo WIP on fairies, had to research mythical fairy homelands–and of course how to kill a fairy. So, to an outsider looking through my computer, I look like a painkiller addict who wants to kill fairies. Nice.

Picture Taken From: http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/wp-content/upload/2010/08/fairies.jpg

Quita’s Answer:

While writing In Limbo, I had to look up causes and cures for the Spanish Influenza. I had to look up how it spread, what kind of symptoms one would show etc. The symptoms were pretty gross–and I looked at pics of victims *shudders*. But, I guess the strangest thing I had to research was how to kill someone with a blunt object. In The Blues, Blake has to figure out who murdered his best friend who was killed with a blunt object. I had to make sure that was possible. So, if the police were to search my computer after someone is killed with a blunt object, I might be in trouble…

Picture Taken From: http://images.sodahead.com/polls/000904139/GO187_answer_3_xlarge.jpeg

Tell us, what the strangest thing you had to research?